Review of White Lightning (1973) by Bill B — 22 Apr 2015

White Lightning was released in 1973 and is one of the first of what became the southern-fried car chase movies throughout the 1970's and 1980's. It starred Burt Reynolds in the lead role, who was fresh off of the success of Deliverance, as well as his previous co-star Ned Beatty.

And while it doesn't feature much of the over-the-top carnage that many of the latter car chase movies became known for, it helped to solidify Reynolds as a lead actor, forever associating him and his on-screen persona with the sub-genre itself.

Directed by Joseph Sargent, the movie certainly has its appeal. It plays well to the grindhouse crowd more than any other audience, and while I can appreciate that, I just don't feel that it's quite as entertaining as it might have been in 1973.

I partly expected the movie to be more along the lines of something like Smokey and the Bandit, with fun characters, quips, and car chases. This movie isn't that as it takes itself a bit too seriously for my taste.

If I'm going to watch a movie with this kind of subject matter, I'd prefer it to be light and fun. The best aspect of the movie are the stunts, most of which were performed by the great Hal Needham, who later directed Reynolds.

It's when you watch something like this that you're reminded of how gritty films of this type were to make in those days and how difficult it was to make them before CGI came along and made things easier.

So I would say that I appreciate the movie more than I actually like it.