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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Screen Media
Salesrank: 13990
Released: June 24, 2008 |
| Our Price: $8.87 |
| Used Price: $4.73 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From Oscar® nominated director, John Sayles, comes an electrifying and vivid rock 'n' roll fable. When Tyrone, owner of the Honeydripper lounge, is faced with having to shut down his juke joint, his hopes rest on one man—the famous Guitar Sam. It's a make or break weekend for the Honeydripper, this better be some Saturday night!
With exquisite performances by Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen and Sean Patrick Thomas; and featuring musicians Keb' Mo' and Dr. Mable John—Honeydripper is an award winning film, full of great music and plenty of soul.
Description of Honeydripper:
Music has often played a significant part in John Sayles' stories, but in Honeydripper it largely is the story, as the veteran writer-director’s 2007 film depicts a significant (if mythical) turning point when the past reluctantly gave way to the future. The year is 1950. In the somewhat ironically-named town of Harmony, Alabama, old school blues pianist Tyrone "Pinetop" Purvis (Danny Glover) and his funky roadhouse, the Honeydripper, are on the skids, rapidly losing customers to the joint next door, where young people are flocking to hear more modern sounds. Against his better judgment, Pinetop dismisses his dignified but out-of-date singer (played by Dr. Mable John, one of the several real musicians who lend the film considerable authenticity) and books "New Orleans sensation" Guitar Sam, hoping to save his club from foreclosure. But Guitar Sam proves to be as elusive as Godot, and as the big night approaches, Pinetop is running out of ideas. Enter young Sonny Blake (Gary Clark Jr.), who ambles into town with his newfangled, self-constructed electric guitar and proceeds to rock the house with a style that suggests a combination of T-Bone Walker and Chuck Berry and effectively ushers in the rock 'n' roll era. Story-wise, that's about it. This is a character-driven film, and there are a lot of good ones, including Lisa Gay Hamilton as Tyrone’s conflicted wife, Charles Dutton as his partner, and Stacey Keach as the corrupt local lawman. It's also a film loaded with metaphors and symbols, including the electric guitar as the dividing line between old and new and blues musician Keb' Mo' as a kind of one-man Greek chorus, dispensing homilies before disappearing into the shadows. The pace is leisurely, the dialogue colorful, and Sayles (who not only edited the film but has a small acting role as well) once again shows himself to be a modest master at creating movies for those looking for good, no-frills entertainment. A 30-minute making-of featurette and cast interviews are the principal bonus features. --Sam Graham
Honeydripper Reviews:
A great look at the pre-Elvis music scene in the south! 
2009-10-26 - I love movies that provide insight in how 20th-century American music developed in the transitional period between the heyday of blues and the coming of rock and roll! It's fascinating to see, looking back, how people were dumbfounded at the idea of an electric guitar ("How does it make a sound? There's no soundhole!") The 50's and 60's were definitely the most exciting decades for being a musician--new ideas, musical styles and technology were developing at rapid speeds all over the place. What this movie does is provide an insight in how these kind of changes impacted a smalltown community in the south in 1950. The famous Guitar Sam (a character very obviously inspired by real blues artist Guitar Slim) backs out on a gig at the Honeydripper. No problem, some local upstart kid with an electric guitar can fill in for him--as Guitar Sam! The people in the community are so technologically deprived that they don't even know what Guitar Sam looks like, even though they eagerly flock to the club to see him perform!
Danny Glover does a great job in portraying the down-on-his-luck club owner, who needs to free himself of debt and his own demons stemming from an incident in his past. Keb Mo also does a great job in playing the guitar-playing character who embodies these demons.
Great music from Keb Mo and the other artists who supply the music. The piano playing during the end credits is some of the best blues piano playing you will ever hear! Fantastic! Great movie! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
A Juke Joint Saga 
2009-08-04 - In the recent past in this space I have gone on and on about the old country blues performed after a hard, hard week's work on a Saturday in the local `juke joints' down in the southern United States in places like rural Mississippi and Alabama before World War II. Of course, then the music took the road north, especially after the war and got electrified to fit the needs of the new black migration that was heading up river to find work (and get the hell away from Jim Crow) in the newly unionized (in most cases) industrial plants. But what about those left behind, or those who did not or could not go north? Or just wanted to, or had to, keep away from the cities with their treacherous ways? Answering those questions, in a nutshell, forms the plotline to this entertaining little saga about the trials and tribulations of modernization, blues version.
Okay, here is the plot line. A struggling juke joint owner, Pine Top Purvis (also the house piano player), played by star Danny Glover, is financially in deep trouble and needs a quick fix to keep the wolves from the door. Nothing seems to be working for the man, especially when a regionally well-known early R&B hot shot who is suppose to resolve all Danny's financial problems is a no show. Not to worry, an itinerant R&B wannabe just happens to ride the blinds into town, gets himself into trouble (mainly for being black while seeking a work-some things never change), and in the end is Danny's salvation by performing a successful Saturday gig and saving the day.
Along the way we also get small glimpse of black rural life including, naturally, the ardors of plantation life, -that means cotton picking, the tough times of small time musical talents, the role of the religious tent revival in rural life and needless to say, the confinements, large and small, of Jim Crow, physically, mentally and spiritually. I have reviewed plenty of film documentaries in this space that touch on the blues and the social milieu that it derived from. While those vehicles still give a historically more accurate account of what went into create that special blues idiom just before it got electrified this film is not a bad take on what that was all about- a little prettified up to be sure.
A great movie
2009-07-15 - This is indeed a great movie by director John Sayles, that sometimes reminds of "Hallelujah" with its almost all-black cast and the central place it gives to music. But the atmosphere and point are completely different and unique, meandering through comedy, suspense and romance. Most enjoyable!
Honeydripper a movie you can enjoy
2009-06-25 - I really liked how John Sayles went about making this movie and the acting
was very impressive. There are plently of sub plots that are going on while the main plot unfolds and to give some props to the director and the actors they pull it off without a hitch. This movie is a pleasure to watch
and I recommend the movie Honeydripper highly.
It is all about the music
2009-02-03 - In an era when the southern blues are giving way to rock and roll,
this is a story of a small cotton town.
The young guitar player comes in riding the rails, the older piano player is running (badly) the honeydipper club.
The story is about the coming together of the forces in the town to make something new.
"Time to make way for what is coming next."
I liked the plot and the music here.
