Dixie Dynamite (1976)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 2009
SYNOPSIS: This move is hands-down a mid-70s Southern-fried romp. If I was feeling less generous, I can think of meaner terms than "charmingly naive" to describe a movie where the big Motocross race is called The Motocross Big Race. But the whole thing has a pleasant sincerity that's hard to find nowadays.
It's a PG-rated movie, so the nudity is minimal (although not entirely absent), but there are plenty of explosions and car chases. Well-done car chases.
In fact, the movie starts out with a car chase where it seems like they drive through half of rural Georgia in order to find a fruit stand to crash through, then they explore the other half to find a stack of crates (with chickens inside) to burst through. It ends with the hot-headed Deputy Frank shooting out the rear tire of the lead car, which careens out of control off a bridge and down an incline -- where it comes to rest on its roof, then explodes.
The plot involves an evil rich guy (how evil? he's named Dade McCrutchen) taking over the town's bank and foreclosing on family homes and farms. He's doing this because he (somehow) knows there are natural gas deposits under the county. He shows up at foreclosure auctions and bids exactly the amount of equity that the bank needs to get out of the house -- which he knows because he owns the bank. Conflict of interest? Mmmmmaybe. Everybody knows he's up to no good, but there isn't anything that anybody can do, since he's rich, and everybody else in the entire film is poorer than dirt.
Basically, the plot setup is just an excuse for the two daughters of the guy killed by Deputy Frank at the beginning of the movie (Dixie and Patsy) to steal motorcycles and guns from Dade's stores and start up a crime rampage aimed solely at Dade's assets. They hold up his grocery stores. They blow up his moonshine stills. They even hatch a plot to take down his bank. They kick major ass, and get away scot free. Fun!
I do have to note that the entire movie takes place in that nonexistent rural Georgia county where only poor white people live. Except for the "Hard Times, USA" montage when Dixie and Patsy look for work in The Unnamed Big City, everybody in the film is white. Of course, on the inside, everybody's the same color when they crash their car and die in a fiery explosion.
It's a PG-rated movie, so the nudity is minimal (although not entirely absent), but there are plenty of explosions and car chases. Well-done car chases.
In fact, the movie starts out with a car chase where it seems like they drive through half of rural Georgia in order to find a fruit stand to crash through, then they explore the other half to find a stack of crates (with chickens inside) to burst through. It ends with the hot-headed Deputy Frank shooting out the rear tire of the lead car, which careens out of control off a bridge and down an incline -- where it comes to rest on its roof, then explodes.
The plot involves an evil rich guy (how evil? he's named Dade McCrutchen) taking over the town's bank and foreclosing on family homes and farms. He's doing this because he (somehow) knows there are natural gas deposits under the county. He shows up at foreclosure auctions and bids exactly the amount of equity that the bank needs to get out of the house -- which he knows because he owns the bank. Conflict of interest? Mmmmmaybe. Everybody knows he's up to no good, but there isn't anything that anybody can do, since he's rich, and everybody else in the entire film is poorer than dirt.
Basically, the plot setup is just an excuse for the two daughters of the guy killed by Deputy Frank at the beginning of the movie (Dixie and Patsy) to steal motorcycles and guns from Dade's stores and start up a crime rampage aimed solely at Dade's assets. They hold up his grocery stores. They blow up his moonshine stills. They even hatch a plot to take down his bank. They kick major ass, and get away scot free. Fun!
I do have to note that the entire movie takes place in that nonexistent rural Georgia county where only poor white people live. Except for the "Hard Times, USA" montage when Dixie and Patsy look for work in The Unnamed Big City, everybody in the film is white. Of course, on the inside, everybody's the same color when they crash their car and die in a fiery explosion.
Kevin Hogan
Lee Frost
Christopher George
