And thats just what the movie-going audience was looking for back in 2002. Jake announces, "Melanie Carmichael is dead" but then a few seconds later he says, "Long live Felony Melanie." She is forced to return home after becoming engaged to a man named Andrew and must procure a divorce from her childhood sweetheart and estranged husband, Jake. During the film's original outdoor reception Jake carries Melanie, who feigns death after having supposedly been struck by a lightening bolt, towards the wedding guests. In a 2013 interview, Clayton spoke at length about her decision to take the job. Nobody had told me beforehand this movie is going to be a big success. It was written in response to Neil Young's 1970 song "Southern Man", which the band felt blamed the entire South for American slavery;[4] Young is name-checked and dissed in the lyrics. She calls off the wedding and heads down to the beach to plant lightning rods to create glass sculptures, where she confesses to Jake that she still loves him. Lucas was convinced he wasn't connecting with Witherspoon and was going to get fired. We were the first movie to shoot there on the location since "Breakfast at Tiffany's.". As such, Sweet Home Alabama went out in cinemas with a finale that tied things up in a nice, conventional bow, and much money was made. It was always let's just find someone good. You can unsubscribe at any time. Toward the end of the movie, Melanie's gay Black friend Frederick (Nathan Lee Graham) is in her mother's (Mary Kay Place) trailer talking about her decorative spoon collection. Jake and Melanie do this as a practical joke. Period.'" Free or royalty-free photos and images. Lucas: I was scared of being famous. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue."[12]. Why don't we do a love triangle where the love choices are between a great guy and the right guy? In an interview with Garden & Gun, Rossington explained the writing process: "I had this little riff. Add to favorites. Question: In the scene where Jake is driving Andrew to find Melanie, he tells the story about the cat. The cat had cancer and Melanie wanted it to die a "humane" death. Tennant: I don't know how anybody deals with fame, I really don't. Sound/Sound Designer 1 Credit. ", Tennant: I have done two movies with Josh, I love Josh. I dont know why we thought that was really funny, director Andy Tennant told Insider. of them Melanie's parents are "scared" by a punk with a pierced tongue, She is cornered there by Kate's assistant, sent to gather information on Melanie's background. Sweet Home Alabama is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant.Written by C. Jay Cox, it stars Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey.The supporting cast includes Fred Ward, Mary Kay Place, Jean Smart, Candice Bergen, Ethan Embry, and Melanie Lynskey.It was released in the United States on September 27, 2002, by Buena Vista Pictures. Lucas: We did that six to 10 times. Zero. Melanie follows and gets drunk, insults her old school friends, and outs her longtime friend, Bobby Ray. Reese Witherspoon terrific heartfelt performance makes this movie work. It was only humane from Melanie's skewed, immature-at-the-time perspective, believing the cat would be killed instantly. [13] Van Zant said: "Wallace and I have very little in common. D In Birmingham they C love the G Gov'nor F Boo C hoo D hoo ! On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a critical score of 38% based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 5.19/10. I'm not singing nothing about nobody's sweet home Alabama. "The audience loved the movie up until that shot." I've been acting for 30 years now and I regularly have people ask me if I've ever made another movie. Sweet Home Alabama. Not many people have heard of a bologna cake the idea to include it in the film came from one of the script re-writers who actually had this happen when he got engaged to his fiancee from Indiana. I had lunch with her not that long before I turned in the "Sweet Home Alabama" script. After wealthy Andrew Hennings proposes, Melanie returns to Alabama to announce her engagement to her parents and finalize a divorce from her husband Jake, whom she married as a pregnant teenager and left after she miscarried their baby. With this film, Witherspoon solidified herself as a rom-com queen. Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. It was also the first film allowed to film at Tiffany's since Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). At the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Melanies wedding to Andrew is disrupted when its revealed she never signed her divorce papers. This was first film to shoot in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. The 2002 romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama ends predictably enough, with Reese Witherspoons character matched with the right guy but the original ending to the film threw audiences a curveball that was so wild, it had to be completely reshot. In 1975, Van Zant said: "The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The film was directed by Andy Tennant, from a screenplay by C Jay Cox (with story credit going to Douglas J Epoch), and it tells the story of Melanie Smooter, a woman who left her home in Alabama for New York City. I was pretty uncomfortable, so that doesn't make the person working across from you comfortable. Andy told me there would be an honesty to it. "[14], Music historians examining the juxtaposition of invoking Richard Nixon and Watergate after Wallace and Birmingham note that one reading of the lyrics is an "attack against the liberals who were so outraged at Nixon's conduct" while others interpret it regionally: "the band was speaking for the entire South, saying to northerners, we're not judging you as ordinary citizens for the failures of your leaders in Watergate; don't judge all of us as individuals for the racial problems of southern society."[15]. Apparently, I did. I would say in some ways we pushed each other to try, I think, to find truth. It is sampled by Kid Rock. Answer: Mayor of New York. It was interesting because I had this moment where I was like, "Really?" [6][7][8][9], None of the three writers of the song were from Alabama; Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida, while Ed King was from Glendale, California. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the band's highest-charting single. And I was like, "I've known her since she was 15. Ed Araquel/Netflix. Lynyrd Skynyrd originally released Sweet Home Alabama written by Ed King, Gary Rossington and Ronnie Van Zant and Lynyrd Skynyrd released it on the album Second Helping in 1974. Spoiler warning: the ending of Sweet Home Alabama is directly discussed towards the end of this article. Its now been 15 years since the film was released, so heres a look back at 7 things you probably didnt know about Sweet Home Alabama! And on top of that Josh's character comes in and says he's really happy for her. Melanie realises she didn't sign the divorce papers at the altar so she is still married to Jake. I said, 'Clydie, are you serious? As my mom and I left, I got attacked basically by paparazzi. Sweet Home Alabama was a good movie but something you would only want to see once. You can see tucked into the top of her left boot the battery pack for her microphone and the wires going up her skirt. After he orders her out of his house, Melanie empties Jake's checking account, hoping to spur him into ending the marriage. ", Josh Lucas began acting at 19 and found work through his 20s on TV shows and movies; he even a did a TV series in Australia. ", The only reason "Sweet Home Alabama" was made was because of "Legally Blonde. All rights reserved. I thought it was funny and silly and weird. The scene cuts to Fred Ward, playing Melanie's father, giving a snarky look as the two talk. U kunt uw keuzes te allen tijde wijzigen door te klikken op de links 'Privacydashboard' op onze sites en in onze apps. Sweet Home Alabama. Where the skies are so blue and the governor's true, The choice of Birmingham in connection with the governor (rather than the capital of Montgomery) is significant because it was the site of civil rights activism and violence in the 1960s. This could mean that the Sang-wook we see in the final scene is in fact Ui . The Carmichael Plantation, which Melanie tells the reporter is her childhood home, is the Oak Hill Berry Museum, a historic landmark in Georgia which is near the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Tagged: Sweet Home Alabama, First Love. Hell, maybe Jake now lives in a trailer park while Melanie had built this perfect life. Print. I felt that I had become a star overnight and I had zero anticipation of that. She and Andrew wish each other well, though Kate berates Andrew and insults Melanie, her family, and the entire town, for which Melanie punches her in the face. Also, I had four young kids to feed at the time. (01:36:20), Revealing mistake: When Reese is leaving the dog cemetery, she brushes against one of the tombstones that has a stone dog on the top of it, yet as she walks past the dog begins to rock back and forth - clearly this is not a stone headstone. to get Wallace elected. Andrew is engaged to a girl named Erin Vanderbilt. