Movie Review: Gator (1976)

 

DIRECTOR: Burt Reynolds. CAST: Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren Hutton, Jerry Reed, Alice Ghostley, Dub Taylor, Mike Douglas, Burton Gilliam, William Engesser, John Steadman, Stephanie Burchfield, Dudley Remus, Alex Hawkins, Don Ferguson.
Burt Reynolds makes his directorial debut with this sequel to 1973’s WHITE LIGHTNING, which means that Bobby “Gator” McKluskey is back! This time, a federal agent has roped Gator into going undercover by threatening to imprison his elderly father and turn his daughter over to foster care. Gator is to help take down a good ol’ boy mob boss who has his greedy paws in everything from extortion to drugs, underage sex trafficking, and corruption on all levels. He also meets the potential woman of his dreams along the way, but that is a given when Burt is involved. GATOR benefits from a bigger budget than its predecessor; the rather nice camera work and set designs do a decent job at almost distracting the viewer from it being a rather uneven story. Lauren Hutton’s involvement is mostly inconsequential filler while Alice Ghostley’s comic-relief role seems random and out of place. Burton Gilliam is interesting as a perversely sleazy, always-smiling creep of a gangster. However, Jerry Reed pretty much steals the show as evil small-town mob boss Bama McCall from the moment he first steps onto the screen. He digs deep into his role and plays it with gusto, enjoying every slimy second that he has onscreen. Hard to believe that he wasn’t an experienced actor. GATOR isn’t bad, it just has a hard time with what it wants to do with certain characters and deciding what kind of movie it wants to be—a slicker version of WHITE LIGHTNING or a goofy, lighthearted action comedy like the following year’s SMOKEY & THE BANDIT.

Movie Review: White Lightning (1973)

 

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.