Steven Spielberg is often regarded as one of the all-time greatest filmmakers because of his consistency. Although some great artists “peak” at some point during their careers, Spielberg continues to churn out new classics well into the twilight years of his time in the industry. Some of his films are better than others, but there is not a single film that Spielberg directed that did not feel like a personal passion project that he was invested in telling. Spielberg’s natural ability to find compelling stories was evident from the beginning of his career, as he started lining up opportunities as soon as he directed the made-for-television film Duel in 1971. However, Spielberg’s career would have been radically different if he had agreed to direct the Burt Reynolds action thriller White Lightning.
Steven Spielberg Stepped Away From ‘White Lightning’
White Lightning was a car chase thriller in which Reynolds starred as the formerly incarcerated criminal Gator McKlusky. The story shows McKlusky recruited by the United States Treasury Department and assigned to track down a corrupt local sheriff who is embezzling funds. Shot on location in Arkansas, White Lightning was intended to be a major turning point in Reynolds’ career and inspired a subgenre of southern action thrillers. Spielberg’s work on Duel had impressed United Artists, and he worked on the film for almost three months. However, Spielberg eventually withdrew from the project because he didn’t want to start his career “as a hard-hat, journeyman director” and sought to make something that felt “more personal.” Spielberg worried that his identity would not come across within White Lightning. Joseph Sargent replaced Spielberg on the project. A box office hit, White Lighting became successful enough that Reynolds reprised his role in the sequel Gator, which he also directed.
Turning down the opportunity to work with a star on the level of Reynolds was certainly risky, particularly for a relatively unknown filmmaker like Spielberg at the time. However, Spielberg made the right decision to turn down White Lighting because he instead directed The Sugarland Express, another car chase thriller set in the Deep South. While The Sugarland Express was less comical than White Lightning, it showed the depth of emotion Spielberg brought to the screen and is considered one of the major works within the “New Hollywood” movement that grew more prominent in the 1970s. Reynolds was a movie star interested in protecting his image, but Spielberg was able to inspire more naturalistic performances out of Goldie Hawn and William Atherton. The Sugarland Express was certainly not a box office smash hit at the time in the same way that White Lightning was, but it did indicate a talent on Spielberg’s part that eventually gave him the capacity to acquire the rights to make Jaws.
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‘White Lightning’ Is Fun, but Not a Classic
White Lightning would have been better if Spielberg directed it, as the film’s car chases lack the energy and momentum that made classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Empire of the Sun so beloved. Even when compared to Speilberg’s work on Duel, which had a considerably lower budget, White Lightning does not hold up in terms of practicality or the consistency of suspense. That said, White Lightning was never intended to be an ambitious film in the way that Spielberg wanted, so it is probably for the best that he stepped away. The film’s real goal was to showcase Reynolds’ dynamic personality, and it did help him establish himself as one of the definitive action stars of his generation.
Although it certainly lacks the cultural longevity of The Sugarland Express, White Lightning is still a cult classic that is referenced today and has been the subject of a particularly amusing recurring joke on the comedy series Archer. Quentin Tarantino has also used segments of the soundtrack in the Kill Bill films, as the score by Charles Bernstein is regarded as one of his best. While Sargent is certainly not a filmmaker of the caliber of Spielberg, the opportunity he was granted by directing White Lightning allowed him to have a very respectable career making action-packed genre movies.
White Lightning
- Release Date
-
August 6, 1973
- Director
-
Joseph Sargent
- Cast
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Burt Reynolds
, Jennifer Billingsley
, Ned Beatty
, Bo Hopkins
, Matt Clark
, Louise Latham
, Diane Ladd
, R.G. Armstrong
, Conlan Carter
, Dabbs Greer
, Lincoln Demyan
, John Steadman
, Iris Korn
, Stephanie Burchfield
, Barbara Müller
, Robert Ginnaven
, Fay Martin
, Richard Allin
, Bill Bond
, Sherry Boucher
, Glenn R. Wilder
, Dick Ziker
, Buddy Joe Hooker
, Cathy Finley
, Laura Dern - Runtime
-
101 minutes
- Writers
-
William W. Norton
- Producers
-
Arnold Laven
, Arthur Gardner
White Lightning is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S.
Watch on Prime Video
