I Saw the Light

Merle died last week. George Jones passed three years ago. Jennings and Cash have been gone now nearly fifteen years, but they still seem to feel like the freshest voices in country today. Their music is timeless, especially here in the South, where their wailing and crooning ruled the music scene for decades.

Hank Williams also manages this despite having died over 60 years ago, and in 2016 Tom Hiddleston is here to examine why that is.

I Saw The Light, named for William’s 1948 quintessential gospel country single tells the short tumultuous life of Hank Williams, starting with his marriage to Audrey Sheppard in 1944 and ending with his death somewhere between Bristol, TN and Charleston, WV at the start of 1953.

It’s been pretty difficult to follow the path of Walk The Line, a tale of country music’s largest looming icon Johnny Cash, but Williams’ tale is one that plays like an old school country tune. Williams wasn’t able to handle fame, choosing to wash it down with a plethora of vices that eventually led to his downfall. It’s about as simple as that. His tale is both remarkably unreachable and simultaneously relatable.

Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen lead the piece with surprisingly well-crafted personas. Lest you forget, Hiddleston’s known for playing Loki in the Marvel universe and is sure-footedly British. He’s able to get past this and drawl a southern accent and affectation far better than passable. Olsen in turn has the spark of the Southern firecracker required for certifiable authenticity and is arguably as effective as Reese Witherspoon’s award winning June Carter Cash.

The set pieces in I Saw The Light evoke a beautiful southern Gothicism that served as country music’s playground in its golden age. Nashville, Birmingham, and rural Texas towns carry the optimism and beauty of the 1950’s, even with dark secrets behind the thresholds of country’s biggest stars. I Saw The Light lightly touches on the growing fear in America that came with the 1960s near its conclusion, a world that William’s honesty probably couldn’t have taken anyways, leaving his death feeling like a barreling inevitability. The film serves as a great look into not only Hank’s life and legacy, but also that of everything and everywhere he was involved in his 30 years around America.

Hank Williams spent his final New Years Eve in Knoxville at the Andrew Johnson Hotel at the end of the Gay Street Bridge downtown. The next night, Williams and his driver stopped at the still operating Burger Bar in Bristol, TN for a bite to eat, before hitting the road towards Canton, Ohio. When the car stopped in Charleston for gas, Hank Williams was dead. If you visit Bristol, TN today, the town represents a spiritual tombstone for the country legend. The downtown is embraceable, quaint and friendly. LC King Manufacturing & Design are still making jeans like they did when they started in 1913. An infamous mural has stood at the heart of the town depicting the likes of some of country music’s pioneers like Ralph Peer and Jimmy Rodgers. It’s a fitting final-resting place for Hank. I Saw The Light feels a bit like Bristol on a rowdy Saturday night to a lazy Sunday afternoon stretch. The town, and Hank’s legacy, likely always will.