Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema
2005; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1548-9922
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoScott Von Doviak. Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema. McFarland, 2005. 222 pages; $35.00. Deep in Appalachian Woods In film studies, 1970's American cinema is an important and groundbreaking period that has been studied and analyzed by great media scholars. While most, if not all, of these studies center on films in context of changing American culture and political landscape, they always tend to lean in two distinct directions; blockbuster genre of Star Wars and Jaws and new Hollywood maverick directors, Altman, Coppola, Raefelson, and Scorsese. What about Hal Needham? Or Ron Ormond and Earl Owensby though? Did these directors not contribute a significant piece to 70's American cinema puzzle? If you ask author Scott Von Doviak, answer is an easy and adamant rebel yell, You're darn tootin they did! In his new book Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema, Scott Von Doviak has given study of this important decade a much-needed shot of moonshine. He has created a substantial and necessary addition to film and popular culture. Simply and effectively he has established a new genre or at very least resurrected a genre buried deep in Appalachian woods. Advancing from rising multi screen and arthouse theaters in our country, to drive-in circuit, for Von Doviak this is no mere backwoods exercise-it is an advance in film and popular culture studies. He achieves his advance in two ways. First and most importantly is detailed use of films of genre. While he spends an ample amount of time on motion pictures you would suspect such as Convoy, Smokey and Bandit, and Deliverance, it is his use and resurrection of such lost drive-in classics as Roger Corman produced Cockfighter, Burt Reynolds honkytonk underdog film W.W. and Dixie Dancekings, feminist sexploitation film Dynamite Chase, and Jaws inspired Grizzly where he truly fleshes out meat of this southern bar-b-que! While chapters on Moonshiners, films about feuding hillbillies and their illegal mountain brew, and Red-Necked Sheriffs are to be expected, it is his deepening and fleshing out of genre that truly makes his work impressive. Chapters on Hick-Chicks, where he details hick flick career of Russ Meyer, poet laureate of enormous breasts, and The Death of Bigfoot and Creepy Critters. Those things in woods ... missing links or genetic mutations that live within realm of redneck cinema. All of these chapters help take this book into true genre defining territory. Anyone willing to sit through 24 hours of Hillbilly Horror films, movies like Southern Comfort, The Hills Have Eyes and all four Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, and document descent into madness deserves kudos from everyone! Secondly, his use of humor keeps book light and interesting and shows his true love and appreciation for this genre. Usually an author is limited by quality of films. Who wants to see a bad film let alone read an entire book about them? Well, Ok, I confess, I do! Still, this is where Von Doviaks humor is essential. Whether he is describing Sam Elliott played Wade Garrett in uber hick flick of Eighties Road House, his lanky frame, [or, writing] Shambling gait, greasy mane of grey hair and weeklong hangover beard, he makes Dalton (Patrick Swayze) look even more like preening candy pants he is, to his description of Jon Don Baker played by Buford Pusser in Walking Tall with his ingratiating Elvis grin and honey-dipped drawl, Von Doviak describes in his witty and sometimes sleep deprived way, the last thing he (Pusser) wants to do in world is start whaling on you a slab of hickory. …
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