The sure sense of emphasis, never heavy, never lingering too long, is just what's wanted with the picaresque plotline, charting the odyssey to Nashville of a country singer, his teenage nephew, and a couple of tag-alongs. Nothing in this fluid and flexible movie is overweighted: not the Depression period and Dust Bowl locale, nor the poverty and racism indigenous to the time and place, nor the nicely varied music, nor the declining health of the hero, nor the adolescent viewpoint from which much of this is perceived. Clint Eastwood, whose whispery, whisky-husky singing voice sounds right (don't worry) not just for a singer suffering from alcoholism and consumption, but also for one who inhabits a more primitive era of country music, seems to have a genuine rapport with the adolescent. And since the latter is played by Eastwood's real-life son, Kyle, this is doubly nice to see. Directed by Eastwood (the elder). (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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