The TV original of the Dukes of Hazzard went for 147 episodes and ran from 1979 to 1985. It was simple and fun American TV and relied on a fast orange Charger doing endless burnouts, slides, and jumps as well as a classic American bombshell in short shorts (Catherine Bach) supported by a number of Southern rednecks in a plethora of silly plots. It was the Beverly Hill Billies for car nuts. In fact the General Lee was the most famous member of the cast.

 

The General Lee is a 1969 Dodge Charger 500, a true "muscle car" set-up for NASCAR racing, and moonshine running. It has a 01 painted on the side, was named “The General”, after the one and only General Robert E. Lee. The General always outran the local law, delivering its contraband moonshine to thirsty buyers in the remote badlands of Georgia.

 

 

Just like the original John Schneider and Tom Wopat series, this film focuses on two carefree good-ol-boys, Bo and Luke Duke (Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville), who with their confederate-flag emblazoned orange hot rod stay one step ahead of the local Hazzard County law.

 

However, after a planted still sees the family farm seized by Boss Hog, played by Burt Reynolds, the boys step up from selling bottles of Moonshine with their Uncle Jesse, played by Willie Nelson, to robbing the site office safe of one Boss Hogg, the corrupt official who plans to strip-mine the county. The situation gets a little complicated, and the county roads are going to get a lot more hazardous as a result.

 

Seann and Johnny fill the shoes of their TV counterparts reasonably well, and certainly seem to have fun doing it, but it’s the long legged Jessica Simpson, who plays it up in the role of the cousin’s hotter-than-a-hemi Daisy Duke, that we will most remember. Jessica plays the luscious Daisy well, and by golly, her shorts fit her very well. This part is going to set her fame soaring.

 

The first hour of the film is set in Hazzard County, a backwater of Georgia that seems to lack any black people. Bo and Luke Duke are cousins who are closer than brothers (Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville), who deliver their Uncle Jesse’s (Willie Nelson) moonshine managing to elude the local incompetent cops led by Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (M.C. Gainey). The corrupt local politician, Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds), dressed in signature white suit and hat, plans their downfall.

 

 

Bo and Luke drive to Atlanta to be with the core samples recovered from the liberated safe to discover Boss Hogg's plot. In transit they are abused by some and cheered by others for having the politically incorrect Confederate flag on their roof. "Hey, you're late for your Klan meeting," from one black woman in an adjacent car. While a truck driver cheers them with “May the South rise again brothers!”

 

 

They pick up two beauties from a college dorm, one an old flame, the other an Aussie, who suggests the geology lab could help. Bo and Luke are accidentally covered in soot at the geology lab while impersonating Japanese professors to find out the samples are coal. And of course they work out Hogs strip mining plan.

 

Leaving town, they are spotted by a black street gang that don't much like their blacked-up faces and rebel flagged General Lee. "Why don't you two hillbillies join us out here," one gangster suggests. "Actually, we prefer Appalachian Americans," says Knoxville, in one of the funniest lines in the show.

It’s clear this scene is planned to get to this line. It shows us that the Dukes have come a long way, in their cultural evolution, from the good ol' boys of the TV show. When you have a director named Jay Chandrasekhar, I don’t think this is surprising.

Daisy Duke makes good use of those skimpy shorts, and though not required to do much she pouts, poses, flashes the whitest teeth in America, takes off her shirt and models a bikini to help the boys win the day. Each scene for her is a set-up to make her look like a bimbo, except her introduction, where she kicks the butt of a guy who assumes she is just that and then insults her womanhood. Perhaps we’ll see her in a Xena remake; it seems Daisy has discovered her inner warrior.

 

They save the day in the end by getting everyone to the court house on time. Boss Hog’s caddy is a little worse for wear in the process.

           

 

The Dukes of Hazzard is made up of three key elements: car chases, Daisy flashes and comic skits for Bo and Luke. These are hit and miss, but funnier than I remember in the original show.

The General Lee gives the film's best performances. Breathtaking stunts and jumps that just go on and on and on. This film could rival the original Gone in 60 Seconds for total car time on film, but it is certainly not monotonous, with one jump eluding the police onto the freeway bettering Eleanor’s bridge jump in the remake

Unfortunately the director seems to lose his way when there are no jokes and he has no idea of how to use the great line-up of his actors in the film. Willie Nelson is reduced to telling stupid jokes as he has nothing else to play and Burt Reynolds, who is one of the most natural funny-men of his era, has to leave the comedy to his white suit. Lucky for Mopar fans the General, with no lines to read, gives the film's best performance.

 

 

If you want to test the brain cells then The Dukes of Hazzard will not be for you. If you love good old fashioned car chases, no plot and a big helping of fun then you will definitely enjoy the movie. Don’t expect a brilliantly crafted plot or you will be very disappointed. But you know, as I recall, there was rarely a fetching plot in the original television series.

 

 

 

While Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott portray cousins Bo and Luke Duke well enough, it is the General Lee that is the star of this tale and the character with the most screen time. Of the cousins Johnny Knoxville is refreshingly charismatic as Luke, the brains of the two, but that is not saying much, and Sean William's Scott lays the American Pie dumb blonde on a bit too thickly to be believed.