''Crazy in Alabama'' is a 1999 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Antonio Banderas José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (born 10 August 1960), known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor and singer. Known for his work in films of several genres, he has received various accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival ...

and based on

Mark Childress Mark Childress (born 1957 in Monroeville, Alabama) is an American novelist and Southern writer. Life Childress grew up in Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Alabama, where he was a member of the Mal ...

' 1993 novel of the same name. The film stars

Melanie Griffith Melanie Richards Griffith (born August 9, 1957) is an American actress. She began her career in the 1970s, appearing in several independent thriller films before achieving mainstream success in the mid-1980s. Born in Manhattan, New York City, ...

as an abused housewife who becomes an actress, while her nephew deals with a racially motivated murder involving a corrupt sheriff. It marked Dakota Johnson's film debut.

Plot

In 1965

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, Peter Joseph "Peejoe" Bullis lives in a small town at the height of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. Peejoe's eccentric Aunt Lucille Vinson kills her husband Chester with poison, after suffering years of abuse. She decapitates him and brings his severed head with her en route to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

, where she is convinced that television stardom awaits her. In

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, Lucille buys a black hat box to store Chester's head. When a bartender on

Bourbon Street Bourbon Street (french: Rue Bourbon, es, Calle de Borbón) is a historic street in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Extending thirteen blocks from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue, Bourbon Street is famous for its many bars an ...

insults her, she threatens him with a

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that has at least one gun barrel, barrel and uses a revolving cylinder (firearms), cylinder containing multiple chamber (firearms), chambers (each holding a single ...

and robs the cash register before stealing his car. Back in Alabama, Peejoe's uncle (Lucille's brother), Dove, a local funeral director, is notified of the incident. While traveling, Lucille becomes increasingly paranoid, convincing Chester's ghost is haunting her. Meanwhile, Peejoe becomes involved with a group of black students protesting the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool, leading to a protest that explodes into deadly violence. A young black boy, Taylor Jackson, is killed by the town sheriff, John Doggett. Peejoe, the only witness, is pressured by the sheriff to keep it quiet. While mowing his lawn, Peejoe is struck in the eye with a rock; the townspeople circulate a false story that he was shot in retaliation for Taylor's death. The black townspeople stage a protest honoring Taylor in which they enter the swimming pool. Peejoe and his brother, Wiley, join them in support, but the protest is interrupted by police and white pro- Confederates. Lucille wins $32,000 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

while playing

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

at a casino, and subsequently pays for a personal driver, Norman, to bring her to Los Angeles. She arrives in Hollywood, taking the stage name Carolyn Clay, and manages to land a minor role on ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typ ...

''. Back in Alabama, Peejoe and Wiley attend a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., and Peejoe's racist aunt Earline grows infuriated over the publicity involving the family. While watching television one night, they are all surprised to see Lucille on television. At an industry party in the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Un ...

, hostess Joan Blake discovers Chester's severed head in Lucille's hat box. Lucille flees with Norman to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, and tries to get rid of the head by throwing it off the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

. Two policemen, thinking she is attempting suicide, stop her and discover the head. She is arrested and escorted back to Alabama for her trial, where she is met by a

media circus Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to ...

. In the local jail, Lucille is incarcerated in a cell next to Nehemiah Jackson, Taylor's father who has been jailed over the protest. After being convicted of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially t ...

, Lucille is sentenced to twenty years in prison. However, the sentence is suspended when she earns the judge's sympathies after testifying to the abuse she received, and she is put on a five-year probation with the condition that she seek psychiatric help. Lucille, her children, and all her friends joyfully exit the courtroom while the sheriff (through Peejoe's testimony) is put under arrest for Taylor's murder.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in

Houma, Louisiana Houma ( ) is the largest city in, and the parish seat of, Terrebonne Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is also the largest principal city of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. The city's government ...

, Schriever, Chackbay,

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

Reception

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, scoring a 30% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 56 reviews, with the site's consensus stating: "Melanie Griffith gets kudos for her performance, but the movie just doesn't seem to come together." The film holds a score of 46 out of 100 on

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 ...

based on 27 reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' called the film "an ungainly fit of three stories that have no business being shoehorned into the same movie," awarding it two out of four stars.

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote of that the film "takes an antic tone. It presents Melanie Griffith as the kind of fanciful creature who looks flirty even on her Wanted poster, and whose escapades en route to Hollywood have a dizzy spin." Paula Nechak of the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was fo ...

'' called the film "funny, eccentric, and touchingly just, combining a unique interpretation of the time with an offbeat sense of humor." Griffith earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress for her performance in the film but lost out to

Heather Donahue Rei Hance (born Heather Donahue; December 22, 1974) is an American writer, businesswoman, and retired actress. She is known for her roles as Heather in the 1999 film '' The Blair Witch Project'' and Mary Crawford in the miniseries '' Taken.'' Han ...

for ''

The Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Josh ...

''. However, her performance for the film and '' Another Day in Paradise'' earned her the

Sant Jordi Award The Sant Jordi Awards ( ca, Premis Sant Jordi, links=no; es, Premios Sant Jordi, links=no) are film prizes awarded annually by the Catalonia, Catalan branch of the Spanish public radio network Radio Nacional de España (RNE), Ràdio 4. The award ...

for Best Foreign Actress. Lucas Black was nominated for the

Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor and YoungStar Award for Best Young Actor/Performance in a Motion Picture Drama. Banderas won the 2000

ALMA award The American Latino Media Arts Award or ALMA Award, formerly known as Latin Oscars Award, is an award highlighting the best American Latino contributions to music, television, and film. The awards promote fair and accurate portrayals of Latino ...

for Outstanding Director of a Feature Film, the

European Film Award The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mo ...

for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema, and was nominated for a

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguis ...

References

External links