''The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia'' is a 1981 American musical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

starring Kristy McNichol,

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...

, Mark Hamill and

Don Stroud Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows. Early years Stroud was the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team ...

, directed by Ronald F. Maxwell. It was very loosely inspired by the 1972

Vicki Lawrence Vicki Ann Lawrence ( Axelrad; born March 26, 1949), sometimes credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz, is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for her character Mama (Thelma Harper). Lawrence originated multitudes of charact ...

song of the same name (it shares almost no plot elements with the original song). In 1981,

Tanya Tucker Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature int ...

recorded a different version for the film's soundtrack and new lyrics related to the plot of the film were written. These altered lyrics were based on the plot line of the movie, which is not the same as the story of the original song.

Plot

A young singer and his sister/manager travel to Nashville in search of stardom. As they journey from one grimy hotel to another, it becomes increasingly obvious that only one of them has what it takes to become a star. Travis Child (Quaid) is a country singer who had one hit song and then faded from the scene. His ambitious younger sister, Amanda (McNichol), is determined to get them to Nashville where Travis can once again become a star. Her plans are derailed by Travis's lack of ambition and easy distraction by women and booze. Amanda meets a state trooper named Conrad who shows concern for her. The two are separated in one town and by the time they find each other in the next one, Travis has been arrested for public drunkenness. To pay the fine he takes a job bartending at a roadside tavern called Andy's, where he meets and falls for a young lady named Melody with a very jealous ex-boyfriend—who happens to be the deputy sheriff named Seth James. Seth wounds Travis in an ambush. Travis hides in the floorboards of his truck and pretends to be dead. When Seth yanks open Travis's truck door to put another round in him, Travis kills him with a gun he was hiding. Travis, in bad shape, takes Seth's car and ends up driving it off the road, dying. Amanda buries Travis and hugs Melody good bye. She heads down the road with her dog. Conrad, in his police car tries to convince Amanda not to leave but she says she's going. Conrad goes to his cruiser, strips to his underwear and convinces Amanda that they'll go together.

Cast

* Kristy McNichol - Amanda Child *

- Travis Child * Mark Hamill - Conrad * Sunny Johnson - Melody *

- Seth James *

Barry Corbin Leonard Barrie Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Maurice Minnifield on the television series '' Northern Exposure'' (1990–1995), which earned him two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awar ...

- Wimbish * Arlen Dean Snyder - Andy * Ellen Saland - Nellie

Production

The film was shot on location in

Dade County, Georgia Dade County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia. It occupies the northwest corner of Georgia, and the county's own northwest corner is the westernmost point in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population is 16,251. The county seat an ...

, but some scenes were filmed around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Manchester, TN, as well.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

— which assigns a weighted mean score — the film has a score of 54 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * 1981 films 1980s musical drama films American musical drama films American independent films Embassy Pictures films 1980s English-language films Films based on songs Films directed by Ronald F. Maxwell Films set in Georgia (U.S. state) Films set in Tennessee Country music films Southern Gothic films 1981 drama films 1980s American films {{musical-drama-film-stub