That Evening Sun is one of those radiant “small films” that has more pure brilliance than most of its big commercial peers ever achieve.  It is lushly beautiful, blessed with an award-winning ensemble of actors, and has at its heart the exquisite performance of an acting master, Hal Holbrook.  
     The critics cannot say enough about Holbrook’s performance.  Variety calls it “a career highlight star turn.”  The Los Angeles Times gives his performance five stars and says, “It's hard to believe, but Hal Holbrook, one of the stage and screen's enduring talents, has never had the solo lead in a feature film. That has been duly rectified with the actor's achingly memorable star performance in the superb That Evening Sun. The New York Times names the film its Critics Pick, saying of Holbrook, “Mr. Holbrook’s fierce, contained performance matches in depth and truthfulness his portrayal of a weary Army retiree who briefly becomes a surrogate father to Emile Hirsch’s survivalist in Into the Wild.”  
     And where was this diamond hard and clear character created?  In Blount County.
If the people of East Tennessee have ever wanted their home held up to a mirror, That Evening Sun provides the opportunity.  
The story is about a man whose farmer’s life is taken away as he approaches the end of it, a life spent in the perennial renewal of natural beauty and bounteous crops, stripped from him with the contempt of the young for the old, of the modern for the ancient. The story is about his defiance against the loss.  Holbrook “does not go gentle into that good night.”    
On Tuesday, September 7 at 7:30 p.m. this “small independent film” is going to be treated as such films seldom are.  It will be screened in the expansive beauty of the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre at the Clayton Center for the Arts.  In the non-stop parade of live performances on the Nita Eckles West Stage throughout the spring, the cinematic potential of the hall has been overlooked.  But with the showing of That Evening Sun, viewers will not only see the breathtaking cinematography on a screen as large as it deserves, they will see images as clear and crisp as the technology of Blu-Ray and high definition can deliver and “feel” sound in an acoustically perfect room.  
For those who love film, luxuriate in the beauty around us, savor the acting artistry achieved over a lifetime, and delight in the way technology touches our senses, That Evening Sun in the Clayton Center for the Arts (as movie palace) are going to experience an unparalleled encounter with cinema.  The breadth of the vista and the depth of the feeling will be joined in an extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, way.  
Larsen Jay, president of Double Jay Creative Media Productions and Dogwood Entertainment, brings his exceptional film to the Clayton Center as a fundraiser for it. The $10 admission fees will all be contributed to the Arts Center.  The date also marks the release of the DVD of That Evening Sun, and copies autographed by Hal Holbrook will be on sale in the Clayton Center foyer.  
Although the seating is general admission, those who want to guarantee a seat can call 865-981-8590 or come by the box office in the Clayton Center on the edge of the Maryville College campus.  

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.