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Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema
While the pimps and players of blaxploitation movies dominated inner-city theaters, good old boys with muscle under their hoods and moonshine in their trunks roared onto drive-in screens throughout rural America. The popularity of these "hick flicks" grew throughout the '70s, and they attained mass acceptance with the 1977 release of Smokey and the Bandit. It marked the heyday of these regional favorites, but within a few short years, changing economic realities within the movie business and the collapse of the drive-in market would effectively spell the end of the so-called hixploitation genre. This comprehensive study of the hixploitation genre is the first of its kind. Chapters are divided into three major topics. Part One deals with "good ol' boys," from redneck sheriffs, to moonshiners, to honky-tonk heroes and beyond. Part Two explores road movies, featuring back-road racers, truckers and everything in between. Part Three, "In the Woods," covers movies about all manner of beasts--some of them human--populating the swamps and woodlands of rural America. Film stills are included, and an afterword examines both the decline and metamorphosis of the genre. A filmography, bibliography and index accompany the text.
- GenresFilm
232 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
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About the author
Scott Von Doviak
9 books127 followersI am the author of three books on film and pop culture: Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema, If You Like The Terminator, and Stephen King Films FAQ. I have been a freelance writer for more than two decades, including stints as a film critic for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and television reviewing for The Onion's AV Club. My debut novel Charlesgate Confidential was called "terrific" by Stephen King and named one of the top 10 crime novels of 2018. My 70's set thriller Lowdown Road will be published in July 2023 by Hard Case Crime, I live in Austin, Texas with my wife Robin and our pets Sully and Chloe.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2021
This is an amusing account of the major actors, directors, producers, cultural figures and their cinematic creations which contributed to the rise of the redneck as an important figure that dominated the American psyche during the second half of the 20th century, but especially during the 1970s. Back in the 70s, there was no monoculture in America. Mainstream Hollywood did not have its clutches over the whole country unlike say a decade ago. Small time filmmakers could mint millions from these films which were made at very low costs and shown at drive-ins in rural America.
The tone of the book is a bit confrontational. Early on in the book, the author expresses his grouse with mainstream Hollywood's portrayal of rednecks and especially Southern sheriffs. He calls out "limp noodle Hollywood social issues pictures" like Mississippi Burning and wonders why big city cops like the ones in French Connection are portrayed in a positive manner while Southern sheriffs are always portrayed as goofy or pure evil. It is not exactly a revisionist history of American cinema. Often, I felt like Von Doviak wished all these low-budget hick flicks that he waded through to write this book were a lot better. He is quite candid about their quality - "Let’s be clear: very few of these movies are great films. Frankly, some of them are downright unwatchable. But the best of them exert a primal power, tapping into a recent past all but obliterated by Wal-Marts and strip malls."
He names White Lightning as the quintessential Redneck film while also examining prototype movies like Mitchum's Thunder Road, the well known classics like Deliverance, Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit, some of the lost classics -Jonahan Demme's Citizen's Band and downright unwatchable films of this genre. He delves into the genres obsession with car chases, moonshiners and also writes about the sub-genres. I have been interested in redneck films and culture ever since I watched Rob Zombie's The Devils Rejects. One of the interesting aspects of the internet is that it has weakened mainstream media and Hollywood's grip over American culture and the rest of the world. Look at the rise of Joe Rogan and Bill Burr. Today, even people in Asian countries with large internet populations look upto Youtube podcasters rather than mainstream American commentators. Scott Von Doviak, who published this book in 2005, must have realized the potential of the internet to tell stories about the forgotten legends (???) of American redneck cinema who were deliberately obscured by American/Hollywood cultural elites. I really enjoyed reading this and intend to seek out some of the obscure films reviewed by Von Doviak in this book. Maybe books like this would encourage young Americans to make some damn good redneck films. I mean, everyone is a bit disappointed by American commercial and even independent films these days.
