Since his days as a native American detective on TV ("Hawk" was it?),I've admired Burt Reynolds'refusal to take himself too seriously and to treat most of his movies as the larks they were. It may not have gained him too many friends amongst the po-faced critics,but its put a lot of bums on seats for a lot of years.He has a serious side(Director and star of the marvellous "Sharky's Machine")but can generally be relied on to get you onside by the force of his innate good nature."W.W. and the dixie dance kings"is a splendid Country and Western that doesn't take itself at all seriously and everybody involved has a really great time.Burt plays a good ol' boy petrol station robber who gets involved with a C&W band,we get a chance to see the considerable blues artist Mr Furry Lewis,and Burt wears some really cool cowboy boots throughout.It has absolutely no pretensions to be anything other than a nifty piece of entertainment.Unlike "o brother where art thou?" it does not set out to be art(an irony in itself because in Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" the whole point is that the film within a film called "o brother where art thou?" is junked by it's creator for being pretentious),and the music is better. George Clooney's career could be said to be shadowing that of Mr Rerynolds,he certainly shares his ability to make difficult things look natural and easy,and his charm and comic timing.He has also turned his hand quite successfully to directing.I've got a feeling Burt would have turned down "From dusk till dawn "though .
Review of W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings
