Several films have been made about Hank Williams until recently, including Your Cheatin’ Heart (1964) and Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave (1980). Was a new biopic really needed? I think biopic films of this quality can and should be shot once every 20 years. Here we dive into Hank’s inner world, with his complicated relationships with women, addiction to alcohol and pills, failure to fulfill creative obligations and many other obligations in general. We see how his personal life is gradually collapsing: there are serious falls, short-term ups, and all this against the background of his stunning success with the public, who are ready to forgive him for bad shows, lengthy drunken speeches, failure to attend concerts, even failure to appear due to death. I Saw The Light is Hank’s gospel song of the same name, as well as a song about his life, about coming out of darkness into the light. The film doesn’t seem to have a plot, we just see excerpts from the musician’s life.
Hank Williams was brilliantly played by British actor Tom Hiddleston. For this role, he lost weight, learned to sing and play the guitar, spending a month at the home of musician Rodney Crowell in Nashville, who taught him hillbilly – authentic country music. All the songs in the film are sung by Hiddleston personally.
In his performance, Hank evokes sympathy and compassion. This is a great songwriter and at the same time a “cut-off hunk” who has everything in his life except a guitar and a bottle falling out of his hands. The only thing Tom couldn’t convey was the crazy, almost devilish look of Hank’s bulbous eyes looking at us from the stage, if you’ve seen the old videos, then you know what I’m talking about.
However, one of the director’s tasks was also songs, and it is clear that there was no point in trying to get more gloomy, including concert episodes: therefore, Lovesick Blues, Hey Good Lookin’ or Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used To Do is a celebration, Hank sings and glows with happiness. A signature yodel, and the audience cheers and applauds. His favorite place on earth is on stage. You won’t forget the pleasure of successful concerts so easily – you won’t drink it away.
But happy moments are replaced by binge drinking and coming out of them: Hank is shaking, sweating and unable to find a place for himself, in such cases only an injection from a dubious doctor helps. When Hank decides to stop drinking once again and, after lying in rehab, then says on the way out that he won’t be coming back here, you believe him. And he believes it himself. And it’s true, heaven will be his next home. He saw a light, and that light was not on earth.
