Synopsis
During the Great Depression, a young boy leaves his family's Oklahoma farm to travel with his country musician uncle who is trying out for the Grand Ole Opry.
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Cast
- Clint EastwoodRed Stovall
- Kyle EastwoodWhit
- John McIntireGrandpa
- Alexa KeninMarlena
- Verna BloomEmmy
- Matt ClarkVirgil
- Barry CorbinArnspriger
- Jerry HardinSnuffy
- Tim ThomersonHighway Patrolman
- Macon McCalmanDr. Hines
Recommendations
- 88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
It's a pleasant, unprepossessing picture of gliding charm and buoyant silliness, a fragile craft unencumbered by the weighty sophistication of camp, and it's one of the nicest surprises of the season. [17 Dec 1982] - 80
Time
It is a guileless tribute not only to plain values of plain people in Depression America, but also to the sweet spirit of country-and-western music before it got all duded up for the urban cowboys. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
This is a sweet, whimsical, low-key movie, a movie that makes you feel good without pressing you too hard. - 70
Time Out
The whole thing veers wildly in quality, and no Eastwood-hater should go within a mile of it; but few lovers of American cinema could fail to be moved by a venture conceived so recklessly against the spirit of its times. - 50
Slant Magazine
Though the film is obviously coated with a veneer of nostalgic sentimentality, Eastwood never lets Honkytonk Man veer into maudlin territory. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Unfortunately, the film suffers from the weak script's predictable situations and underdeveloped characters, and the pathos and cliches become hard to take, making Honkytonk Man more of a curiosity piece for followers of Eastwood than a truly compelling story. - 50
The New York Times
Only charm and sentimentality could have brought the requisite magic to Clint Eastwood's Honkytonk Man; unfortunately, this well-intentioned but weak film hasn't nearly enough of either. - 50
Variety
Honkytonk Man is one of those well-intentioned efforts that doesn't quite work. It seems that Clint Eastwood took great pains in telling this story of an aging, struggling country singer but he is done in by the predictability of the script [from Clancy Carlile's own novel] and his own limitations as a warbler.
