Honeysuckle Rose (film)

Honeysuckle Rose (also known as On the Road Again) is a 1980 American romantic drama western film directed by Jerry Schatzberg, written by John Binder, Gustaf Molander, Carol Sobieski, Gösta Stevens, and William D. Wittliff, and starring Willie Nelson, Dyan Cannon, and Amy Irving. It is a loose remake of the 1936 Swedish film Intermezzo.

Honeysuckle Rose
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJerry Schatzberg
Screenplay by
Based onIntermezzo
by Gösta Stevens
Gustaf Molander
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRobby Müller
Edited by
Music by
Production
company
Major Studio Partners
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • July 18, 1980 (1980-07-18)
Running time
119 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11 million[2]
Box office$17.8 million[3]

Plot

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Buck Bonham is a country singer, with a good family, struggling to find national fame. He juggles his music career with his responsibilities to his wife and son. He has everything going his way until the daughter of his former guitarist joins his tour. The road leads to temptation, which leads to his downfall.

Cast

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Release

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Critical reception

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Film critic Roger Ebert called the film "sly and entertaining"[4] yet ultimately predictable and disappointing:

The movie remains resolutely at the level of superficial cliché, resisting any temptation to make a serious statement about the character's hard-drinking, self-destructive lifestyle...Honeysuckle Rose has the kind of problems that can be resolved with an onstage reconciliation in the last scene: Willie and Dyan singing a duet together and everybody knowing things will turn out all right.[4]

Regarding Willie Nelson's performance, Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times:

Mr. Nelson doesn't entirely fit his role, any more than the other actors fit theirs. He seems too odd, too solitary, for all the intimacy forced upon him by the story line. But he brings tremendous authority to every gesture, and his character is the only thing in the movie about which the audience is bound to want to know more. Mr. Nelson accomplishes all this in a role with very little dialogue, which makes his sheer force of personality seem all the more impressive.[5]

The film was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.[6]

Wide Open Country music magazine ranked it the second best Willie Nelson film, behind Red Headed Stranger.[7]

Honeysuckle Rose holds a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews.[8]

Box-office

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Honeysuckle Rose opened theatrically in 826 venues on July 18, 1980 and earned $2,189,966 in its first weekend, ranking third in the domestic box office. Ultimately, the film grossed $17,815,212.[3]

Accolades

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Award Category Nominee(s) Result
Academy Awards[9] Best Original Song "On the Road Again"
Music and Lyrics by Willie Nelson
Nominated
Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Supporting Actress Amy Irving Won
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards Worst Supporting Actress Nominated

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Soundtrack

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A soundtrack was released by CBS in 1980.

Charts

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Chart (1980) Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[11] 34

References

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  1. ^ "HONEYSUCKLE ROSE (A)". British Board of Film Classification. July 28, 1980. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  2. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  3. ^ a b "Honeysuckle Rose (1980)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (July 18, 1980). "Honeysuckle Rose (1980)". RogerEbert.com. Chicago Sun-Times.
  5. ^ Maslin, Janet (July 18, 1980). "Honeysuckle Rose". The New York Times.
  6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Honeysuckle Rose". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
  7. ^ Sparkman, Darby (March 31, 2021). "Willie Nelson's Best Movies, Ranked". Wide Open Country. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  8. ^ "Honeysuckle Rose". Rotten Tomatoes.
  9. ^ "The 53rd Academy Awards (1981) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  10. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  11. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 283. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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