After his release from prison, notorious ex-con and moonshine distiller Gator McKlusky moves in with his father in a cabin in the Okefenokee Swamp. His bootlegging plans are cut short, however, when a federal agent tells McKlusky that he will lose custody of his 9-year-old daughter unless he helps bring down local crime lord Bama McCall. McKlusky enlists the help of reporter Aggie Maybank and a few local eccentrics to bring down McCall's empire.
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Reviews
Waste of time
Redundant and unnecessary.
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Burt Reynolds returns as Gator McKlusky in the motion picture Gator which was released in 1976. Starring in this picture along with Reynolds was Jack Weston as Irving Greenfield, Lauren Hutton as Aggie Maybank and Jerry reed as Bama McCall. Gator is released from prison after serving 26 months for making homemade whiskey. Enters Irving Greenfield who's with the justice department from the Big Apple, New York City. Greenfield hunts down McKlusky in the swamps to offer him a deal. Either Gator goes undercover to bring down his boyhood pal bring Bama McCall or his daughter gets moved around from foster to foster home, and his dad does time for making moonshine. Bama McCall runs Dunston County with his hand in everything from extortion, prostitution to murder. Enters Aggie Maybank who's a local reporter trying to a documentary on crime in Dunston County that McCall pulls the plug on. However, things start to change when Gator starts to realize just how ruthless McCall is. Therefore, when Gator tells McCall he wants out, Bama decides that him and Gator are going to sit and talk about. However, what Gator gets is a strong mix drink and finds himself in his car sitting outside the Dunston County line. Therefore, along with Greenfield, and Aggie Maybank, Gator sets out to destroy McCall. This was your typical Burt Reynolds picture with lots of suspense and action. The problem I have this picture it has no leading lady in it. Based on that fact I give this movie 8 weasel stars for the action alone.
one of the most endearing qualities about this movie is the fact that it brings the seventies back to your memories...it was filmed in 1976 and it shows it often....the scene where jerry (reed) enters the "southside shuffle "topless" bar...nails the period completely... as well as other fashions, lingo, and of course burt himself...who "owned" the seventies....due to this movie and his other good ole boy films of the south....coupled with the overwhelming popularity of smokey and the bandit (yet to come a year later)...established burt as a seemingly permanent fixture in cinema back then...I always thought burt would stay on top I guess...he seemed invincible as the #1 box office attraction...he is definitely an icon of the seventies time capsule...his swagger and his sense of humor put a brand on me as I remember many times in my life (silently) asking myself...what would burt do in a situation like this?....as pure acting goes...the film had one of the best supporting actors around and due to his lack of experience I guess you would just have to sum up jerry reed as being a "natural".....he played the villain so well you wanted him to stop...and go back to the good ole boy that you knew he could be (later as cletus snow in smokey and the bandit)gator is/was one of my all time favorite films...from a time period that I thought would never end...I miss it and this film will help you reunite with it if you are nostalgic at all...
Gator, the sequel to White Lightning was a lot more intense that the first. Both dealt with Gator battling corrupt officials, but this one deals with him battling his best friend. Though prison life didn't seem to faze him too much, but a sense of moral was put into this movie as well as his sense of charm. Anyone can find a person more annoying than Gator himself. At least it shows that temptation isn't Gator's cup of tea, or whiskey that is! At the end, the question for Gator is, "what's next?" Lauren Hutton was great at having her shirt charmed off, and Alice Ghostley of Bewitched fame did well. I really enjoyed it. 4 out of 5 stars.
Movie starts off good enough with an exciting speedboat chase, but I would have preferred two hours of that as opposed to the forced, embarrassing comedy attempted in this film. Running around with cats draped over their necks, the cast attempts to cram jokes down your throat. This was Reynolds charming era, but his charm skipped this one.