The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning is a 2007 American made-for-televisionbuddycomedy film and a prequel to the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard. An edited version of the film originally aired on ABC Family channel on March 4, 2007, and the 'R'-rated and unrated versions were released on DVD March 13.
Set in fictional towns of Georgia, Bo Duke is arrested for destructive driving in neighboring Chickasaw County. Luke Duke is arrested for blowing up illegal fireworks. Both of the teenage boys are paroled to the care of their Uncle Jesse in neighboring Hazzard County, sentenced to a summer of hard work on the farm.
Jesse is carrying on the family tradition of producing the best moonshine in the county. Bo and Luke quickly tire of farm work and take an interest in some of the local girls of Hazzard. Attempting to visit the Boar's Nest bar, they see Jesse meeting with Boss Hogg. Jesse is arranging for his regular bribe to the County Commissioner to look the other way from his illegal moonshine operation. The Duke boys inadvertently allow Hogg's prize pig to escape, and it falls off the roof and is injured. Furious, Boss Hogg demands a sizable amount of money from Jesse, due in two weeks, or he will foreclose on the farm.
Jesse believes his only recourse is his moonshine operation, but he cannot deliver enough in two weeks. Bo and Luke volunteer and set off to find a fast car to do the job.
The boys enlist the help of their cousin Daisy Duke, who has just turned 18 but is somewhat of a wallflower who wonders why boys do not notice her. She takes them to the high-school shop class, where they meet Cooter Davenport, who gives them a fast engine. They go to the junkyard to find a suitable car, but do not like what they see. On their way home, they find some girls sunbathing next to Hogg's Ravine while Cooter and the Duke cousins are standing together at a ledge overlooking a swimming hole. From high atop their rocky cliff, Bo purposefully shoves Luke in to try to impress the girls. Immediately thereafter, Bo learns from Cooter that most people who jump in end up either "crippled, on life support, or brain damaged." Not seeing Luke surface after plunging into the water, Bo jumps in to save him. Instead, Cooter is seen dragging Luke onto shore, while underwater, Bo discovers an abandoned 1969 DodgeCharger and believes it would be the perfect car for them. They retrieve the car from the pond, already in the iconic orange color with the Rebel flag painted on the top. They clean, repair and repaint the car, and after adding their new engine, the General Lee is reborn.
The moonshine deliveries go well but before they raise enough money to pay off Hogg, the Boss declares Hazzard a dry county, and offers a $25,000 reward for anyone who uncovers an illegal moonshine operation. He will turn the Boar's Nest into an ice cream parlor.
Meanwhile, Daisy applies for a job at the bar to help raise the money. Hughie, the Boar's Nest bartender, says she is not the type of girl who should work there, and refuses her but she is smitten. She undergoes a makeover to impress him, cutting her jeans into very short shorts, wearing a shirt tied to show her midriff and letting her hair down. The bar patrons are all stunned by how good she looks, and Hughie hires her immediately and agrees to take her on a date.
Jesse then holds a large party to raise funds for the farm, but Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco arrest Jesse for illegal moonshine sales and seize Jesse's assets. Daisy, Bo and Luke visit him in jail, and he tells them that Boss is as corrupt as anyone, and the best way to get Jesse off is to find evidence of this. Bo and Luke soon discover Hogg's plan. He wants to convince all the county commissioners in Georgia to ban alcohol, thus paving the way for a thriving ice cream business. More importantly, with all the ridgerunners in jail, Hogg will then be free to make a fortune selling his own illegal alcohol, turning the Boar's Nest into a speakeasy.
Boss Hogg wants the Duke family still, which produces the best moonshine in the county. When Daisy finds out Hughie is Boss Hogg's nephew and only dated her to find out about the family secrets, she is devastated.
The Dukes kidnap Boss and ride off in the General Lee with the police following in pursuit. They threaten to drive into Hogg Ravine unless he tells them his plan. He is too scared not to tell, and his confession is broadcast over the radio thanks to Daisy's manipulation of Enos at the station. The Dukes then jump the ravine anyway (their first jump), and catch Hughie delivering illegal moonshine into Hazzard. The Dukes make Boss pay them the $25,000 reward, which they use to buy back the farm.
Fed up with Hogg, the citizens demand he reverse his dry county policy and free all the people he had arrested for selling moonshine. Just as it seems the 112-year-old candidate who always wanted to run for county commissioner will finally win, he dies, leaving Boss as the only candidate, and he is re-elected anyway. Hogg summarily pardons himself for his misdeeds, but is forced to release Jesse and the other moonshiners. As payback to Hughie for using her, Daisy kicks him into his jail cell before removing her shirt and leaving. Bo finally gets a driving instructor who passes him despite his wild driving, and Luke finally meets a girl who likes watching stuff blowing up. The cousins hop into the General Lee, headed off on their next adventure.
ABC Family first aired an edited version of the film on March 4, 2007, prior to its DVD release. 'R'-rated and unrated versions were released on DVD March 13.
Production
The film was produced under Warner Bros.' Warner Premiere label with a budget of $5 million. Willie Nelson was the only actor to reprise his role from the previous film.
Reception
Reviews were generally negative. On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 5 reviews, with an average score of 3.5/10.[1]
Related Research Articles
The Dukes of Hazzard is an American action comedy television series created by Gy Waldron that aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985, with a total of seven seasons consisting of 147 episodes. It was consistently among the top-rated television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Dukes is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series based on the live-action television series The Dukes of Hazzard which aired on CBS from February 5 to October 29, 1983. Hanna-Barbera Productions produced the series in association with Warner Bros. Television, producer of the original series. 20 episodes were produced.
