Honkytonk Man (1982)    Warner Bros./Drama    RT: 123 minutes    Rated PG (language, sexual content, alcohol abuse, a scene of drug use)    Director: Clint Eastwood    Screenplay: Clancy Carlile    Music: Steve Dorff    Cinematography: Bruce Surtees    Release date: December 15, 1982 (US)    Cast: Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood, John McIntire, Alexa Kenin, Verna Bloom, Matt Clark, Barry Corbin, Jerry Hardin, Tim Thomerson, Macon McCalman, Joe Regalbuto, Gary Grubbs, Marty Robbins, Tracey Walter, Charles Cyphers, Porter Wagoner.    Box Office: $4.5M (US)

Rating: *** ½

 In my review of Firefox, I stated that Clint Eastwood’s iconic status often prevents him from disappearing into his acting roles. Whenever he strides into frame, it’s impossible to forget he’s the guy who played Dirty Harry and the Man with No Name. He almost manages to pull it off in the Depression-era drama Honkytonk Man in which he plays a struggling country singer taking one last shot at fame. It’s easily his best unsung film.

 Personally, I think Clint delivers an excellent performance here. I must be in the minority though; barely anybody showed up to see Honkytonk Man. It only managed to pull in about $4.5 million. Perhaps the moviegoing public didn’t want to see their favorite action hero in a sad and slow moving drama about a terminally ill musician. I’ll grant that it’s slow-moving, but that’s Clint’s directorial style. Most of his dramas move at a languid and leisurely pace.

 I went to see Honkytonk Man on Christmas Eve at the City Line Theater. The place was jumping that afternoon, but they weren’t there to see Clint. Most of them were there for the theater’s other attraction, the Richard Pryor-Jackie Gleason comedy The Toy. I was all by myself. I couldn’t talk any of my friends into joining me. Not even my father (a big Eastwood fan!) wanted to see it. Too bad, they all missed a good movie.

 Clint stars as Red Stovall, A Depression-era country-western singer en route to Nashville to try out for the Grand Ole Opry. A few things you should know about Red- 1) he has a penchant for trouble, 2) he drinks WAY too much and 3) he’s dying of tuberculosis. He should really be in a hospital, but he’s determined to make a name for himself as a famous singer before he dies. He arrives at his sister Emmy’s (Bloom, Animal House) home in Oklahoma right in the middle of a fierce dust storm, drunkenly driving his vintage convertible onto the property and knocking over the windmill. The storm completely wipes out the family’s crops (they’re sharecroppers) ruining them financially. They decide to move to California.

 Red takes a liking to his young nephew Whit (real-life son Kyle) who wants to be a musician like his favorite uncle. The boy accompanies Red to a gig at a local honkytonk bar, ostensibly to keep him out of trouble. Instead, Whit breaks him out of jail after a run-in with a sheriff (Hardin, Wanted: Dead or Alive) and his dim deputy (Grubbs, The Border). Red then asks Emmy if she’d allow Whit to go to Nashville with him. Although his stern father (Clark, Tuff Turf) is against it, she allows it so he can act as his caretaker when he starts to succumb to his tuberculosis. The boy’s grandfather (McIntire, Cloak & Dagger) joins them as well. He has family in Tennessee that he hasn’t seen in 40 years and wants to spend his remaining years in his birthplace.

 It’s an eventful journey that includes a stopover at a whorehouse where Red hooks Whit up (lucky kid!) and a near-fatal encounter with an old associate, Arnspriger (Corbin, Six Pack), who owes Red money. It has its share of fun moments too like when a highway patrolman (Thomerson, The Wrong Guys) pulls them over in Mississippi for a busted headlight. It turns out they’re breaking a few laws including the one about minors driving. There’s a good reason Whit’s been doing the driving. When the cop sees what kind of driver Red is, he pulls them over a second time and orders him to let the boy drive.

 The guys pick up a companion along the way, a teenage runaway who goes by the name Marlene Moonglow (Kenin, Pretty in Pink). She stows away in their car after Red refuses to take her as a form of payment from Arnspriger. She wants to go to Nashville to become a famous singer. Just one problem, she can’t sing. Red wants no part of this girl and keeps trying to send her away. Can you blame him? When he finally agrees to let her sing for him, she brays “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean”. It doesn’t go over well with Red, especially when she gets to the part about tuberculosis.

 They finally make it to Nashville where Red auditions for the Opry. Unfortunately, he has a coughing fit on stage. The radio show’s doctor (McCalman, Dead & Buried) declares that he’s too ill to perform, adding that he shouldn’t even be singing in the shower. Fortunately, this dark cloud has something of a silver lining. A sympathetic record company executive (Regalbuto, Raw Deal) offers him a chance to record his songs. Even though he’s clearly dying, Red accepts his offer. His efforts only make his health worse.

 You’re probably thinking I’ve told you way too much about Honkytonk Man. Perhaps you’re right, but there’s a method to my madness. I want to talk about the most moving scene in the film. It happens while Red is recording the title song (one he co-writes with Whit) in the studio. He suffers a bad coughing fit about midway through. A studio musician named Smokey steps right in and finishes. Smokey is played by C&W singer Marty Robbins who died (complications from cardiac surgery) one week before the movie’s release which adds a stronger note of pathos to the scene.

 I’m not sure how many of you know this, but in addition to being a skilled actor and filmmaker, Clint is a gifted pianist. He gets to show off this skill a bit in Honkytonk Man. He does all his own singing too. And guess what, he’s good at that too. The music is terrific. There’s something incredibly expressive about old school country music. It sets the proper mood for the whole movie.

 Clint also has an eye for period detail and recreates Depression-era America very well. One can see the influences of The Grapes of Wrath, especially at the beginning of the movie when his sister’s family discusses moving to California (just like the Joads). Everything looks period authentic from the crowded sharecropper’s shack to the lively honkytonks. Eastwood also makes excellent use of light and darkness, especially in the sequences where Red and Whit drive at night on the dark back roads (no street lights) of the South. With the expert cinematography of frequent collaborator Bruce Surtees, Honkytonk Man looks like a work of art as it captures the look and feel of the Great Depression.

 I’ve already talked a lot about Clint and his exquisite performance, but what about his son Kyle? In his one and only major acting role, he does a damn good job. He has great chemistry with his dad. He might have been as good an actor as his father, but he ultimately decided to pursue a career as a jazz musician instead. The late Alexa Kenin provides some comic relief as the stowaway who won’t go away. McIntire has some good moments as the grandfather who often talks about the Great Cherokee Strip Land Run in Oklahoma. Even though he’s only in it for a few minutes, Robbins brings real heart to the movie.

 Honkytonk Man may be a tearjerker, but it isn’t all sorrow and sadness. It has funny scenes like when Whit gets a contact high while waiting for his uncle in a blues joint where they’re literally the only white faces. Thankfully, they work in agreement with the movie’s more dramatic aspects. It’s a delicate balancing act, but Clint has the ability to pull it off.

 I really, really like Honkytonk Man. It’s Clint’s most underappreciated film. It deserved to do better at the box office. It’s not like there wasn’t a market for movies about C&W singers. The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner’s Daughter made about $67.2 million just two years earlier and it earned Sissy Spacek the Oscar for Best Actress. It’s hard to say why, but it just didn’t pique the interest of moviegoers.

 I made a promise to myself a long time ago that if I ever meet Clint, I’m going to tell him that Honkytonk Man is a great movie! I’m certain he always hears how much people like the Dirty Harry flicks, his spaghetti westerns and award-winning movies like Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Does anybody ever mention Honkytonk Man? If not, it would be an honor to be the first of his fans to do so.