Dir.
Jay Chandrasekhar, US, 2005, 104 mins
Cast:
Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds
Thankfully I never saw the eighties American television series of the same name, on which this film is based. Far from being peers of the realm, the Dukes of the title are two cousins, Bo (Seann William Scott) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville), who share that surname - "fun lovin', fastdrivin', good ol' boys", as they like to be termed, with a limited vocabulary largely dominated by shouts of "Yeeeeee" and "Haaaaawww". It is all good old fashioned Southern Dixie humour, if you like that sort of thing, as they charge round their bible belt homeland of Hazzard County, Georgia, in their old banger "General Lee", reverently described by Hazzard fans as "the infamous 1969 orange Dodge Charger", delivering the moonshine liquor brewed up by Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), doing their best to seduce the local lasses, while avoiding the shotguns of the girls' protective male relatives and downing cold beers in the local bar, where their cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) works.
Despite her micro hot pants, Daisy is the only lass whose virtue is never in danger. This is a girl who knows how to protect herself from lustful customers with a well-aimed kick, being a chip off the Duke block, as she is. The plot, what little there is, concerns corrupt local bigwig Boss Hogg, played by white-haired Burt Reynolds in a white suit, white hat and white shoes, white obviously being the new colour for evil. With the help of the equally corrupt local sheriff, he is seizing all the small farmers' land for a nefarious purpose of his own, and it is up to the Duke boys to stop him by winning a car race against Hogg's contender.
It is very much a boys' film. There is a goodly helping of fisticuffs and a lot of cars get bashed up and go flying through the air in slow motion - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang eat your heart out. It is also very noisy and everyone shouts a lot, making the dialogue difficult to hear. And most of the supporting characters look like they never wash or change their underwear and eat a very poor diet, composed mainly of cheap hamburgers. It is also not very funny. Both Knoxville and Scott have done better work than this. Here they make the best of a bad job. Despite her too perfect teeth, Simpson is rather cute as Daisy, and Nelson is fun as Uncle Jesse, though sadly he only gets to sing one song, which is a bit of a waste of a great country and western singer.
Unfortunately the film just confirms one's worst prejudices about Southern redneck lifestyle. Bill Garber, the producer, has been quoted as saying he "was searching for a project that really captured the American spirit". If that is what he has found, God help America . If Bo and Luke behaved like that over here, they'd very soon find themselves the subject of ASBOS.
Carol Allen
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