White Lightning (1973) on Netflix
Bobby "Gator" McKlusky is in an Arkansas prison for running moonshine. He hears that Sheriff J.C. Connors killed his younger brother Donny. Gator agrees to work undercover for the Treasury.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/106,932 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bobby "Gator" McKlusky is in an Arkansas prison for running moonshine. Word reaches him that Sheriff J.C. Connors of Bogan County killed his younger brother Donny. The sheriff collects money from local moonshiners. Gator accepts a deal to work undercover for the Treasury on a corruption and smuggling case, but his aim is revenge, and he plans to shield his fellow moonshiners. The Feds give him a car and point him to Dude Watson, a stock car racer and small-time whiskey runner on probation who must cooperate. Dude brings Gator to Roy Boone, a top runner for the moonshiner Big Bear, who is also Connors's enforcer. Gator begins an affair with Roy's girlfriend Lou while earning the trust of Roy and Big Bear.
Cast
- Conlan Carteras Deputy
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about White Lightning (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Steven Spielberg almost directed White Lightning as his first feature: he spent two and a half months on the film, found most of the locations and began to cast it, then realized he did not want to start his career as a “hard-hat, journeyman director.”
- Charles Bernstein's score outlived the film itself: Quentin Tarantino later used some of it in his 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1 and his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.
- The villain of White Lightning was not invented: William W. Norton's original script based Sheriff J. C. Connors on a real-life lawman, Sheriff Marlin Hawkins.
- The film's basic themes - a comedic car chase centerd on the transport and handling of illicit alcohol, set in the southern United States - were taken to even greater commercial success when Reynolds and Hal Needham reunited for Smokey and the Bandit in 1977, Needham's directorial debut.
- On the TV series Archer, the film and its sequel Gator are favorites of the title character, Sterling Archer, though he believes Gator the stronger instalment and gets the two so confused that he thinks several key scenes from White Lightning are in the sequel.
