Havan_IronOak Apparently Hank Garland was a great guitar player. Perhaps a great musician and not much else. In keeping with that, the music in this film was great as well, but the story was strangely unmoving. If this pic is to be believed, he was bad at marriage. He married a woman but neither one loved the other in the truest sense of that word, that is wanting their happiness more than one's own. Each just wanted some of their needs met. On the positive side, Garland was essentially color-blind when it came to music but again, that may not have been a real virtue in his case as much as just a failure to see anything outside the music. Because of his arrogance and talent he was a problem for those around him. That failing eventually brought about much of the unhappiness in his life. The ending sort of suggested that in the end he was left with little but the songs he'd recorded and strangely that might have been enough. As with many movies, things are simplified to fit in the allotted time and I'm still unclear about many aspects of his life. For example, he's listed as being survived by two daughters and two grandsons named Garland. I'm not clear how that was possible. Given that facts like that have been left out of this film, I wonder what else was left out.BTW... there is another, very different movie C.R.A.Z.Y. that I enjoyed more and it has great music as well.

gpswenson Waylon Payne is a pleasure to see in action, and believable as an esteemed guitarist of the period, but the role that is written is not the life of Hank Garland. There are discrepancies in the chronology of the music, and who was where on what night and what year that are just not forgivable in a bio-pic. A fictional period piece can play with facts like that, but not when you're telling someone's life story. Also (and here's the *SPOILER*) unless there is irrefutable proof that Hank Garland's wife was getting banged doggie-style in front of a bunch of record executives, that kind of vulgarity should NEVER have been a part of this film. For lands sakes, their kids are still living, and - even if it were true - it really brings this film into the toilet to be so graphic about infidelity. It would be plenty to say she cheated. There are a million and one ways to even let the viewer know she made some kind of performance out of it (if she really did) but showing it this way and the subsequent inference that she was in cahoots with people who tried to kill her husband goes WAY outside the bounds of "creative license." There was never any suggestion (in real life) that Garland's car accident was anything but an accident in the news. If the film wants to entertain a possibility of criminal activity, they sure as heck should not drag Mrs. Garland into it.I enjoyed the music, but the Elvis scenes are pretty cut-and-paste with an Elvis imitator that verges on parody. The instrumentals are uniformly fantastic, while the vocals are not true to their time period, employing a style of singing and playing that reeks of 2004, but is still good music - Just not 1955-1962 music. Set design is pretty, but a little too obvious in a showroom kind of way in all but the last scenes. The rooms don't feel lived in as much as displayed. The exterior shots were well done, except for a lack of other-than-classic, mint condition vintage cars, and the costuming captured the period well. The story itself - even to succeed as a fictional account - needs much sharper editing. There's a real drag to some of the scenes and a morose tone that plays like a funeral dirge. The scenes with the band members and a couple that Payne carries mostly on his own give this some life, but there are some fragmented story lines of characters we get to know enough to wonder about, but that are never resolved, yet a complete lack of reference to anything happening in the rest of the world (and these were some pretty tumultuous years).I wanted to like this film. I'm a fan of both Waylon Payne and Hank Garland, and I think they both deserved better writing.

Sam Rodgers I was able to view this film at the Charleston Film Festival where it won Best Picture. I did not know who Hank Garland was. I thought it was a big film for the festival which is why I wanted to view it, there was a lot of hype on the film before it came to Charleston, SC.I was pleasantly surprised at the casting of the film. Waylon Payne which at the time didn't know he was also in Walk the Line was an amazing feature to the film. Ali Larter of course is known to many movie goers but Waylon stole the performance. He was great on camera, very believable, an extraordinary actor. I look forward to seeing more of what he can do on film.I would recommend seeing this film when it releases. Rick Bieber is not a new filmmaker, he has a long Bio of being in charge of HBO Pictures to Producing such films that we already know such as Flatliners. This was a great effort, I applaud the entire Cast & Crew, job well done!

bigkahunaprod In Hawaii where the residents truly value guitar talent and a good story, Crazy did not leave the 2008 Big Island Film Festival audiences disappointed. Although the Hawaiian guitar music is slack key style, the audiences appreciated the tumultuous story of Hank Garland's Nashville career. Under the stars, both residents and visitors enjoyed the story, the performance of Waylon, the technical quality of the films and the music of the era. Many commented on how much the music of Crazy was tied to the music of their parents. Many also asked when Crazy was coming to the theaters, so they could see it again and share it with their friends. It was a hit at Big Island Film Festival and won the Golden Honu Award for Best Feature. We are looking forward to Ric Bieber's next film.