Return to Macon County

This movie recalls the golden days of the hotrod culture, now virtually lost in time, as far as newer generations of Americans are concerned. Watch it and see a little bit of history. This is a "hotrod movie." Or at least it recalls the golden age of hotrod movies. This one comes at least 15 years too late. There were many of them made, and very few are around anymore, except inside some film archives somewhere....

This is light fair that I found entertaining. I am a big fan of Nick Nolte's body of work and although he was playing a 20 something hot-rodder when he was in his mid 30's he certainly looked young and naive. His partner in this drag race movie was Don Johnson as the mechanic who knew everything there was to know about making a hot rod go faster than any of the local hicks residing in Macon County.

Of course Nick picks up a wild and crazy chick played by Robin Mattson. So Nick and Robin end up in a love-hate-love relationship and Nick never knows how extreme Ms Mattson's actions will take the boys in to more trouble than they can get in all by themselves.

So the film has fast cars, faster girls, the local tough guys and the sheriff chasing Nick, Don and Robin through Macon County. I wouldn't want to spoil the ending but suffice to say the movie creates a bit of havoc on wheels with property damage and a few guys feelings also get hurt. But 'eh, what's two young hot rodder's to do except create action.

And so began an illustrious career filled with action films and TV series for our two young stars. It certainly was worth a watch for the retro cars and music. I wasn't disappointed. I give it a 6 out of 10 rating.

Great nostalgic road trip for those who remember the 1950's - Johnson is the mechanic and Nolte is the driver on their way to compete in Grand Nationals Drags in California - movie hits on all cylinders with buddy film + cool car film + new guy in town film + evil townie hoods + misguided cop + lesson learned factors all working to achieve the Fabulous Fifties mood. Two or three good female acting roles will keep the ladies interested too - as if seeing Johnson and Nolte in all their pre-hunk hottiness won't attract them anyway. The Don Johnson drag racing scene rivals the James Dean scene in Rebel without a Cause. Soundtrack is superb. This film will appeal to anyone interested in hot rods from the 1950's--1960's up to the 1970's.

This was one I watched fifty times on late-70's cable. This movie never lets up for a second as it's filled with great action, pretty girls, great 50's music and bad dialogue. Not to mention a young Nick Nolte and Don Johnson! How can you go wrong? The car is incredible too, I used to think the "extra juice" they'd give it during drag races was the wildest thing. The crazy cop is hilarious. I used to look for "sail rabbits" after seeing this one haha. Not to be missed, especially by car fans of fans of films set in the 50's.

I just watched this again on one of the rerun cable stations tonight. It takes me back to my youth because I am 63 now. In 1975 when this movie came out I was a the projectionist at a multi-screen drive in movie theater. I was around 21 years old and had just started to do this job for a living.

The picture did so well that it was held-over for at least 4 weeks! That almost never happened in a drive-inn! I remember we had 4 screens and all the projectors in one room over the snack bar. The starting times of the movies were staggered just right so that I could run them all with no mistakes other than an occasional tear in the film which would automatically shut down the machine.

That picture had nearly every car space filled on the weekends and several other nights as well. So, this lot was the full one while the other screens did dismally worse than that. one. By the time I shipped it out I must have seen the car chase scene a hundred times!