The tone of the book is a bit confrontational. Early on in the book, the author expresses his grouse with mainstream Hollywood's portrayal of rednecks and especially Southern sheriffs. He calls out "limp noodle Hollywood social issues pictures" like Mississippi Burning and wonders why big city cops like the ones in French Connection are portrayed in a positive manner while Southern sheriffs are always portrayed as goofy or pure evil. It is not exactly a revisionist history of American cinema. Often, I felt like Von Doviak wished all these low-budget hick flicks that he waded through to write this book were a lot better. He is quite candid about their quality - "Let’s be clear: very few of these movies are great films. Frankly, some of them are downright unwatchable. But the best of them exert a primal power, tapping into a recent past all but obliterated by Wal-Marts and strip malls."
He names White Lightning as the quintessential Redneck film while also examining prototype movies like Mitchum's Thunder Road, the well known classics like Deliverance, Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit, some of the lost classics -Jonahan Demme's Citizen's Band and downright unwatchable films of this genre. He delves into the genres obsession with car chases, moonshiners and also writes about the sub-genres. I have been interested in redneck films and culture ever since I watched Rob Zombie's The Devils Rejects. One of the interesting aspects of the internet is that it has weakened mainstream media and Hollywood's grip over American culture and the rest of the world. Look at the rise of Joe Rogan and Bill Burr. Today, even people in Asian countries with large internet populations look upto Youtube podcasters rather than mainstream American commentators. Scott Von Doviak, who published this book in 2005, must have realized the potential of the internet to tell stories about the forgotten legends (???) of American redneck cinema who were deliberately obscured by American/Hollywood cultural elites. I really enjoyed reading this and intend to seek out some of the obscure films reviewed by Von Doviak in this book. Maybe books like this would encourage young Americans to make some damn good redneck films. I mean, everyone is a bit disappointed by American commercial and even independent films these days.
July 13, 2021
If you had made Burt Reynolds's choices in 1976, would you have made Burt Reynolds's choices? How about Ned Beatty's? If Claudia Jennings had lived, would the GATOR BAIT star have achieved her dream of appearing in "respectable" movies and TV, and did she have what it takes to succeed? Are redneck movies, as some have claimed, the new Westerns? OK, but what IF Sasquatch was real? Could you spend twenty-four straight hours watching Grade Z hillbilly horror movies, as author Scott Von Doviak did, without being psychologically damaged, as author Scott Von Doviak may well have been?
These and many other questions will pleasantly splatter the inside of your skull like so many cheap blood squibs after reading HICK FLICKS, and as a dedicated student of all things 1970s — unquestionably the high point of drive-in-movie culture in America — I eagerly snarfed it up like so many 7-Eleven Slim Jims. Some of the movies von Doviak describes will be well known to you (DELIVERANCE) but most you'll have little more than a passing acquaintance with, and, well ... pleased to make your acquaintance.
For all the sleazy, bloody, breast-y exploitation to be found on screen in movies like MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS, there was a peeling innocence to the times of the "regional hit," when a huckster producer with bad taste and barely enough cash could turn an incompetently written and executed piece of dreck into a multi-million-dollar hit that inevitably spawned a lot of worse sequels, and still tap into something folkloric and true and resonant about a certain time and place in America, when regional flavor was strong and uncut by the Internet and other forms of instant mass distribution and saturation.
As Von Doviak, heart in cheek, put it: "This is the common thread that unites movies about truckers and moonshiners and country singers and Bigfoot hunters: together they form a patchwork quilt of rural Americana. Let's be clear: very few of these movies are great films. Frankly, some of them are downright unwatchable. But the best of them exert a primal power, tapping into a recent past all but obliterated by Walmarts and strip malls." I miss that America, badly, and was glad HICK FLICKS gave me a fresh glimpse into a time and place I love like no other.
