All posts tagged: country music

‘Blaze’: The Forgotten Troubadour

Country music’s best kept secret might just be Blaze Foley. The singer-songwriter who died at 39 from a gunshot wound in 1989 is the topic of Ethan Hawke’s latest directorial cinematic work, Blaze. The movie is based on Blaze’s partner and muse Sybil Rosen’s memoir “Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley.” Hawke and Rosen co-wrote the screenplay. The movie diverges from the usual chronological structure of a biopic. Hawke took a chance in showing specific periods of Foley’s life that let the audience see a complex character. The narrative is divided in the past when Rosen, played by Alia Shawkat, and Foley, interpreted by newcomer Ben Dickey, lived in a tree house. The warm colors and idyllic montages show a dreamer in the cusp of looking for something bigger. When Blaze and Sybil leave their home to look for better opportunities, Blaze says to Sybil, “I don’t want to be a star, I want to be a legend.” The movie goes back and forth with Blaze’s performing his repertoire to an indifferent …