Reynolds' movies were the lighter of the two, combining roughneck action with a sly sense of humor that whiled away a summer afternoon in the time of bell-bottoms and leisure suits. Gator (1976) was Reynolds' entry for the year of America's Bicentennial, a sequel to his hit movie of three summers earlier White Lightning (1973).
In this edition, ex-convict Gator McKlusky (Burt Reynolds) is blackmailed into helping the Feds go after his high school buddy Bama McCall (Jerry Reed), now a corrupt political boss who runs all the crime in Dunston County including a brothel staffed with underage girls. Accompanying Gator on his mission is TV reporter/love interest Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton) and FBI agent Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston). Many cars and boats are chased and wrecked before justice is meted out to the bad guys.
White Lightning was, at one time, going to be Steven Spielberg's big screen debut. For the sequel, Reynolds kept the reins in his own hands and made his own first film, starring as well as directing. Some critics noted a similarity in style between Reynolds' direction of Gator and that of director Robert Aldrich who had recently worked with Reynolds on The Longest Yard (1974) and Hustle (1975). Both directors feature sudden shifts of tone from comedy to violence in their films.
Jerry Reed, who the next year would star with Reynolds in one of the 1970's most popular movies, Smokey and the Bandit (1977), does well handling the villain's role despite Gator being his second acting job. Mike Douglas, the talk show host, does him one better, making his acting debut here in the role of the Governor.
Gator is a fun example of an often ignored side of seventies cinema when good ol' boys were king and summer action movies meant fast guns and smashed cars, not exploding pixels and costumed superheroes.
Director: Burt Reynolds
Producers: Arthur Gardner, Jules Levy
Writer: William W. Norton
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Music: Charles Bernstein
Editing: Harold F. Kress
Art Direction: Kirk Axtell
Cast: Burt Reynolds (Gator McKlusky), Lauren Hutton (Aggie Maybank), Jack Weston (Irving Greenfield), Jerry Reed (Bama McCall), Alice Ghostley (Emmeline Cavanaugh), Dub Taylor (Mayor Caffrey).
C-115m. Letterboxed.
by Brian Cady
