White Lightning is one of my celebrated Burt films. Unfortunately, this DVD is a watered down version of the excessive unusual. Not that you need it, but most of the foul-language has been poorly dubbed over to words like, “shoot” and “dang”. One of the main character’s deaths at the waste of the film is gash - you don’t notice the villain shot, you only gaze him after the fact. I wonder if this was the only available print that MGM could pick up in their vaults? In addition, MGM adds insult to injury by releasing a full-frame (pan-and-scan) version! Ouch! Quality of the portray is ample, but that’s no reason to plunk down your hard-earned cash on an incomplete version of this film. I’m dismal.
While watching White Lighting (1973) yesterday, I couldn’t wait on mediate a more appropriate title might have been Hillbillies, Moonshine and Pit Stains, as there were copious amounts of each throughout the film…written by William W. Norton (Colossal Awful Mama, Day of the Animals), who also wrote the subsequent sequel titled Gator (1976), White Lighting was directed by Joseph `No Time For’ Sargent (Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) and stars Burt Reynolds (Deliverance, The Longest Yard) . Also appearing is Bo Hopkins (The Getaway, Midnight Impart), Ned Beatty (Silver Chase, Superman), Jennifer Billingsley (The Thirsty Dull), Matt Clark (Jeremiah Johnson, Brubaker), R.G. Armstrong (Hurry with the Devil, Dixie Dynamite), and Diane Ladd (The Wild Angels, Chinatown), whose genuine life daughter, Laura Dern, makes her first, silver camouflage appearance in an uncredited role as Diane Ladd’s characters daughter.
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The film opens with the killing of two young men (hippies college students, I suspect, given their youthful appearance and longish hair) in a remote place of the bayou at the hands of two police officers. Well, turns out one of the boys impartial happened to be the younger brother of Gator McKlusky (Reynolds), who’s currently pulling a stint in the local penitentiary on a charge of running (delivering) illegally distilled whiskey, aka moonshine aka white lighting. Gator takes the news hard, tries to sprint, but eventually finds himself in the state of making a deal with the feds, as both the gooberment and Gator have their eyes on the same target, that of Sheriff J.C. Connors (Beatty), the most remarkable man in Bogan County, and also the one responsible for killing Gator’s brother (the feds want Connors because he controls the lucrative hasten of `shine in Bogan County) . The understanding is for Gator to infiltrate the `shine operation in Bogan County and gain as considerable information as he can, but Gator honest wants a shot at Sheriff Connors (vengeance is a dish best served sweaty, in Bogan County, at least) . The feds provide Gator with a souped up car and a slightly unwilling contact in that of Dude Watson (Clark), who hooks Gator up with local runner Roy Boone (Hopkins), which leads to local `shine maker Expansive Absorb (Armstrong), and eventually Connors himself. But therein lies the problem…you examine, Gator is a beneficial ole boy, so the conception of ratting on his enjoy kin, making a living doing what they’ve always done (distilling and selling whiskey), makes him sick to his stomach, but his desire salvage benefit at Connors for his brothers death is something that can’t be denied…
If you’re looking for some salubrious used fashion, sweat stained, engine revving, tire smokin’, spend huffing, balls out visceral entertainment, perceive no further. This was Reynolds initial foray into the `good ole boy’ soon-to-be-his-trademark character, one that reached its pinnacle in the film Smokey and the Bandit (1977), as previous roles mainly included him playing Native American characters like Joe in Navajo Joe (1966), Red Hand in Blade Rider, Revenge of the Indian Nations (1966), and Yaqui Joe Herrera in 100 Rifles (1969) . Many judge this to be his finest on cover performance (I was always partial to his role as Paul Crewe in the 1974 film The Longest Yard), one that certainly agreed with him as he revived the character a few years later in the film Gator (1976) …this was also the begin of his `quipping’ in films…you know, that thing where he makes a smarmy joke, and then he’s usually the only one who laughs? I mediate my common scene in this film is the one with Gator and Dude in Gator’s car, and the pull up to Sheriff Connors in town for a first meeting (for Gator, at least) . Gator knows the sheriff had something to do with his brother’s death, so he comes off in sort of an antagonizing contrivance reviving the engine of his hot rod while Dude nervously makes runt talk with the sheriff. Beatty’s character gives the unknown man a superb, long glimpse as if to say, “I’m the law, and I don’t know you, but I’ve got my watch on you.”…either that, or he was hot for him…another vast scene features R.G. Armstrong getting whacked upside the head with a boat oar…I felt that one myself…probably the most painful sequences fervent Reynolds emoting in character about the loss of his brother, and trying to comprehend the reasoning why…I questioned this particular site aspect of the film, but then realized it was considerable because Reynolds would have needed that extra motivation to force his character to work with the feds, going against his absorb peoples…that draw he doesn’t peep like a complete sh*t…in this exertion, they also had to form the villain, Beatty’s character, incredibly vile as to design away from Gator’s betrayal of his people (I guess it wasn’t dreadful enough he was a killer) . This is illustrated in numerous scenes, like when the sheriff is interrogating (torturing) Dude’s father by shoving the dilapidated man’s hand in a doorframe in order to catch some information, letting his deputies manhandle Dude’s wife, played by Diane Ladd, the plot they did, or his derogatory comments about minorities and hippies. One thing this movie has a lot of is consuming and well exercised car spin sequences. When done lawful, the viewer can almost feel the pull of the gravitational force taking a turn at 40 mph and smell the rubber burning as the accelerator is punched to the floor. And the stunts, for the most share, weren’t over the top crazy, but strong, solid, and believable (the one where Gator partially lands his car on a garbage scow might have been the one exception) . One thing that seemed really unfamiliar about this movie was the definite removal some of the dialog through post-production dubbing (they took out the swears) . I believe this was done prior to the new release as to gather a PG rating…I’m unsure if any scenes have been shortened in terms of removing violence or nekkidness in a further worry to satisfy the rating requirement, but I’d probably say yes…
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One thing that annoyed me most of all about this release, and the reason I’m going three stars instead of four, is that there is only the paunchy conceal, pan & scan (1.33:1) version available on this DVD. Why they couldn’t include both is beyond me, but I guess the studio was objective trying to put a few bucks and figured we wouldn’t care…I noticed the same treatment for the film Gator, which I won’t be buying unless they determine to re-release it with both formats. The narrate quality on this DVD does examine decent, but, as someone else mentioned, it does appear a puny too dusky, especially during the shaded or nighttime scenes. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono comes through well enough, and in terms of special features, there’s only a trailer for the film.
Cookieman108
By the contrivance, if’n you’re ever in Bogan County and someone wants to catch you out on the lake, check the boat for cinder blocks…
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