Macon County Line (1974)
"It Shouldn't Have Happened. It Couldn't Have
Happened...But It Did."
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© 1973 Max Baer Productions, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
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Remember back in 1999 when people actually thought "The Blair Witch Project"
was real? Even folks who copped to the film's phoniness whispered a
conversation ending caveat, "But you never know..."
The myth, first introduced via the Internet (www.blairwitch.com), was a major
marketing coup. "The Blair Witch Project" became a moneymaking event. And the
film itself, despite its detractors, turned out to be a tidy piece of indie
work—atmospheric, claustrophobic, psychologically twisted.
But in 1974, all it took to get the buzz going on "Macon County Line" was a
cliched but foreboding tagger splashed across the screen before the movie
started— "This story is true. Only the names and places have been changed."
No Internet. No Sundance. No Roger Ebert platitudes.
The story is pretty simple—two brothers, Chris and Wayne Dixon (played by
real life brothers Alan and Jesse Vint), get violently mixed up with a
psychotic Southern sheriff (played to the hilt by Max "Jethro Bodine" Baer,
Jr.) resulting in plenty of bloodshed and a pretty effective shock ending.
The film's deliberate pacing and sharp juxtaposition from comedy to horror
are still fairly unsettling. The acting throughout is natural and director Richard Compton
utilizes a documentary feel to the film, which is shot ominously under all -natural lighting. On the outdoor screen, the grainy images become an
extension of the surrounding landscape adding to the movie's stark quality.
On DVD, the film is a visual revelation—almost painterly.
According to Compton, when "Macon County Line" played to
test audiences, nobody liked it. Then, when producer and star Baer, Jr.
decided to put the tease at the start of the film, "Macon County Line" box
office broke wide open. The film's final production budget was $225,000. It
brought in a remarkable $18.7 million playing almost exclusively at Midwest
and Southern drive-in theaters. The key to its resonant success was the
perpetuated myth—people believed the events in the movie really happened.
And nothing spreads the word quicker than a duped audience.
Credits:
Directed by Richard Compton
Actors:
Alan Vint
Jesse Vint
Max Baer, Jr.
Links:
Internet
Movie Database
Images from "Macon County Line"
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