Return to Macon County

This was one I watched fifty times on late-70's cable. This movie never lets up for a second as it's filled with great action, pretty girls, great 50's music and bad dialogue. Not to mention a young Nick Nolte and Don Johnson! How can you go wrong? The car is incredible too, I used to think the "extra juice" they'd give it during drag races was the wildest thing. The crazy cop is hilarious. I used to look for "sail rabbits" after seeing this one haha. Not to be missed, especially by car fans of fans of films set in the 50's.

Sequel to the hixploitation classic "Macon County Line." Max Baer Jr. produced and co-wrote the original film, but was not part of this production. However the co-writer and director of the original film, Richard Compton returned to write and direct this solidly entertaining sequel, which is essentially the same story as the first film but with a new set of characters. Two young men, not brothers this time, are traveling through the south on their way to race cars in California, but run afoul the local sheriff after picking up a local girl and angering the local hot rodders after losing a race. Although the story and action are inferior to the original film, this film boast a much stronger cast, which includes a before-they-were-famous Nick Nolte and Don Johnson as the two leads. It's clear that both Nolte and Johnson were destined to be stars with their strong screen presence and charisma, especially Johnson. Robin Mattson is also quite good as the local girl they pick up, although she did not go on to have the major career of Johnson and Nolte. Overall, "Return to Macon County" is not a classic exploitation film, but it is a solidly entertaining one.

I just watched this again on one of the rerun cable stations tonight. It takes me back to my youth because I am 63 now. In 1975 when this movie came out I was a the projectionist at a multi-screen drive in movie theater. I was around 21 years old and had just started to do this job for a living.

The picture did so well that it was held-over for at least 4 weeks! That almost never happened in a drive-inn! I remember we had 4 screens and all the projectors in one room over the snack bar. The starting times of the movies were staggered just right so that I could run them all with no mistakes other than an occasional tear in the film which would automatically shut down the machine.

That picture had nearly every car space filled on the weekends and several other nights as well. So, this lot was the full one while the other screens did dismally worse than that. one. By the time I shipped it out I must have seen the car chase scene a hundred times!

This is light fair that I found entertaining. I am a big fan of Nick Nolte's body of work and although he was playing a 20 something hot-rodder when he was in his mid 30's he certainly looked young and naive. His partner in this drag race movie was Don Johnson as the mechanic who knew everything there was to know about making a hot rod go faster than any of the local hicks residing in Macon County.

Of course Nick picks up a wild and crazy chick played by Robin Mattson. So Nick and Robin end up in a love-hate-love relationship and Nick never knows how extreme Ms Mattson's actions will take the boys in to more trouble than they can get in all by themselves.

So the film has fast cars, faster girls, the local tough guys and the sheriff chasing Nick, Don and Robin through Macon County. I wouldn't want to spoil the ending but suffice to say the movie creates a bit of havoc on wheels with property damage and a few guys feelings also get hurt. But 'eh, what's two young hot rodder's to do except create action.

And so began an illustrious career filled with action films and TV series for our two young stars. It certainly was worth a watch for the retro cars and music. I wasn't disappointed. I give it a 6 out of 10 rating.

I'm flipping channels this afternoon and my wife goes, "OMG, is that Nick Nolte? And that looks like Don Johnson." We watched it for a while. It was pretty good. The plot synopsis on this site is spot on. I liken it to a racier version of the Dukes of Hazard (one is even named BO) before the Dukes were TV staples. As a Georgia native I made the comment to my wife, Man that looks like home! I was thrilled when I saw the title and I can verify those are some 2-lane Macon roads for sure. It was an indie film and it has that kind of indie feel to it. Worth 2 hours of your time on a lazy Sunday afternoon if you've already cleaned the house and done your yard work.