[yasr_overall_rating]
A reimagining of the life and times of Blaze Foley, the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas Outlaw Music movement.
Ben Dickey stars as the title character Blaze Foley, a lesser-known songwriter during the heyday of the Outlaw country – also known as Progressive country – music scene in Austin. Spearheaded by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, Outlaw country rejected the mainstream polish of Nashville country music, eventually turning the traditional genre on its ear in 1976 with the release of “Wanted! The Outlaws.” The LP became country music’s first million-selling album. Just the year before, Willie Nelson had released the iconic “Red Headed Stranger” featuring his first number one single as a performer, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”
“Blaze” starts slowly as Sybil Rosen, played by Alia Shawkat, enters Foley’s life as lover, wife, and muse. All of Foley’s relationships – with Sybil, his fans, drugs, alcohol, Townes Van Zandt, and irate bar owners alike – figure prominently throughout the film.
The life of Blaze Foley is a study of dysfunction often associated with talented performers. In the film, he is prone to saying stupid shit and doing stupid things. When Foley meets Sybil’s parents, for example, he comes off as an utter goofball, hardly inspiring confidence as a prospective son-in-law. At the same time, Foley was clearly a gifted artist, capable of thoughtful insight expressed movingly through words and music.
At one point, Foley tells Sybil that he doesn’t want to be a star, he wants to be a legend. She asks what the difference is and the explanation is revealing. As an example of the contrast, Foley donned duct tape on the tips of his cowboy boots after the success of “Urban Cowboy” because he believed the movie over-commercialized the Progressive country movement. Indeed, at Foley’s funeral, well-wishers actually wrapped his casket with duct tape in tribute. A star may wear sequined shirts and silver-tipped boots, but a legend apparently does not.
Perhaps surprisingly, it is Charlie Sexton as Townes Van Zandt, who gives the strongest performance in the film. Sexton keenly captures both the mirth and melancholy of Van Zandt’s all too short life. There is a particularly moving scene where Sexton performs probably Van Zandt’s most famous song, “Pancho and Lefty,” obviously under the influence drugs and alcohol. The crowd whispers epithets causing Van Zandt to lose his composure, barely able to continue – much like the scene in “The Sound of Music,” when Christopher Plummer is on stage singing “Edelweiss” and chokes up before Julie Andrews chimes in to save the day. In this case, Foley comes to Van Zandt’s rescue in a touching moment.
Cameo appearances abound. Sam Rockwell, Richard Linklater, and Steve Zahn have brief walk-ons as wealthy wildcatter drillers eager to get into the record business. Ethan Hawke delivers extensive dialog as a disc jockey interviewing Van Zandt about the late Foley, but always with his back to the camera. Kris Kristofferson also appears briefly as Blaze’s father in a nursing home, aged and nearly immobile.
At an early screening of “Blaze,” Ben Dickey told the audience that Hawke’s first cut ran two hours thirty-five minutes – a tough sell for the studios. As a result, Hawke whittled the runtime down to a more marketable two-hours seven minutes.
Having said that, the film would have benefited from greater context surrounding the Outlaw country movement. Brief references to Willie Nelson are made, but it’s not clear audiences will recognize the signposts of that era. For a fuller accounting of the Outlaw Country music scene in the ’70s and ’80s, I recommend Jan Reid’s fine book, ‘The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock’ published by the University of Texas Press.
“Blaze” is a fascinating character study of a performer who could have been both a country star as well as a legend. Unfortunately, his self-destructive tendencies left his legacy with only the latter.
In theaters Friday, August 24th
