Gator

"Gator," Burt Reynold's feature film debut shows very brief flashes of twisted dark-comedy, but the vast majority of it just plain sucks the big one. I mean, Reynolds took the gritty, funny, sweaty, realistic character from "White Lightning" and completely threw him away, replacing the original Gator McClusky with the slick, mustachioed, urbanized, Hollywood Burt Reynolds we'd seen cracking wise on talk shows. No character, no grit, no acting--just Burt doing a caricature of himself. On top of that add a lame script that could have been adapted for any actor and any lead character, static direction, and virtually no continuity from the first hit film (now Gator has a son and no mother?). Only Jerry Reed rises above the lame-itude, beginning an acting career he was never allowed to fully develop beyond being Burt's sidekick. A waste of time. See "White Lightning" twice and you'll have a better time than watching this sequel.

A Sequel to ¨Joseph Sargent's White Lightning¨ follows the adventures of Gator (Burt Reynolds), he's a good ol' southern boy who has served four years of his five year prison sentence for moonshining. Then Gator McKlusky is recruited to gather evidence to convict a corrupt political boss (Jerry Reed) who also happens to be his friend. As agents force a former con man to help them nab a nasty mobster and his hoodlums. Meanwhile, Gator falls for a cool, gapteethed heroine, news reporter Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton). Only one man delivers 100-proof excitement!. Come and get him. Gator never strikes twice - 'cause once is enough!. Meet the Bayou's baddest good ol' boy. Take a bite and feel all right!.If You Haven't Seen "Gator" You Haven't Seen Burt Reynolds It's my kind of film. Booze, broads, car chases, corruption and revenge -- all the things that make life worthwhile!

Here Reynolds in his good tough boy role with lots of chases and fighting scenes. This movie was "the earliest in the cycle of hick flicks that Burt Reynolds rode to superstardom" on. The story starts with a tongue-in-cheek he-man opening with a number of motorboats jumping and causing destruction through the swamps and following further bouts of action, but things dawdle to standstill while Burt projects his sensitivity, lazy singalong good nature, and old-fashioned romanticism, he even expresses doubts about his style and inability to cope with independent women. The plot is formula pulp -Burt is blackmailed into exposing a former buddy, now a big-shot Southern crook- but it takes far too long to tell. All through the movie it is evident that Burt Reynolds is attempting to do a little something different with each scene. Sometimes he can't prevent the story becoming bogged down in his own routineness and the violence of the final highlight only just survives its juxtaposition with the previous humor, as roles we have come to like get brutally killed off; in spite of it, the action scenes are first class. It is acceptable and passable film with its ups and downs, but the reasonable cinematography by cameraman William A. Fraker and good action material help. There's also enjoyable musical score from Charles Bernstein, as well as catching songs, such as: ¨Gator¨ written & performed by Jerry Reed; ¨For a Little While¨ written &performed by Bobby Goldsboro and ¨Hey, Country Boy¨ written by Rusty Richards, performed by Dinah Shore . Some of composer Charles Bernstein's music score from this movie was re-used in two Quentin Tarantino movies: Kill Bill: part 1 (2003) and Inglorious Bastardos (2009). The main and support cast are pretty good . Beginning with Reynolds himself, he's very attractive and likable. While Lauren Hutton exudes charm and beauty as a personable news reporter, she creates a very good love chemistry with her partner Reynolds. Country singer Jerry Reed makes a good heavy, he steals the show as the villain who lends real menace and evil to the rather cardboard vice king; Alice Ghostley as a cranky social crusader with a passion for cats and Talk show host Mike Douglas made his film debut in the role of governor, and , of course, Jack Weston as a plump and faintly incompetent federal agent.

First film Reynolds directed, being professionally made. Burt keeps it simple, his direction suggests the makings of a model craftsman. And Reynolds gets uniformly nice interpretations from his actors. Gator chalked up a decent start for its budding director which he hasn't followed through enough. This was the first of the car stunt movies set in the American South that Burt Reynolds made during the 1970s and involved some kind of battle with a sheriff or official. This group of movies includes Smokey and the bandit (1977) and its follow-ups, as well as White Lightning (1973) and its sequel, Gator, (1976). Burt Reynolds went on to direct a few more films for both the big and small screen, such as: ¨Stick¨, ¨The End¨, ¨Hard Time¨, ¨The Man from Left Field¨, ¨Hawk¨ , ¨Amazing tales¨, ¨The Last Producer¨, ¨The Newton Family¨, ¨B. L. Stryker¨, and ¨Sharky's Machine¨ at his best. Gator(1976) rating: 6/10. The film will appeal to Burt Reynolds fans.

Gator, As much as I respect Roger Ebert, I don't care what Ebert says. This is a good film. It is Funny at times, has action, and entertaining for Reynolds directorial debut. Sure there are some mistakes but Reynolds took some chances too, some subtle. Filming the chase scenes on water can prove to be difficult but it came off well.

Jerry Reed did a fine and convincing job as a corrupt antagonist without playing up to a false or cheesy southern stereotype. Lauren Hutton also did a fine job as a fresh face in this film without any clumsy or unnecessary over acting.

The ending is unexpected and without following movie formula as Ebert claims (See book titled, "I hated, hated, HATED this film"). Reed's song was a big number for him after the release of Gator and Bobby Goldsboro's music was beautiful and perfect for the films heart-breaking end. Pure entertainment.

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...

The film starts out with a great song, sung by Jerry Reed, who also plays the villain perfectly as a foil to Gator McClusky, portrayed by Burt Reynolds. Reed is the best character in Gator, as his scenes are over the top and fun, especially the scene when he collects money owed him from one of the ghetto bars. There's a few cool boat chasing scenes, chased by helicopter in the dark swamplands, which is where Gator resides and is "hired" to help nab Reed's character, Bama McCall. He eventually joins McCall's gang and notices things he doesn't care for; soon after, he leaves the gang and trouble ensues. You can just about guess the rest. Up to this point, I thought there was decent tension and a serious war was about to take place between Gator and McCall; unfortunately, the film took a silly romantic/funny twist, as we meet Lauren Hutton's character, and soon after, her and Gator meet via a corny eye-catching moment at a public rally and shortly after, there's a forced moment at the local beach. Next up is Alice Ghostly and her cats(too much humor by now), and finally all get together to try and prove Bama's guilty past by breaking in the court house and stealing records.

Anyhow, the film rescues itself after some of Gator's crew are killed and some real tension builds up again, and the humor is ditched for good.