White Lightning (1973)

Starring: Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty, with a small role by Diane Ladd and a cameo from Laura Dern
Grade: B-

Showcasing his toughness and underrated sense of humor, Burt Reynolds does a fine job as hillbilly icon “Gator McKlusky” in White Lightning, the first part of the forgotten two-film franchise.

Summary

In Bogan County, Arkansas, corrupt and evil Sheriff J. C. Connors (Beatty) calmly rows his boat with his partner, bringing two tied up young boys in another boat alongside them. The boys are gagged and tied to cinder blocks. After they stop somewhere in the water, Sheriff Connors shoots a massive hole in the boys’ boat, and they are drowned.

In prison for running moonshine, Bobby “Gator” McKlusky (Reynolds) is told by his cousin Louella (Barbara Muller) that his little brother Donny was killed, as he was one of the boys in the opening of the movie. She says Gator’s father thinks it was because of Sheriff Connors and the hippie kids Donny was hanging around with. Sometime later, a distraught Gator beats up a guard and tries to escape prison. He doesn’t get too far before being captured by the Warden/Captain Simms (Lincoln Demyan). Despite what happened, he cuts Gator some slack as they talk about it. Even though he only has a year left in his sentence, Gator takes everything into consideration and mentions that Connors is taking money from the whiskey business and how he can get evidence against him, even though Connors runs Bogan County with an iron fist. Taking him up on the offer, Gator is taken in to meet with Cantrell of the federal department who gives him the details on what evidence they can use against Connors in court. Following this, one of the agents tells Gator his contact man is Dude Watson (Matt Clark). Dude will be found at the Benton Speedway. He’s a stock car racer as well as a moonshiner. He’s on federal probation, so he’s expected to help. They give Gator a car for his whiskey running and send him off.

Almost immediately, he is targeted by some cops for speeding. He’s able to elude them, talk to some girls he recognizes, and goes to see his parents. After he talks with his parents about Donny, he tells them his plans of going to Bogan County to stop Connors. Once he reveals he got released early because he’s helping the federal government by telling on other people in the whiskey business, his parents look down on him for being a snitch, even though he insists that the goal is to take down Connors. Later, Gator finds Dude at the Benton Speedway. After talking with him about moonshine, where Dude pleads ignorance, Gator tells him he knows about Dude’s unpaid taxes and so does the government. All he wants is to help with a few moonshine deliveries and take down some names so he can help indict Connors. After hearing the name J.C. Connors however, Dude laughs him off and drives away. Following this, Gator shows up at Dude’s place, takes his gun, and punches him in the stomach once Dude refers to him as a “stool pigeon”. Just then, some guy named Henry delivers moonshine to Dude’s wife Maggie (Ladd), so Gator demands answers. He continues, saying that the feds know about him violating his probation and that Dude will go back to prison for 5 years unless he starts cooperating. Once Gator tells him about Donny being one of the boys killed by Connors, Dude loosens up a bit by telling Gator how difficult it would be to get at Connors because everything is done with cash. There isn’t much in terms of records to show what Connors has done. Going along with this, he admits he’d rather go to prison than to deal with the despotic sheriff.

Dude tells Gator that the only way to stop Connors is to kill him. Even so, Dude gives in after Gator pleads with him.

They go to a pool hall, where Dude introduces Gator to Roy Boone (Bo Hopkins), hoping Gator can run blocker for him. After Gator mentions he used to know an Everett Bookman that would go by the name “Rebel Roy” (Everett Bookman), and how that guy ran some infamous “Junior Johnson” off the road one time, Roy takes the two outside to meet his girl Lou (Jennifer Billingsley). There, he sees the motor on Gator’s car and seems intrigued about the possibility of making him a blocker, though he doesn’t decide on a final decision. Immediately after this, Connors is seen out and about. A now very serious Gator drives right up to him, with Dude in the car, to see him up close. After some tension-filled small talk with Connors, they drive off. As Gator starts his first blocking job with Roy, we see Connors speak with his advisor Harvey (Robert Ginnaven) who talks about certain senator Ben Fairfield and how they should be worried about federal involvement in their county. However, Connors is not worried in the slightest, mentioning how he’s close with Fairfield and how he’s only doing the same things Fairfield’s father did when he was sheriff of Bogan County. Harvey counters by telling him Fairfield himself said Washington sent a guy to their county to “snoop around”.

They don’t realize it yet, but that man is Gator.

My Thoughts:

Shortly after his breakthrough with Deliverance, Burt Reynolds struck again with White Lightning. The South loves this man.

Seeing earlier, pre-mustache Reynolds is always an odd sight to see. There’s something special about this Burt Reynolds though. He’s got “it” even when he doesn’t even know he has “it” yet. He’s got the distinct look, charm, and effortless charisma even in his earliest of characters, and it shows with his role as Gator McKlusky. Gator is a cool guy. You can tell this as soon as the first scene, as he jokes around with his fellow prisoners, showcasing a laugh as infectious and discernible as Eddie Murphy’s. He also doesn’t mind a fight at a moment’s notice either, giving us a great action hero character to get behind. The movie may not be perfect, but it did help shape the star persona Burt Reynolds started to cultivate during this timeframe.

