The life and times of songwriter Townes Van Zandt told through clips, interviews and his music.
I always knew the name but never had any idea what he wrote. The one song you're probably most likely to know is Poncho and Lefty which was a hit for Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson And Merle Haggard. This documentary filled me in, to some degree, on the man and his music, but it never really made me understand the man any more than I did before. The film certainly didn't turn me into a fan of his. Townes was an amazing songwriter who said his songs were "mostly sad and the rest are hopeless". He wrote, performed and then drank and did drugs in order to deal with his personal demons. I'm really not to sure what those demons were, they just were sort of there, or so it seems from the movie. The movie isn't clear about many details in Townes life, its really just a portrait of the man as a person you might meet on the street, it doesn't really give you any sense of what he did (other than write songs) or when he did it. He had some kids and he had some wives, but there isn't really any attempt to sort that out, nor is there any attempt to give you any sense of what he did other than write songs (this is not a movie to see if you want dates and places) Its a good movie. Its not a great one. It does give you a sense of who this person was as if he were a random person, but it doesn't really tell us why he is so important and so well loved. For me its a bunch of people telling his story and saying he's great, but not explaining why. I enjoyed it, but I really wish I knew more about him other than he wrote songs.