These and many other questions will pleasantly splatter the inside of your skull like so many cheap blood squibs after reading HICK FLICKS, and as a dedicated student of all things 1970s — unquestionably the high point of drive-in-movie culture in America — I eagerly snarfed it up like so many 7-Eleven Slim Jims. Some of the movies von Doviak describes will be well known to you (DELIVERANCE) but most you'll have little more than a passing acquaintance with, and, well ... pleased to make your acquaintance.
For all the sleazy, bloody, breast-y exploitation to be found on screen in movies like MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS, there was a peeling innocence to the times of the "regional hit," when a huckster producer with bad taste and barely enough cash could turn an incompetently written and executed piece of dreck into a multi-million-dollar hit that inevitably spawned a lot of worse sequels, and still tap into something folkloric and true and resonant about a certain time and place in America, when regional flavor was strong and uncut by the Internet and other forms of instant mass distribution and saturation.
As Von Doviak, heart in cheek, put it: "This is the common thread that unites movies about truckers and moonshiners and country singers and Bigfoot hunters: together they form a patchwork quilt of rural Americana. Let's be clear: very few of these movies are great films. Frankly, some of them are downright unwatchable. But the best of them exert a primal power, tapping into a recent past all but obliterated by Walmarts and strip malls." I miss that America, badly, and was glad HICK FLICKS gave me a fresh glimpse into a time and place I love like no other.
June 8, 2008
My pal Scott von Doviak wrote this very fine book on on-screen hillbillyism. I am withholding a fifth star until he buys me a beer.
June 28, 2018
A comprehensive look at so-called "hixploitation" films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s (circa 2004). It misses the rise in neo-redneck horror, such as Wrong Turn and the Rob Zombie ouvere (the man is OBSESSED with this trope), but otherwise it is all here; Moonshiners, corrupt cops, sexy farmers daughters, incestuous families, truckers, NASCAR flicks, country music flicks, cannibal rednecks, and more!
Along the way we encounter such auteurs as Hershall Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman, Hal Needham, Sam Peckinpah, and Ron Ormond, along with actors like Burt Reynolds (of course), Slim Pickens, the Carradines, Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw, and the incomparably beautiful Claudia Jennings, Queen of these types of pictures.
If you prefer documentaries, don't worry - there's even some Bigfoot documentaries here!
Other exploitation genres such as blaxploitation, slashers, kung-fu flicks, European sexploitation horror, etc. have been researched obsessively but this is the only book I know about hixploitation.
A couple minor complaints - the final chapter on horror starts well, but ends with random thoughts while binging movies, providing little of the witty commentary and research in the other chapters, I question the inclusion of the Paradise Lost docs as modern hixploitation, and there's no mention of The Legend of Hillbilly John, one of my favourites in this genre.
These are quibbles, though. Check it out!
Along the way we encounter such auteurs as Hershall Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman, Hal Needham, Sam Peckinpah, and Ron Ormond, along with actors like Burt Reynolds (of course), Slim Pickens, the Carradines, Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw, and the incomparably beautiful Claudia Jennings, Queen of these types of pictures.
If you prefer documentaries, don't worry - there's even some Bigfoot documentaries here!
Other exploitation genres such as blaxploitation, slashers, kung-fu flicks, European sexploitation horror, etc. have been researched obsessively but this is the only book I know about hixploitation.
A couple minor complaints - the final chapter on horror starts well, but ends with random thoughts while binging movies, providing little of the witty commentary and research in the other chapters, I question the inclusion of the Paradise Lost docs as modern hixploitation, and there's no mention of The Legend of Hillbilly John, one of my favourites in this genre.
These are quibbles, though. Check it out!
January 24, 2011
Fun book about the many subsets of the hick flick genre, written by a guy who clearly loves bad movies the way they should be loved.
Plus, any book where I get mentioned by name (page 185) automatically earns my appreciation...
Plus, any book where I get mentioned by name (page 185) automatically earns my appreciation...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews