Moonrunners (1975)

Undescribable Perfection

Such a frustrating disappointment

A Brilliant Conflict

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Finding out that a poll was being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best movies of 1975,I started to search round for DVDs that I could watch for the poll.With having picked up the title a few years ago,after reading up about its connection to The Dukes of Hazzard TV series,I decided that it was finally time to pour a shot of Moonshine.The plot:Spending their time racing fast cars & fast girls,Bobby Lee and Grady Hagg decide the it is time for them to grow up,and that they are going to help their uncle Jesse Hagg sell his latest batch of moonshine.Being taught by Jesse about how to treat his pure moonshine with respect,the gang soon find themselves hitting a fork in the road,when fellow moonshine maker Jake Rainey announces that he and a group of gangsters are going to control production of moonshine in the area.Holding their own against Rainey & the mobs ruthless attacks,Jesse,Bobby and Grady decide that they must fight back,in order to protect the purity of Jesse's moonshine.View on the film:Spinning a running time of just under 2 hours (!) the screenplay by writer/director Gy Waldron initially makes the movie (which was produced by director Bob Clark) look like it is going to offer galloping hi-jinx and gallons of southern sass.Waldron avoids picking the light Comedy touch ripened in the film,and instead makes the title dry by not allowing the comedic charm of the characters to shine,but to instead make each of them stern and serious.Backed by a thigh- tapping narration from Waylon Jennings,Waldon brilliantly soaks up the movies dusty location atmosphere,thanks to Waldon and cinematographer Brian W. Roy using wide shots to fully display the dirt roads and mud-soaked farms that Grady & Bobby Lee Hagg (played with a real charm by Kiel Martin and James Mitchum) drive down,as they become the dukes of Hazzard.

This ain't no watered down Dukes of TV series. Moonrunners is full taste action with more cars, cursing, sex, fights, and real life. Although I will admit that the Dukes of Hazzard is more "fun" you just have to give Moonrunners a chance, it really is a good movie. I seen it yesterday for the first time and even though it is low budget it did keep me entertained, laughing several times, and the car chases/crashes were more pumped up and real as compared to the Dukes. What I mean is that in the Dukes when a car does a stunt and it is obvious that the fender was smashed but in the next frame or scene the car is all shiny and new; well that's doesn't happen in this movie, when they dent a car it stays dented. I also found Beth Ann more attractive than Daisy but that is a whole 'nother story. It is a good show that you should see if you like older car movies like Stroker Ace and keep in mind that it's very indicative of being an early 1970's movie as far as the production goes. The good ole boys are a little more rougher and tougher than the politically correct cousins that aired on television but the Uncle Jesse character is about the same and Jake (Boss Hogg) again is more real in this version, even pimping girls out of the back of the Boar's Nest.It looks like to me if you were to take Moonrunners and re-cut it with a bit more music production, slightly better editing, and lose a few of the slower parts then it would be a hot fast-paced show... Oh wait, they did do that to Moonrunners, it's called "The Dukes Of Hazzard".

If you are truly a Dukes of Hazzard fan and not just a phony hopping on the popular band wagon then you will love this movie. Unfortunately there is no current release of this movie, but if you dig around on the internet deep enough you can find original VHS copies or "bootleg" (pun intended) copies on DVD for around about 9 bucks. I normally don't support illegal copies, but when the studio doesn't realize what a cult hit they own, and don't re-release it; well then there is no alternative. Anyway, Moonrunners is another classic 70's movie of the south.If you like this movie too then check out these other cult favorites: Cockfighter, Walking Tall, Walking Tall Pt. 2, Walking Tall: The Final Chapter, White Lightining, Hooper, Stroker Ace, Slap Shot, The Longest Yard, Urban Cowboy, Days of Thunder (before Tom went wacko!) *ALL MOVIES ARE THE ORIGINALS, NOT THE REMAKES

I liked the Dukes of Hazzard when it was first run and I even like it sometimes in the reruns but this movie was so boring that I did a lot of fast forwarding as I could not wait for it to end. This is the type of movie that you see at the drive-in movie that shows only very low quality "B" movies as a filler at the end and where most of the people are gone before it is over.