DIRECTOR: Joseph Sargent. CAST:
Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, Matt Clark, Jennifer Billingsley, R.G.
Armstrong, Louise Latham, Diane Ladd, Conlan Carter, Dabbs Greer, Lincolm
Demyan, John Steadman, Iris Korn, Stephanie Burchfield, Barbara Muller, Robert
Ginnaven, Fay Martin, Richard Allin, Laura Dern.
WHITE LIGHTNING has the distinction of being the
first Burt Reynolds good ol’ boy Southern car chase flick, but it is more of a
serious revenge movie than one would expect after seeing better-known vehicles
like SMOKEY & THE BANDIT. You can see the roots of SMOKEY & THE BANDIT,
CANNONBALL RUN, and other Burt movies forming here, but WHITE LIGHTNING is a
darker, grittier story that makes excellent use of its locations. Burt is Gator
McKluskey (great name), a moonshine runner serving time when he finds out that
his brother has been murdered by a corrupt small-town sheriff. He agrees to go
undercover for the feds to catch the sheriff in the act of taking bribes from
local moonshiners. Although this is tantamount to treason among whiskey
bootleggers, Gator is more concerned with taking down Sheriff J.C. Connors for
killing his brother. WHITE LIGHTNING’s car chases aren’t that spectacular by today’s
standards, but they are fast-paced and intense. One stunt goes completely wrong
and could have been much more of a legitimately life-threatening catastrophe. Fine
support cast too—Ned Beatty is excellent as the corrupt sheriff while Bo
Hopkins essentially plays himself as a too-cool-for-school whiskey runner. R.G.
Armstrong is great as always. WHITE LIGHTNING was actually supposed to be
Steven Spielberg’s feature film debut until he decided it wasn’t for him and
filmed SUGARLAND EXPRESS instead. Quentin Tarantino fans will recognize bits of
Charles Bernstein’s score lifted and reused in both KILL BILL VOLUME 1 and
INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.
