Semiquincentennial Project #4: Gator

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

 

Week #(X): Georgia -

 

The state of Georgia was established on January 2, 1788.

Details about Georgia:

State bird: brown thrasher

State flower: Cherokee rose    

State tree: live oak

Additional historical trivia:

Georgia is the home of the vaunted peanut, and our  39th U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, was a peanut farmer in the state prior to his political career.

The stove top waffle iron, the cotton gin and even Coca Cola, are all products that first saw the light of day in the state. 

Georgia is one of only three states that proudly displays the motto "In God We Trust" on it,

Some famous people from Georgia: Jimmy Cater (of course), Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, Jeff Foxworthy and Ray Charles all were born in the state.   

 

 

Gator (1976): 

Gator is actually a sequel to White Lightning, the 1973 film that introduced the character of "Gator" McKlusky. That film features Gator as a moonshine still operator who goes undercover to help trap other moonshiners. But Gator is no flunky for the government. His real goal is to get revenge on a crooked sheriff who killed his younger brother.

 

After the end of White Lightning, Gator was essentially a free man,  and went back to his old lifestyle. Meanwhile at the capitol building, the governor of the state, played by Mike Douglas, is ranting about how he looks in the press because of that one degenerate county in the state. What county? Why Dunston County, home of Gator.

But the governor has a man that may be able to help, Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston). Greenfield is touted as one of the top agents in the Federal government. Greenfield has a plan. 

 

The key to solving the dilemma with Greenfield is to somehow nullify the influence of the county bigwig (and top crime boss) "Bama" McCall (Jerry Reed). What Greenfield proposes is getting the help of a recent parolee, our friend "Gator", to help bring in McCall.

 

Of course, catching Gator is going to be half the battle. Because he knows the swamps better than just about anybody, and can run through that stuff like a cottonmouth in the brush. But eventually the Greenfield crew do run down Gator. Since Gator is almost assuredly running moonshine again and a third conviction would send him away for a loooong time, Greenfield thinks he's got Gator by the cajones. 

 

But Gator is not quite ready to throw in with the Feds. That is, until Greenfield threatens to send Gator's dad Ned (John Steadman) to jail for moonshining, and putting his daughter, Susie (Lori Futch) into foster care. See, Greenfield already has them, even if not under arrest, and if Gator refuses to help bring Bama McCall in, he's going to be one lonely man with all hi family out of the picture. (As usual, these Feds play dirty...)

 

So Greenfield takes Gator to Dunston County, where it turns out that he and Bama were old buddies. Bama is willing to let Gator come in on his operations. See, Bama is a wheeler dealer in town, running all kinds of shady operations. Be forewarned! Jerry Reed is Bama, and if your only connection to Jerry Reed is a good 'ol boy who is harmless, like Cledus in the Smokey and the Bandit films, or J. D. Reed in the TV series Concrete Cowboys, you are NOT gonna like Bama... He's a lowlife of the first order. 

Bama has all kinds of crime in his milieu, like extortion, corruption, selling drugs. Gator is not entirely OK with this, but he is willing to go along with for a while. But then he discovers the really bad vice that Bama is into... prostitution.  And not prostitution with what would be at least normal, if not acceptable. See, Bama's big prostitution ring consists of underage girls. This really disgusts Gator and he tells Bama he wants out.

 

But Bama is not the kind of guy to just turn his back and ignore a backslider in his operation. He has two muscle boys, Smiley (Burton Gilliam) and Bones (William Engesser) to help him change Gator's nind, by hook or crook. 

 

Gator now wants to help Greenfield bring Bama down, and hooks up with a reporter, Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton) and a little off her rocker former city employee, Emmeline (Alice Ghostley) to break into City Hall and get files that will put Bama and some of his political cohorts away for a long time.

 

Don't get the idea that this is a typical Reynolds comedy. There is some serious stuff going on here, and more than one person is going to die. Think of it as something like Lethal Weapon. There is a bunch of comedy sprinkled throughout, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, the serious side is going to come to the fore.

But one of the more humorous parts of the movie (at least for me, are the scenes where Bones, who is apparently Bama's chauffeur, in addition to one of his bully boys, has to drive Bama around in a converted red  Plymouth Gran Fury. Note: this is not the only car they used, just one of them. Anyway, the exaggeration of how big Bones is is highlighted by the fact that he has to stick his head out through the sun roof. (I'm fairly sure he was probably sitting on a box or something in the car scenes... Surely the actor wasn't THAT big...)

  

This was Burt Reynolds' first feature film as a director. According to what I read, Reynolds originally turned the role saying "it's a terrible script." But then they offered him the opportunity to direct and suddenly it was "a great script"... (The things Hollywood will do to get their way...) I couldn't find any information on a budget, and it didn't exactly break box office records. It only grossed $11 million. 

The critics weren't exactly kind to the movie either. On Rotten Tomatoes, the aggregator of what is the critic viewpoint, it stands at only 14%. Charles Champlin, a reviewer for the Los Angeles Time, not only managed to denigrate the movie, but also the kind of crowd that liked Reynolds movies: "Gator looks exactly what it is, a commercial concoction assembled for an undemanding mass market." (Phhht, Chuck...)

Ranker, one of my favorite go-tos for public opinion of films, however, ranks it #7 all-time as one of Reynolds' best movies, beaten out only by the first Smokey and the Bandit, The Longest Yard, Deliverance, Hooper, The Cannonball Run and White Lightning (in that order). My opinion is Gator is a movie that will appeal to those who love Reynolds screen charm and also for those action movies that blend a little humor into the mix. I especially liked seeing Bama get his comeuppance, even if I didn't particularly care to see Jerry Reed playing a thoroughly unscrupulous bad guy.

Well, that's it for this time. See you for the next entry, featuring the state of Connecticut.

Quiggy