White Lightning is a much more serious action movie than its 1976 sequel, Gator. The reason Gator is pulled into this mission is weightier, the tone is grimier with violent undertones, and there’s a lot more tension with the characters. Here, Gator is determined with his mission. His brother died for this. He has to stop Connors. We can see his easygoing personality change in an instant when his brother, or Connors, is brought up. One of the best scenes had to have been when Gator sees Connors for the first time in the film and speeds over to him with Dude. As Dude is forced into this unwanted conversation with Connors, Gator stares holes into Connors with full eye contact. He could go about this mission quietly, and it may have been a bit breezier. However, this isn’t Gator’s style. Connors messed with his family. Now, he’s all-in and lets it be known. For that moment in time, the anxiousness can be felt through the screen because we know Gator is seething at the sight of this cold-blooded murderer. We know Gator well enough at this point to feel this, but we don’t know him well enough to think that he won’t do something in that very moment. It’s an excellent scene and though they have minimal conversation with Connors, and the two both give each other minor bullshit for the sake of conversation, the feeling of one-upmanship is evident. Now, Connors is aware of Gator’s presence in his county. It’s as if he’s taking a mental note of Gator as he stretches the conversation when he doesn’t need to, even ending the back-and-forth by implying a small threat. Even then, Gator doesn’t wince for a second and seeing him play off this situation, knowing how badly he wants to destroy this dude, was a great way to showcase another layer to the smarter-than-you-give-him-credit-for former moonshiner.

Throughout White Lightning, Gator finds time to mess around. Despite the mission at hand, you would think he’s a bit unfocused as a person, but this one scene shows us that Gator has his eyes fully on the prize.

Even though the added romance here and there shows the lighter, more fun side of Gator, it didn’t really add to the movie. Between Lou and Connors’ old secretary, I would’ve chosen the latter. There was much more entertainment to be had. Unfortunately, their fling ended in a couple of scenes, and I’m not entirely sure why it even happened in the first place in terms of moving the story along. Lou came off as trashy. When Gator started fucking her, it just made him look more like a hillbilly than he already was. At no point was I rooting for their relationship to work. It was funny to watch Gator and Roy fight over her though.

Towards the end, you’re forced to get used to Lou, so you just deal with it. At one point, they end up in some home for “unwed mothers” as Gator gets all patched up after escaping captivity from Big Bear (R.G. Armstrong), and Lou mentions how she used to live here. Does she have a child? Is Roy the father? How long did she stay here? Does she have a traumatic backstory? I don’t know. Gator tries to ask, but she insists she “doesn’t want to talk about it”, and he’s fine with it because it’s not like this relationship has a future anyway. It felt like a question you would ask to try and be nice, but you don’t actually care. Since he’s fine with her response, they just drop it, and we never find out anything about Lou. Why should I care about her then? All we know about Lou is that she has a nice smile and was willing to cheat on her boyfriend almost immediately upon meeting Gator.

This is the definition of a trashy hillbilly. In fact, I think I know someone like this.

The lack of government help for a movie like this was startling and felt downright illogical. These federal agents give a moonshiner a huge job in taking down a well-known tyrannical leader of a county and offer almost zero help to him during the entire process of the mission. The agents don’t arm Gator, they don’t tail him, and they offer no guidance whatsoever once he leaves prison. The only thing they do is give him Dude, telling Gator he’ll help because he’s on probation. However, it turns out they were just assuming this. Gator has to waste an entire day just to convince Dude to help him, and it actually takes a lot of work. Why couldn’t the feds step in to help him here? Why couldn’t they force Dude’s hand to expedite the process? Why didn’t they start tailing Gator when the mission got more serious? How did they not get word of the shootout at Big Bear’s when Gator and Lou almost died? Since the two stay overnight at the home for “unwed mothers”, this should’ve been plenty of time for the feds to come over and help Gator. At that point, the cover is blown, so it’s not like they’re risking anything in coming to help. When Gator woke up, the agents should’ve been there, or at least gave him a phone call or something to say, “help is on the way”. What if Gator died on the job? The agency would look like a fucking joke! They put all this pressure on some random moonshiner to take down a nearly untouchable sheriff and offer no support at all to help him? He’s not a secret agent! He’s out here just guessing (since he’s never done anything like this before), and they’re totally fine with it!

Earlier in the film, some of the agents show up to ask about his progress. Gator tells them he has nothing yet, and he yells at them to leave because they’re causing commotion at Dude’s place since everyone knows they’re feds. So, not only have they offered no help, but they’re also compromising his undercover work by recklessly showing up at a neighborhood house of people who are very aware of what the feds look like. These guys are stupid as hell! It’s as simple as that.

Making up for all this nonsense is Ned Beatty. Obviously, Beatty isn’t an intimidating physical presence but in White Lightning, he pulls off the antagonist role admirably. He carries himself like he’s the baddest man in the state. He’s well connected and will not let anyone do anything not to his liking or approval. When Sheriff Connors is said to “own” this county, you can’t argue it. Seeing him revel in his villainy, doing what he thinks his right by threatening and attacking old people, women, young adults and everyone else while collecting his money like he’s the Sheriff of Nottingham is a level of wickedness needed to make Gator’s goal even more special. Beatty plays it very well in the screen time he gets. He doesn’t need to look like Lee Marvin or Charles Bronson. He’s just a genuine asshole who will kill or torture to prove his point, even if the offense is something as small as protesting legally with your friends.

With decent car chases for the time period, badly choreographed and messy fight scenes (but look more realistic as a result), and a great good guy/bad guy dynamic stemming from Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty, White Lightning is a solid action movie. It’s not great or anything, the abrupt ending doesn’t help, and a lot of slower scenes cool down the action at times, but it’s a good representation of an early 70s action movie.

I enjoyed a majority of it for its style, but I’m not going to sit there and tell you this movie is for everyone.