Themes: Race Relations, Eccentric Families, Social Injustice
Main Cast: Melanie Griffith, David Morse, Lucas Black, Cathy Moriarty, Meat Loaf, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Sandra Seacat
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Comedy and drama take turns in this period piece based on a novel by Mark Childress. Peejoe (Lucas Black), short for Peter Joseph, lives in a small Alabama town in 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. He 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. But Peejoe has gotten a crash course in standing your ground and following your own path from his free-spirited Aunt Lucille (Melanie Griffith), who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she's convinced that television stardom awaits her. Crazy in Alabama marked the directorial debut of actor Antonio Banderas; his supporting cast includes Cathy Moriarty, Elizabeth Perkins, Rod Steiger, Fannie Flagg, and Meat Loaf Aday. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Richard Schiff - Norman; John Beasley - Nehemiah; Noah Emmerich - Sheriff Raymond; Paul Ben-Victor - Mackie; Brad Beyer - Jack; Fannie Flagg - Sally; Elizabeth Perkins - Joan Blake; Linda Hart - Madelyn; Paul Mazursky - Walter Schwegmann; Holmes Osborne - Larry Russell; William Converse-Roberts - Murphy; David Speck - Wiley; Louis Miller - Taylor Jackson
Credit
Michael Atwell - Art Director, Mindy Marin - Casting, Graciela Mazon - Costume Designer, George Parra - First Assistant Director, Antonio Banderas - Director, Maysie Hoy - Editor, Robert Jones - Editor, James R. Dyer - Executive Producer, Mark Snow - Composer (Music Score), Cecilia Montiel - Production Designer, Julio Macat - Cinematographer, Debra Hill - Producer, Meir Teper - Producer, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton - Producer, Diane Sillan-Isaacs - Producer, Noelle King - Set Designer, Robert Greenfield - Set Designer, Douglas B. Arnold - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Childress - Screenwriter, Mark Childress - Book Author
Crazy in Alabama is a 1999comedy-drama film directed by Antonio Banderas, written by Mark Childress (based on his own 1993 novel of the same name), and starring Melanie Griffith as an abused wife who heads to California to become a movie star while her nephew back in Alabama has to deal with a racially-motivated murder involving a corrupt sheriff.
In 1965, Peter Joseph Bullis (also known as Peejoe) lives in a small town in Alabama, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He 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. The young black boy Taylor Jackson is killed by the town sheriff, and Peejoe, the only witness, is pressured by the sheriff to keep it quiet. But Peejoe has gotten a crash course in standing your ground and following your path from his free-spirited aunt Lucille Vinson, who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she is convinced that television stardom awaits her.
Lucille takes her husband's head everywhere she goes in a black hat box, and looks forward to the future Hollywood promises. When the head is discovered by the hostess of a party, Lucille tries to get rid of the head by throwing it off the Golden Gate Bridge. Two policemen, thinking she is about to jump over herself, open the hat box and discover the head inside. She is arrested and escorted back to Alabama for her trial, where she is given a warm welcome by her town. After being convicted of first-degree murder, Lucille is sentenced to twenty years in prison.
However, the sentence is suspended, and she is put on a five-year probation with the condition that she seeks 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.
Trivia
Tagline: Sometimes you have to lose your mind to find your freedom.
