Southern Celluloid

In my opinion, Hollywood productions featuring the South as a backdrop or story line are mostly uneven in their representation of the region and its people.  For every To Kill a Mockingbird there is a Deliverance.  For every Last Picture Show there's a Shag-The Movie.  This isn't to say that Deliverance doesn't have its moments but the fact that "Squeal like a pig" has entered the American lexicon is enough to keep Deliverance  out of my top tier of favorite movies.

When The Tailgate Drops loves us some southern movies and each week we will share our favorites and personal recommendations that we feel are both entertaining and reveal a side of our region that prove to be unique to our history and culture.

The Holy Trinity of 1970's Burt Reynolds:

WHITE LIGHTNING (1973)

THE LONGEST YARD (1974)

GATOR  (1976)

If you went to the movies in the 70's, there was really only one star that balanced ability to be a sex symbol to the ladies as well as a good old boy that was admired by the men.  A former fullback at Florida State, Burt Reynolds was able to make his southern characters believable because he just seemed like someone that you would see driving down the street, albeit in a souped up Chevelle or Nova.

My favorite 1970's Burt Reynolds movies (and due to his later work my favorite of his movies in general) are White Lightning, The Longest Yard and Gator.  All three of these feature stories set in the Deep South, primarily Georgia and Florida.  Two of these, White Lightning and Gator are based on the character, Gator McKlusky, a swamp dwelling moonshine runner whose adventures include taking down the corrupt sheriff and a crime boss of a small Georgia town.

A hallmark of Reynolds is his desire to remember and take care of his acting buddies.  Several of the actors in these movies also are featured in many of his other films throughout his career.  In White Lightning, you'll find Ned Beatty (Deliverance, W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, Stroker Ace) as the corrupt sheriff and in Gator, the lead villain is Jerry Reed (Smokey and the Bandit films, W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings).  These films have it all...corrupt local officials, hippie killings, moonshine running, bootlegging, speedboat chases through swamps, shaky puddin', and high horsepower American made muscle cars.  As a kid, the one part I wasn't clear on until I was much older was the use of the term "Shaky Pudding" in White Lightning.  Its worth watching it just to hear that portion of the dialog.

The Longest Yard was remade a few years ago by Adam Sandler.  No idea why he decided to soil this classic story with his version.  Thank god he didn't decide to try and take on Cool Hand Luke.  In The Longest Yard, Reynolds plays a former pro football quarterback who ends up in a Florida prison.  Reviled at first by the other inmates because he was disgraced when caught point shaving during his NFL career, the movie follows his character as he forms a convict football team that plays a team composed of the prison's guards.  It's a great movie and has super casting with many former pro football players featured including Ray Nitschke as well as country music star, George Jones and a particularly maniacal Eddie Albert (Mr. Douglas from Green Acres) as the prison warden.

Everybody in these movies sweat a lot and Reynolds uses this fact to his advantage by going shirtless in many scenes (See the movie posters above).  Since this films appear all be set during depth of the southern summer, my advice is to turn off the home AC, open the windows, get a six pack and enjoy these great pieces of southern celluloid history.