![]() Here’s hoping Joseph Sargent’s 1973 thrill ride will one day gain more popularity than just another unremembered title on Burt Reynolds’ IMDB page. Maybe if it had been directed by Steven Spielberg, who was originally set to make his directorial debut with this film, it would have been anointed as the seminal action classic that it so truly is. It has also been referenced in television shows such as The Simpsons and Archer, but is strangely forgotten by most fans of the genre. 1 and again used the score during the first Nazi-scalping sequence in Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino commissioned Wu Tang Clan’s RZA to remix the film’s theme for the Crazy 88’s fight in Kill Bill Vol. If you haven’t seen White Lightning you’ve certainly heard its music. Sargent perfectly captures the strange atmosphere of the film’s eccentric Arkansas location. We see Cowboys, hippies, moonshine swindlers and Bible humpers, and the best part is, they’re all at odds with each other. Traditionally Conservative counties were being invaded by the counterculture movement and the story puts Gator McKlusky smack dab in the middle of this cultural divide. In addition to being an endlessly enjoyable revenge flick, White Lightning is also a fascinating look into the attitude of the American South during the early 1970s. In fact, I bet he could’ve convinced Jonathan Demme to hire him as Hannibal Lecter simply by slipping him a VHS copy of it. He’s so evil in this movie, there’s no way you could cast him as a pansy after seeing it. If you watch this performance, you’ll see why his career flip flop is hardly surprising. If that synopsis does not entice you, what if told you that the villain is played by Ned Beatty, who before this film was only known to audiences as the guy who was raped in Deliverance and after it was almost exclusively cast as ruthless villains in films such as Toy Story 3 and Rango. Forgotten Classics seeks to change that by hopefully bringing to light a few of these films thus spurring your interest enough to go out and put one of them on your Netflix Queue.Īre you fan of Toy Story 3 or Rango? How about Cool Hand Luke, revenge flicks or anything by Tarantino for that matter? If you answered “Yes” to any of these, chances are you’ll get a kick out of this one.Ĭast: Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and the film debut of a 6-year-old Laura Dern.īefore he was swindling alcohol over county lines in Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds was Gator McKlusky, a tough-as-nails ex-con hired by the local authorities to break up the empire of a moonshine kingpin who also happens to be the murderer of his younger brother. As a result, literally hundred of films are left at the door, only to be forgotten by a large majority of the filmgoing public. While that’s all good and fine, often times films are cited merely for their social relevance or outrageous popularity, (See: Rocky, Dances With Wolves, Forrest Gump) instead of for their merits as an expertly made piece of cinema. The synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about contentĪnd age-appropriateness for specific films can be found onĪs well as through general internet searches.It is very common for budding film cineastes to scour the pages of the AFI top 100 or the BFI for a proper list of films that an y enthusiast should see. Triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. ![]() IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially Screening as part of Waverly Midnights: Road Rage ![]() And there are sequences involving him-some of the best take place inside the sheriff’s office - that seem unexpectedly intricate and cleverly paced, and on the way to rather exciting film making.” – New York Times “Ned Beatty makes of Sheriff Connors one of those… phlegmatic manifestations of evil that have from time to time been such a specialty of the South as shown in American movies. Armstrong (all in the moonshine business) are more complete and more resilient than the situation strictly demands. In fact, all the local types, like Matt Clark, Bo Hopkins, or R. What you do see of her is a rather complex and subtle characterization of a girl more vulnerable than she seems. “Burt Reynolds may by now have a bare-chest clause in his contract, because you see a lot of his bare chest-for example, in flirtation scenes with Miss Billingsley where you don’t see any of hers. But Gator has his own reasons, the sheriff’s killing of his college-student kid brother mainly because the boy wore his hair long and espoused good government, and he means to get more than evidence. Gator McKlusky (Burt Reynolds), a convicted Arkansas moonshiner, is let out of prison so he can help establish evidence for a Federal case against a particularly evil and law-breaking small-town sheriff (Ned Beatty). ![]() “In form, WHITE LIGHTNING is straightforward revenge melodrama. ![]()
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