Rating: 
Summary: Redneck Masterpiece
Review: "White Lightning" is an interesting curio from the seventies. Call it good ol' boy chic. I can almost be certain that this film didn't get much critical play from more fashionable circles but I'm sure the denizens of the drive-in understood. This film has down home ambience that the Coen brothers would kill for. At times the film's languid pace was a little too slow for my Yankee sensibilities but the pace picks up as the film progresses. Burt Reynolds has an easy-to-take charm here that he seemed to have lost as he progressed (regressed?) into a box-office superstar. Ned Beatty is effective as the murderous boss of the backwater Arkansas county but he doesn't overplay it. Also good is R.G. Armstrong as an evil moonshiner. This ain't classic stuff but it's good Saturday night light viewing fare.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best movies of all time!!!
Review: "White Lightning" is the best Burt Reynolds movie of all time Bar None. I have seen it over and over and i never get tired of watching it!!! Absolutely the best moonshiner movie ever made!!!
Rating:
Summary: Burt is GATOR!
Review: Burt stars as Gator McKlusky a moonshine runner serving time in a Arkansas prison. His brother is killed by a corrupt sheriff (Ned Beatty), so Gator agrees to go undercover to exspose the sheriff and get his brothers killer. The action is awesome. Car chases, brawls and Burt's signature humor. The DVD transfer is good but sadly the film is FULL FRAME and not WIDESCREEN. I guess MGM figured only rednecks would buy such a film and didn't bother with a 16x9 transfer. And no the film is not edited the language was re-dubbed in parts of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT also to get a PG rating, cinema was only PG or R rated in the 70's. The 1976 classic GATOR is the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty Seventies action piece
Review: Easily the best of the Burt Reynolds "rednecks and cars" movies. Some great car chases, some decent acting (Burt can act when he feels like it) and a lot of sweaty, dirt-poor Southern atmosphere. I'd ignored this one for a long time, thinking it was as silly as his other car chase movies, but really, this is quite fine. A must for Seventies buffs or action buffs.
Rating:
Summary: One of the many great 1970's moonshine and car chase movies.
Review: Films like "White Lightning" dominated most of the action movies of the 70's, and this one is no disappointment. Burt Reynolds is terrific as Gator McClusky, an ex moonshine runner who is let out of prison to tackle a crooked sheriff (played by Ned Beatty). I like the car chase scenes the best. It's easy to completely ignore the plot while watching them put the pedal to the metal! This motion picture has the best in super action, setting the stage for future films of this kind such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Convoy". Fasten your seatbelt!
Rating:
Summary: One of the many great 1970's moonshine and car chase movies.
Review: Films like "White Lightning" dominated most of the action movies of the 70's, and this one is no disappointment. Burt Reynolds is terrific as Gator McClusky, an ex moonshine runner who is let out of prison to tackle a crooked sheriff (played by Ned Beatty). I like the car chase scenes the best. It's easy to completely ignore the plot while watching them put the pedal to the metal! This motion picture has the best in super action, setting the stage for future films of this kind such as "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Convoy". Fasten your seatbelt!
Rating: 
Summary: A MOVIE ABOUT MOONSHINING IN THE 70'S
Review: GATOR (REYNOLDS) IS IN PRISON FOR MOONSHINING WHEN HE LEARNS THAT HIS BROTHER HAS BEEN KILLED BY A CORRUPT SHERIFF. WHEN HE TRIES TO ESCAPE AND IS CAUGHT, HE AGREES TO WORK WITH THE FEDS AND NAIL THE SHERIFF (NED BEATY) WHO HAS BEEN TAKING LIQUOR MONEY. WHEN HE GETS OUT HE TEAMS UP WITH A COUPLE MOONSHINE RUNNERS IN ORDER TO GET MORE INFORMATION ON THE SHERIFF. IF YOU LIKE CAR CHASES, MOONSHINE, AND A FIGHT HERE AND THERE, YOU'LL LIKE THIS MOVIE.
Rating:
Summary: "Women and da Po-leeece"
Review: Great flick, lousy Thought Police DVD. This PG-13 version lacks the teeth of the theatrical release. Why shucks, I've heard racier language on Sesame Street dadgummit.Burt is Burt, Bo Hopkins was an unappreciated gem...but they both lose "cool" points for driving 72" Ford LTDs, which no self-respecting moonshiner would have ever been caught dead in. Hey MGM, give us the real deal consarnit! 4 stars for the DVD transfer, 1 star for the editing.
Rating:
Summary: Not really a "censored" version
Review: I don't belive this new release of White Lightning has been censored for dvd, even though it does show signs of obvious re-dubbing of rough dialog. The original release back in '73 was rated PG--I have the original movie poster, so I know this for sure. I believe the dubbing was done just before the film's original release, to tone it down from an R rating to a PG. Reynolds was just becoming a huge star and the studio probably decided that they could cash in more with a larger slice of the audience to draw from--in essence changing the movie from an adults only drive-in flick into one that could play the neighborhood theatres (and those new multiplexes springing up everywhere in the 'burbs) and which any teen or kid could see. I saw this in it's original form, back in the day, in the theatres, and I am pretty sure it was just as we see it now on dvd (except it was matted). Definately a PG. With all the swearing put back in, I'm sure it would have had to be rated R back in the gentler days of the early seventies. Still it would be cool to see a "director's cut" if such exists (or at least a widescreen instead of an open matte version). And if anyone out there knows the solution to the mystery of the missing swears firsthand, let us know! Joe Seargent--you still around? CM
Rating:
Summary: Again
Review: I don't think this movie was edited for its dvd release. I watched it recently, and in my mind I put back in all the swear words that were re-dubbed. NO WAY could this movie have gotten a PG in 1973 if all that swearing had been included. And it was originally PG, not "R" or "PG-13" (which didn't exist in 1973). I'm an old guy, 42, and I saw this back in the day with my parents. I was 12 and we didn't go to R rated flicks as a family. And, as I wrote before, I own the original poster and it says "PG."
I still think the swearing was edited out by the studio just before the movie's theatrical release, to tone it down from an "R" to a more-profitable, family freindly PG. Reynolds had just gotten popular (from Deliverance, talk shows, and posing nude in Ms Magazine) and they wanted to change his new movie from playing only the drive-ins to playing in the family theatres. This kind of last minute fiddling was often done in the old days when movie companies wanted to get a certain rating (and is today, but usually for sex instead of for language). If anybody out there has seen a version with all the extra swearing kept in, please write me and let me know when and where! And let's get that director's cut out on dvd if it exists!
| 
