MattShine

And how many times did Rich Sephton get mentioned in articles about the original show General's? Hell, I don't think that guy was even mentioned in the credits for the show, but we know he worked on it and built the wheel stander General. Just because something isn't mentioned doesn't mean it didn't happen. Matt

>>Liberals think the flag is racist because they have been brainwashed by the media. I'm a liberal who owns a General Lee with a Confederate flag on it. I don't think it's racist per say, but then I was never hurt or tortured while someone was saluting it either. If someone was, they would have a reason to hate that symbol. >>The Civil war was not fought over slavery. It was a fight of big government against local government. Big government won, and today we see the socialist effects of this. The government now regulates everything from private business to low flush toilets. The south should have won.<< Yes, you truely love your country. The same way Timothy McVeigh did. >>Lincoln invented the Emancipation Proclomation to make slavery an issue. In the Emancipation Proclomation, all slaves were freed, in the Confederate States. They were not freed in the neutral border states nor were they in the counties of the south that supported the Yankees. Lincoln's propoganda has worked so well that State's Rights is now thought of as Racist.<< Lincoln also brought forth the law so that they could free any run away slaves that had gone north only to be caught by the union army. Slavery was always a core issue and slavery is what prompted many of the southern states to secede from the US. >>Look at Strong Thermun. ( Was that right?) He was for states rights, and ran for president. After some politician said that the nation would have been better if he had won, during his retirement party, he was accused of being racist and had to resign.<< Strom Thurmond ran his presidental campaign not for states rights but for segregation. An actual quote is "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches." Lott said "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." Then leading Democrat Tom Daschle spoke out in defense of Lott saying that he really didn't believe Lott meant to sound racist. Lott CHOOSE to resign his leadership position and in fact other Republicans (like GW Bush) pressured him to do it. Had the Republican President stood up for Lott he might have survived. >>I personally think that the Cause is not gone, but is going to rise again. I am a Confederate. That is the only true patriotism, in the spirit of our Founders.<< That's funny. I always thought fighting FOR your country (not agianst it) was what it meant to be a patriot. The founders of America weren't perfect and they had some pretty outdated concepts on life. The purpose of the constitution was to set an ideal we can strive for. Slavery bigotry and such are anti-democracy and democracy is what is truely what our founders stood for (unless you're history book is different from mine). To be conservative is not automatically to be correct.

Well in 'The Usual Suspects' Verbal was telling the interrogator what he had been told of Keyser Soze. The cop asked him about Soze and Verbal said he didn't think they would ever see or hear from Soze again. Later he said that every now and again Soze would reemerge to do some buisness but would vanish into thin air. When he delivered the line Kevin Spacey (the actor) made the same motion SWS did in the movie. I agree with the above poster who thinks SWS just meant the girl Katie came around the farm and one day she vanished from Hazzard (probably off to college). Matt

I've met Travis before when he did a 'Return to Hazzard' in Cali and he was a really nice guy. He got me and the group I was with into places that we would have never gotten into by ourselves. Hell, at Warner Bros we saw 3 General Lee's (2 from the show and 1 from the second reunion). Travis and my brother Jim communicate a lot still. By the way, his statement "we built 26 for the movie" isn't to far off the mark. He worked extensively with Cinema Vehicle Services who provided the cars for the movie while they were building the cars before and during production. In fact, I vividly remember him calling Jim and I because he had the task of going out and sourcing the Vector rims all the Lee's had (which are not easy to find). Besides, how many regular fans get mentioned by John during the 'One Arm Bandits' commentary other than Travis? Matt

