Amazon.com video review:
One of Clint Eastwood's mid-1980s experiments in change of
pace, this melancholy attempt at comedy confirmed something Clint
already had shown in Paint Your Wagon: he's not a very good
singer. In Honkytonk Man, which he also directed, he plays a has-been who
never was, a would-be country singer who dreams of performing at the
Grand Ol' Opry. As he works his way to Nashville with his nephew in tow
(played by Eastwood's son, Kyle), he also battles with tuberculosis in a
movie more interested in creating soggy handkerchiefs than musical
credibility. What little there is of the latter is provided by real-life
music stars such as Marty Robbins (who didn't live to see this movie
released).
--Marshall Fine
