Going Honkytonk

Going Honkytonk

I am the furthest thing you will find from a person who relates to country music. When I hear of people going to Nashville to visit the heart of the beast at either or both the Country Music Hall of Fame or the Grand Ole Opry, I just scratch my head in wonder. All that said, I think two of my favorite movies for some strange reason are Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones in Coal Miner’s Daughter, the story of Loretta Lynn and Clint Eastwoods, little-known debut as a Country and Western singer in Honkytonk Man. Sissy Spacek won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Lynn in 1980. That’s forty years ago and the movie is just as compelling today as it was then in a homey hillbilly way. Spacek’ s Butcher’s Holler mountain accent is a derivative of her West Texas upbringing. Tommy Lee is also from Texas and has a twang of the Appalachia in him as well. It’s interesting that these two Texans had the right stuff to break into stardom. Sissy got there via New York City and the Lee Strasberg Institute, which led her to fame in Badlands and then Carrie before her Coal Miner’s Daughter role.

Tommy Lee had a more interesting path in finding his way to Harvard on a scholarship and rooming with Al Gore. Right out of school he got cast as the Harvard roommate of Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) in Erich Segal’s Love Story. But that high profile, his Ivy League education, political connections and all the rest didn’t translate into Sissy’s level of immediate success though he does have a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Fugitive as Deputy U.S. Marshal Gerard. Nevertheless, most of his success has come in the supporting roles for Harrison Ford, Daniel Day Lewis, Brad Pitt and others. I personally think he deserved the Leading Man Oscar for In the Valley of Elah, but that was not to be as There Will Be Blood took the milkshake and gave it to Daniel Day Lewis (his second of three).

But while most of you have probably seen Coal Miner’s Daughter, I’ll bet few of you have seen Honkytonk Man, a little film produced, directed and starred in by Eastwood in 1982. Eastwood played opposite his fourteen-year-old son Kyle. He played an unaccomplished Country & Western singer who works his way across the country singing in honkytonks and committing minor larceny to make ends meet and be a gruff country version of Robin Hood. Even though the movie won only one award for worst song, I always found Clint’s gravelly rendition of Put Your Arms Around A Honkytonk Man very moving and poignant in its voice-straining sound. You see, in the film, Clint is dying of Tuberculosis and his dream is to make it to Nashville before he dies. Spoiler alert, but he does die just as his music gets the recognition on the Grand Ole Opry. What is it with hillbillies that they all die of respiratory issues. I guess its all that coal dust.

Clint Eastwood is ninety-years-old this year and he is to me like Country Music. I shouldn’t like him, but somehow I do. I don’t like his politics and I really don’t care much for the characters like Dirty Harry Callahan, Rowdy Yates from Rawhide, Josie Wales, the High Plains Drifter, Gunnery Sargent Highway, Bill Munny from Unforgiven (for which he won the Oscar Trifecta), Frankie Dunn with his Million Dollar Baby or Walt Kowalski from Gran Torino. He was an OK guy in The Bridges of Madison County and Space Cowboys, but not so much with most of the other characters he plays. But I can’t help but like Clint Eastwood’s movies, the 71 he has acted in and the 41 he has directed. Their diversity is amazing and he leaves this earth with as good a portfolio of work as any of us could ever hope for as storytellers.

How does that happen? How can we respect the work and not the things the man stands for? I know I find Woody Allen’s body of comedic work to be as strong as any comedian I know. When I mention that to Kim, she snarls because while I suspect she finds Woody’s comedy as funny as I do, his sexual predation and lifestyle have turned her against him and she no longer appreciates his body of work. I just go on finding his work, particularly the early work up to an through Annie Hall and Manhattan Murder Mystery to be hilarious. Woody is a mere child of 85, but he has written 80 movies, directed 55 and starred in 48 of them. Like Clint with his singing, Woody loves to play his clarinet for people. But unlike Clint, who seems to get better and better, Woody seems to be fading.

There are four other big stars that have wandered into the country music scene and left a mark with a memorable movie. There was Joaquin Phoenix with Walk The Line, Jeff Bridges with Crazy Heart, Robert Duvall with Tender Mercies and George Clooney with Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

As it turns out, a recent poll says that Country music is more popular than Rock n’ Roll. God knows how they exactly draw the line with both groups probably claiming folks like Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson, but the numbers say 21% of the country prefers Country Music where only 18% choose Rock as their preferred form of music. That makes me want to look up the details of that poll to figure out where the other 61% live.

On my favorite playlist that I listen to while riding my motorcycle, I have Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, Country Roads by John Denver, lots of Johnny Cash and The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. Did I start this piece by claiming that I don’t like Country Music? I think that during this writing I have convinced myself that I might be wrong about that. It would be interesting to just go through songs in my playlist and pick what I like and then have some objective source categorize them for what they are; country, rock, oldies or whatever. I think what it would lead me to do is not make sweeping statements about things like Country Music. If I did the same with movies I’ll bet the same thing would happen with Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen coming up often as favorites despite their politics, disposition or ethics.

I guess this all says to me that while I’m not sure I have ever even been in a true Honkytonk, or gone to a Country Music concert, I’m capable of going Honkytonk as much as anyone if the spirit moves me.