Daisy Duke is a fictional character, played by Catherine Bach, from the American television series The Dukes of Hazzard. She is the cousin of Bo and Luke, the protagonists of the show, and the three live on a farm on the outskirts of Hazzard County with their Uncle Jesse.
The Dukes of Hazzard is a 2005 American action comedy film loosely based on the television series of the same name. The film was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and stars Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson in her feature film debut, Burt Reynolds, Joe Don Baker, Lynda Carter, and Willie Nelson.
Enos is an American action comedy television series and a spin-off of The Dukes of Hazzard. It originally aired on CBS from November 12, 1980, to May 20, 1981. The series focused on the adventures of Enos Strate, a former deputy in rural Hazzard County, after he moved to Los Angeles to join the LAPD. Sonny Shroyer played the character of Enos on both shows. The scene was set for Enos leaving Hazzard to become a Los Angeles lawman in the third season Dukes of Hazzard episode "Enos Strate To The Top".
Jefferson Davis "J.D." Hogg, known as Boss Hogg, is a fictional character featured in the American television series The Dukes of Hazzard. He was the commissioner of Hazzard County, and the county's political boss and the main antagonist of the show. Boss Hogg almost always wore an all-white suit with a white cowboy hat and regularly smoked cigars. His namesake is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America. The role of Boss Hogg was played by Sorrell Booke, who performed frequently on radio, stage, television, and film prior to his role in The Dukes of Hazzard. The character was played by Burt Reynolds in the 2005 film.
Beauregard "Bo" Duke is a fictional character in the American television series The Dukes of Hazzard, which ran from 1979 to 1985. He was played by John Schneider.
Lucas K. "Luke" Duke is a fictional character in The Dukes of Hazzard, an American comedy television series which ran from 1979 to 1985. Played by Tom Wopat in the original TV series, Luke is main protagonist of the show, he is dark-haired, older cousin to the character Bo Duke. He is often the one who comes up with plans to get the Duke family out of trouble. He performs more of the physical stunts, while his cousin Bo does most of the driving. Both Duke boys are known for their signature "hood slide" across the General Lee, their 1969 Dodge Charger. Luke acted hypocritically on occasion, most prominently in season 1 episode 6 "Swamp Molly".
Jerry Elijah Rushing was an American best known for his years as a bootlegger or "moonrunner".
The Boar's Nest is a fictional local restaurant and tavern appearing in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and its various spinoff films and other productions, and the movie Moonrunners.
The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! is a 1997 American made-for-television action-adventure film, reuniting the surviving cast members of the 1979–1985 television series The Dukes of Hazzard, which originally aired on CBS on April 25, 1997. The film was directed by Lewis Teague, written by series creator Gy Waldron, and produced by Ira Marvin and Skip Ward.
Moonrunners is a 1975 action comedy film starring James Mitchum, about a Southern family who runs bootleg liquor. It was reworked four years later into the popular long-running television series The Dukes of Hazzard, and the two productions share some similarities. Mitchum had co-starred with his father, Robert Mitchum, in the similar drive-in favorite Thunder Road 18 years earlier, which also focused upon moonshine-running bootleggers using fast cars to elude federal agents. Moonrunners, a B movie, was filmed in 1973 and awaited release for over a year. Its soundtrack reflects the outlaw music boom of the 1970s during which the film was released.
The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood is a 2000 American made-for-television action-adventure comedy film based on the 1979–1985 television series The Dukes of Hazzard which aired on CBS on May 19, 2000.
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The Dukes of Hazzard is a 1984 racing video game developed and published by Coleco for their ColecoVision game console and Coleco Adam computer. Elite Systems released a different game with the same title for the ZX Spectrum computer on February 23, 1985. Both versions are based on the television series of the same name.
The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home is a racing video game published by SouthPeak Interactive that was released for the PlayStation in 1999. The game was later released for Game Boy Color and Microsoft Windows in 2000. It is based on the television show, The Dukes of Hazzard. Waylon Jennings, James Best, Ben Jones, Sonny Shroyer, and Tom Wopat reprised their characters by providing their voices to the PC and PlayStation versions of the game. A sequel titled The Dukes of Hazzard II: Daisy Dukes It Out was released in 2000.
The General Lee is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger driven in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard by the characters the Duke boys, Bo and Luke, along with cousins Coy and Vance. It is known for its signature horn, its police chases, stunts—especially its long jumps—and for having its doors welded shut, leaving the Dukes to climb in and out through the windows. The car appears in every episode but one. The car's name is a reference to Robert E. Lee, general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It bears a Confederate battle flag on its roof, and also has a horn which plays the first 12 notes of the song "Dixie".
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The Dukes of Hazzard II: Daisy Dukes It Out is a racing video game developed by Sinister Games and published by SouthPeak Interactive in North America and Ubi Soft in Europe for the PlayStation in 2000. It is based on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard, which aired from 1979 to 1985; and is a sequel to the 1999 racing video game The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home, also developed by Sinister Games.
Cooter's Place, also known simply as Cooter's, is the collective name of three museums in the United States, exhibiting memorabilia from the American action comedy TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. The museums are named after Cooter Davenport, one of the main characters in the show.
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