The Dukes of Hazzard (film)

The Dukes of Hazzard is a 2005 American action comedy road film loosely based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and released on August 5, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures. As in the television series, the film depicts the adventures of cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy, and their Uncle Jesse, as they outfox crooked Hazzard County Commissioner Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.

The Dukes of Hazzard
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJay Chandrasekhar
Produced byBill Gerber
Screenplay byJohn O'Brien
Story by
  • John O'Brien
  • Jonathan L. Davis
Based onCharacters
by Gy Waldron
Starring
Music byNathan Barr
CinematographyLawrence Sher
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • August 5, 2005 (2005-08-05)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$53 million[1]
Box office$109.8 million[1]

The film was the acting debut of pop singer Jessica Simpson. While financially successful, the film met with massive negative reviews from critics. The film was followed by a direct-to-video prequel titled The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007).

Plot

Cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy Duke run a moonshine business for their Uncle Jesse in Hazzard County, Georgia. The cousins' primary mode of transportation is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger that the boys affectionately refer to as the "General Lee". Along the way, the family is tormented by corrupt Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis Hogg, widely known as "Boss Hogg", and his willing but dimwitted henchman, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.

After Rosco has the General Lee impounded after Bo and Luke's attempt to run away from a daughter of one their many moonshine customers, Billy Prickett, a famous stock-car driver, enters Hazzard to participate in the rally. Meanwhile, Rosco plants a fake moonshine still ("'cause he's too dumb to find the real one") in Uncle Jesse's barn and seizes the Duke property in the interest of eminent domain for Boss Hogg, forcing the family to temporarily reside with neighbor and Uncle Jesse's love-interest, Pauline. Pauline informs the Dukes that Rosco seized another farm on charges, so Bo and Luke investigate a local construction site and find geologic core samples with the help of bait-shop owner Sheev. Meanwhile, Coltrane makes arrangements to seize the General Lee as "evidence" from the local auto body shop run by the Dukes' friend Cooter Davenport, who instead turns the car into a hot rod and applies a new paint job and horn, in return for finally getting payment for all the work he has done ("...'cause that's how this works...") for the boys in the past.

Sheriff's car at location in Thousand Oaks, California

After retrieving the General Lee before Rosco can, the Dukes go to Atlanta to visit a local university geology lab, meeting with Katie-Lynn Johnson, a Hazzard county girl and the Duke boys' love interest, and her Australian roommate Annette. At the lab, they discover Boss Hogg's intentions of turning the county into a strip coal mine. They are later arrested by the Atlanta Police Department after running from campus police. Back in Hazzard, Daisy learns, with the help of Sheriff's Deputy Enos Strate, that Billy Prickett has been hired by Boss Hogg to participate in the rally as a ringer. Boss Hogg then heads to Atlanta, where he informs the Duke boys, in lock-up, that they are too late to stop him and reveals that the vote on Hogg's proposition is at the same time as the rally, explaining Billy Prickett's involvement. During a transfer from detainment, Daisy helps the boys escape from the patrol car, and they speed home to try to inform the townsfolk, escaping the Atlanta Police, and the Georgia State Patrol after Bo outmaneuvers the city cops (who's furious at Luke after finding out that he and Katie-Lynn snuck up into the Dukes’ hayloft without him knowing about it).

Upon returning home, the Dukes discover that Boss Hogg and Rosco had taken Uncle Jesse and Pauline hostage, an obvious trap for the boys, and that Billy is in on the scheme because he is ashamed of the town's low status. The two race to the farmhouse to cause a distraction to the waiting Hazzard County Sheriff's deputies and Georgia State Troopers, while Daisy and Cooter rescue Jesse and Pauline. Meanwhile, the college girls head to the rally with Sheev to inform the townsfolk about the vote on the strip-mining ordinance. Because of Sheev's armadillo hat and lack of pants, no one listens to him, so Bo leaves for the rally while Luke and Jesse team up to foil the county and state police who are chasing Bo, interfering with the race. Upon crossing the finish line first, before Billy, the two continue racing across town, leading the townsfolk to the courthouse just in time to vote against Boss Hogg's proposed ordinance. At the courthouse, Daisy takes advantage of the governor of Georgia's presence and TV cameras to convince him to pardoning the boys, so Uncle Jesse takes the opportunity to knock out Boss Hogg and gets a pardon for assaulting a county commissioner at the same time.

The final scene shows a cook-out at the Dukes' house where Pauline convinces Uncle Jesse, who could not be found because he was "using the meat smoker", to get up and play the television series' main theme. Bo and Luke are romantically involved with the girls in the General Lee when they are caught by Luke's other love-interest Laurie Pullman from the introduction of the film, who proceeds to chase them with a shotgun as they drive away.

Cast
Knoxville and Scott at the premiere

Cameos

All five members of the comedy film troupe Broken Lizard make appearances in the film, classified as cameos, except for Kevin Heffernan, who had a larger speaking role (Sheev).

Broken Lizard cameos
  • Steve Lemme appears as Jimmy Pullman, the son of Bill Pullman, in an early car chase scene in which he accidentally shoots the inside of his father's truck.
  • Jay Chandrasekhar and Erik Stolhanske reprise their roles as Ramathorn and Rabbit from the Broken Lizard comedy, Super Troopers. The characters are now campus police officers, who give a warning to the Duke boys for driving too slowly.
  • Paul Soter appears as TV newsman Rick Shakely, who is reporting from the Hazzard Road Rally.
  • Charlie Finn, who played a dimwitted fast-food employee in Super Troopers, appears as a dimwitted geology student who assists the Duke boys with the coal samples.
Other notable cameos
  • During the bar-fight scene, Indy-car driver A. J. Foyt IV appears as himself.
  • Bloopers roll under the ending credits, one of which features Rip Taylor interrupting the bedroom scene with Luke and the two college girls. Taylor had previously appeared with Knoxville in Jackass: The Movie.
Note

Tom Wopat, John Schneider, Catherine Bach, Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer - who starred together in the TV series - were offered walk-on roles in the movie. All had passed, because they hated the script.