Okay, This is my first post on this site and I registered so I can give a review of this movie and this will probably be a longer review. Before I really get to the review, I should note some things beforehand. I really didn't want to this movie the day it opened (Friday Aug 5th) and it's not because I was afraid of being disappointed. You see, the entire first week of August, my brother Jim and I with a few other people were converting my 1969 Dodge Charger into (you guessed it) a General Lee. The day before the film was released we sprayed on the 1975 Corvette Flame Red (the exact color used in the show according to builder Rich Sephton) and on Friday we were horrified to see that CarQuest mixed up a dud batch which was to watered down. So, the car had to be wet sanded and repainted. After a soild week of ass busting labor and 12-13 hour days working on the car, this major disappointment caused us to finally take a day off and retakle the car Saturday. Why mention all of this? Well, I want you to know just how sick and tired I was with the General Lee, and the concept of FINALLY having an afternoon off only to see one 20 feet big was not appealing in the least. However, Jim and I have been fans of Dukes for over 20 years (I was born Jan 1980 so I literally grew up with them and Jim saw and remembers the Covington era Dukes) so when he asked to go I caved. Any... misgivings... I may have had towards the movie were blown out of the water. I loved it. It wasn't the show, but it didn't try to be the show. SWS and Knoxville didn't try to be John and Tom and I respected that. Don't get me wrong, I had some issues with the movie. I thought Jessica Simpson couldn't act but given the character written for Daisy I supposed she did her job. I would have been happy with a Mandy Moore type person, who looked a bit more than Catherine Bach and had some more acting chops under their belt. I think Burt Reynolds didn't know where to go with Boss Hogg and sometimes the way he comes across varies from scene to scene. MC Gainey was an interesting choice for Roscoe (given he was a villian on the show once) but I think he and the director intended to make this Roscoe a mean cop who really didn't care about anything other than maintaining his place at Hogg's side (and in his good graces) and on that they succeded. I was really hesistant about Willie Nelson as Jessie, but I think he did a more than passable job (for the short times he was shown). Denver Pyle ownes the nice fair benevolent Jessie Duke and I really believe if Nelson tried to be like that it would have fallen flat. The one liners were humous and added a bit of levity that didn't exist in the show. Cooter wasn't bad. He did his job and I coughed quite loudly at the concept of him rebuilding the General in the course of hours given my surrounding week of hard labor. I enjoyed Sheeve to. He may be a alum of Super Troopers (a movie I don't care for), but I think he played a good backwater paranoid schizo. SWS and Knoxville were in retrospect good choices for Bo and Luke. I liked that they were more like the Georgia era Bo and Luke rather than the live action cartoon most people seem to enjoy. In the movie, like in the Covington era, they made no bones about the fact the Duke boys were players who wanted to have a good time, whether it was really moral or not (something that never really died all the way in the show). I think the biggest difference between the movie version and the later show version is that in the movie Bo and Luke were reluctant hero's, and that adds a bit of depth lacking in the later Dukes episodes. By far, what turned out to be the best part of the movie was the aspect I was dreading the most: the General. When I had heard they were going to have a pre-Cooter General Lee, I was thinking 'what the heck?' but I really think it worked. Before Cooter worked on it, it really looked like a car I could imagine someone building if they didn't have a lot of money to build a wannabe stock car. Actually, I could have gone a few more scenes with that old style before the upgrade to the version we all know and love, but that's immaterial. The stunts hurt to watch but were done exceptionally well and I really loved the Atlanta chase scene was superb (something I also hoped would happen on the show). Just like in the show, the General did a Christine now and again and fixed itself, but oh well. For the most popular of compaints of the movie, I can only say 'to each their own'. I think two pot references weren't bad given most of the trends today. If this were cocaine or some such or if the pot was in a number of scenes I would agree with the common sentiment but given it was done so infrequently to me it wasn't an issue. Some people complained saying it was full of profanity. Umm, other than Jessie calling Roscoe a "fat sack of s**t" once I must have gone to another movie because I don't recall hearing F word or to many other swears. Jessie said god damn but if that's what some think of as a swear I suppose your intitled to your opinion. Of course Roscoe once said s**t on the show but perhaps that wasn't remembered by the reviewers. Another complaint is the reaction to the flag on the General. In my now completed General Lee I have had people flip me off in real life because I have that on the roof. I have been called a racist pig because of it and told by one person I was no different that those who lynched black people during the civil rights movement. Anyone who thinks that the scene in the movie was only done for PC reasons take it from me, it's not funny when someone tells you it would be just as bad as having a swastika on your car (and that's not a joke)! That scene was not respected by me until I actally had people like that approach me in real life. The bottom line is that this movie and the show only share a few basic elements in common but in most reguards it is a new interpretation of something that ended 20 years ago and to try to judge one on the merits of the other does a disservice to both. Matt PS - I saw this movie on Friday when it came out. By the next Monday (3 days later) the new paint and the decals were on my General and it was on the road as a Lee for the first time. The movie galvanized me to work on it and for that alone I have a fondness for the movie most probably don't have. When I saw it for the third and final time at the theater I brought my General and you should have seen the people after the movie got out!