The Dukes of Hazzard Release Date: August 5, 2005 Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar
PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 8/5/05)
Who put the Confederate flag on the roof of the General Lee and what's it doing there? That's the big mystery of the Dukes of Hazzard movie, a high-octane hixploitation romp that feels like a tribute film made by college fratboys (thus making it more fun and more faithful than Hollywood's usual TV-to-big-screen transfers). In the 1979 TV series, moonshine-running Georgia cousins Bo and Luke Duke were Southern boys through and through, so the blazing orange car and flag made a statement that was less a reflection of their stance on slavery than in was a symbol of their rebel pride.
Director Jay Chandrasekhar and his Broken Lizard comedy troupe skillfully manage to adapt some key details of the show — namely, the high-flying car chases and hillbilly narration ("We prefer Appalachian-Americans," says Luke, taking one the movie’s many stabs at political correctness). And after stunt-casting the lead roles, Chandrasekhar, to the film’s benefit, hands out the remaining parts to his Super Troopers buddies, who substitute hornball stoner gags for the show's slapstick sense of humor.
But this is 2005, and the Confederate flag just doesn't fly any more. Unfortunately, Scott and Knoxville (Bo and Luke, respectively), play the law-bending buddies a bit on the dim side, so much so that when Cooter (Anchorman’s David Koechner) adds a rebel flag to their Dodge Charger, the Dukes are too busy fooling with the car's new horn to understand why angry big-city drivers are yelling, "You're late for your Klan meeting!"
The movie's point seems to be that the Duke boys aren't so bad. After all, they didn't ask to have the Confederate flag painted on their car (although they did name it "the General Lee" and they seem plenty satisfied honking "Dixie" as they drive). But how do you explain the scene where the Duke boys (in blackface) pull up alongside a bunch of angry African-Americans?
Dukes takes much the same stance on 21st-century feminism as it does on p.c. mores. Early on, Daisy correctly predicts that her cousins are just going to get in trouble, wind up in jail, and she's "gonna have to shake my ass to get 'em out". But such self-awareness doesn't make the eventual ass-shaking any less degrading when it arrives.—Peter Debruge
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