Production

Stunts

Knoxville said he was initially reluctant to take on the role, but was persuaded by script changes and the presence of Dan Bradley as stunt coordinator and second unit for the car chase scenes. Knoxville praised him, saying, "everyone in Hollywood wants Dan Bradley to shoot their car stuff".[2]

Locations

The majority of the film was shot in and around Clinton, Louisiana. The street scenes are set in Atlanta, but filmed in the New Orleans Central Business District, and the university scenes were shot on the campus of Louisiana State University.

Reception

Box office

The film was number one at the box office its opening weekend and grossed $30.7 million on 3,785 screens. It also had an adjusted-dollar rank of number 24 all-time for August releases.[3] The film eventually collected $109.8 million worldwide, although it was much less successful financially outside the United States.[1]

Critical reception

Roger Ebert gave the film one star, calling it a "lame-brained, outdated wheeze" and wondered if Burt Reynolds' part in the film is "karma-wise... the second half of what Smokey and the Bandit was the first half of".[4] Ebert also named it the second-worst film of the year and Richard Roeper named it the worst film of 2005.[5]

According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 14% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 168 reviews; the website's consensus called the film "A dumb, goofy, and vacuous adaptation of a TV show where plot is simply an excuse to string together the car chases." The film received an average rating of 33% on Metacritic based on 36 reviews, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews."[6] Longtime fans of the original Dukes of Hazzard series were generally disappointed by the film.[7]

Awards

At the 26th Golden Raspberry Awards, the film received seven nominations, but did not win any.

At the People's Choice Awards, Simpson won the "Favorite Song from a Movie" award for her cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

The film was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards, including Best On-Screen Team (Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, and Jessica Simpson), and Sexiest Performance (Jessica Simpson).

Simpson won the Choice Breakout Female award for her role in the film at the Teen Choice Awards.

Controversy

Before the release of this film, Warner Bros. reportedly paid $17.5 million to the producer of Moonrunners, the movie that inspired the television series. This was soon followed by a claim from screenwriter Gy Waldron. The Hollywood Reporter reported that James Best, who portrayed Rosco P. Coltrane in the original series, filed suit in late July 2011 over royalties he was contracted to receive over spinoffs that "used his identity".[8] Ben Jones, who played Cooter Davenport in the original series, criticized the film for its emphasis on sexual content, suggesting that the original series was more family-oriented and not as sexualized.[9] He called for fans of the television series to boycott the film "unless they clean it up before the August 5th release date."

Some have countered that the original series also contained sexual themes, primarily Catherine Bach's (Daisy Duke) much-displayed "short shorts" (which have become so ubiquitous in American culture that skimpy blue jean cutoff shorts are now often simply called "Daisy Dukes"). In a film review, a New York Daily News entertainment columnist said the movie's sex humor is "cruder" than the TV series, but that it is "nearly identical to the TV series in... its ogling of the posterior of cousin Daisy Duke."[10]

Although initially he commented that he enjoyed the new style of relationship between the movie versions of Bo and Luke, John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the original series, was later asked if he saw the film and said: "My gosh... it was terrible! It wasn’t Dukes. It was true to whatever it was; I just don’t know what that was!"[11]

Soundtrack

Main article: These Boots Are Made for Walkin' § Jessica Simpson version

Jessica Simpson recorded her own version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (and added her own lyrics) for the soundtrack to the film The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). Performed from the point of view of her character in the movie, Simpson's cover was co-produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and was released as the soundtrack's first single in 2005. It became Simpson's fifth top-20 single in the United States and its music video drew some controversy because of its sexual imagery.[12] Both the original Ram Jam version of "Black Betty", and the Sylvia Massy produced remake by Spiderbait appear in the film. "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" and "Shoot to Thrill" are played by AC/DC.[13]

Unrated cut

An unrated cut restored changes made to get a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. The unrated cut was released on DVD, and included rated and unrated bonus features, including unrated deleted scenes and blooper scenes. This edition was not rated by the MPAA, and contained additional nudity, language, and violent driving stunts.[14]

Prequel

A prequel to the film, titled The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, was released to television on March 4, 2007, and released to DVD on March 13, 2007.

References
  1. "The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)". The Numbers. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  2. "Johnny Knoxville interview for Dukes Of Hazzard". Moviehole.net. 2007-12-28. Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  3. "Top August Opening Weekends at the Box Office". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  4. Roger Ebert Reviews The Dukes of Hazzard
  5. "Ebert and Roeper's Worst of 2005". Rope Of Silicon.com.
  6. "Dukes of Hazzard, The (2005): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2012-05-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "'Dukes of Hazzard' Sheriff Sues Warner Bros. for Millions in Royalties". The Hollywood Reporter. 2011-08-02. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  9. Dukes of Hazzard, Cooter’s Place, archived from the original on 2005-07-16
  10. "'Dukes' is General-Lee bad.", NY Daily News, August 5, 2005, archived from the original on 2005-10-30, retrieved 1 September 2009
  11. Exclusive Interview: John Schneider, Moviehole, 2007-12-28, archived from the original on 2007-12-28
  12. "Jessica Simpson: Singles Chart History". billboard.com. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  13. "Jessica Simpson kicks off People's Choice Awards". www.usatoday.com. January 5, 2006. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  14. Wurm, Gerald. "Dukes of Hazzard, The (Comparison: Theatrical Cut - Unrated Edition)". www.movie-censorship.com.
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