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Worry, Darling: September Box Office Plummets to Worst Levels in 25 Years, The Munsters Review: Rob Zombie Loves These Misfit Monsters but Fails to Make Them Funny. Take a look at the cast of Sweet Home Alabama. And hardly anyone in America noticed. A bologna cake consists of bologna, cream cheese and horseradish. Even though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it has a huge cult following of fans who absolutely loved it and still cherish it as one of their favorite movies today. Reese brings that in the scene and I think I do too. During the end credits some photos are shown with the cast. In the scene where Jake is driving Andrew to find Melanie, he tells the story about the cat. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the . In the two decades since it was made, "Sweet Home Alabama" went from an unwanted script to a surprise box-office hit to a rom-com classic. Nonetheless, Clayton was persuaded to take the job, to "let the music be [her] protest. Jake and Melanie do this as a practical joke. The song is credited to Matthew Shafer, Waddy Wachtel, R.J. Ritchie, Leroy Marinell, Warren Zevon, Edward King, Gary Rossington and Ronnie Van Zant. The two return to what should have been Melanie and Andrews reception and have their first dance. "All Summer Long" also samples Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", which has similar chord progression to "Sweet Home Alabama". But I remember my wife and I were in Tahiti for a second honeymoon, this was like 10 years ago, and I got to talking to a couple in the pool who were also on their honeymoon and they told me they had used some of the lines that were in "Sweet Home Alabama" in their vows. Never work with kids or animals. Learn more about the full cast of Sweet Home Alabama with news, photos, videos and more at TV Guide . caitlyn smith starfire vinyl. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Lucas would be so serious in some takes that Tennant would call him "Ralph," referring to the actor Ralph Fiennes, so he would loosen up. I had never done anything at that scale before. A mid-credits sequence shows that they have a baby daughter, Melanie continues to thrive as a designer, and Jake opens a "Deep South Glass" franchise in New York. People still revisit it not as a guilty pleasure but more as a soothing pleasure. The film takes its title . after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor. Sweet Home Alabama characters were essayed by Hollywood's top actors. Tennant: I think what happens is you get the cast you deserve Reese was coming off a huge hit with "Legally Blonde," Patrick Dempsey had done movies before but he was the '80s heartthrob and this was his start as a leading man, and then Josh was unknown so I think if there was any kind of nervousness on Josh's part he should have seen what it was like in my head. In this fluff ball of a fairy tale, Reese Witherspoon is Melanie Carmichael, a rising New York fashion designer from humble Southern roots who is forced to choose between two Prince Charmings. He would see me and just walk the other way. Frankly, I don't think you could make "Sweet Home Alabama" today. But Melanie's past holds many secrets, including Jake (Josh Lucas), the . Trivia: Erin Vanderbilt, the woman that Andrew is shown marrying at the end originally had a bigger part, but test audiences misunderstood her relationship with Andrew before breaking up with Melanie, so all of Erin's scenes were cut except for that small bit over the credits. The film although predictable is full of funny moments and a lot of heart. Intimidated by the city and her success, he returned home to make something of himself first. The film tells the story of Melanie Smooter, a Southern girl from a small town who becomes estranged from her past after she moves to New York to become a fashion designer. When you get slapped and it's cold, it's a lot worse. Tennant: When I hear people still holding it dear to their heart I end up calling Josh and going, "God, I wish we were making Sweet Home Alabama 2." Tennant has written a treatment for a sequel to "Sweet Home Alabama." Tennant: What happened was Reese's daughter, Ava, went to school with my son, so I would see Reese on occasion. During Melanie and Andrew's wedding at the Carmichael estate, a lawyer arrives and halts the ceremony. D Carry me C home to see my G kin. When Tennant and Parks handed in the rewrite, one of the major notes from the studio was that the proposal Andrew gives Melanie at the beginning of the movie wasn't special enough. Netflix April 2020: Whats Coming & Going, Binge-Worthy Iconic Movie Franchises And How Long It Takes, Netflix October 2019: Whats Coming & Going, Netflix September 2019: Whats Coming & Going, 7 Things You Didnt Know About Sweet Home Alabama. Bloodhounds are the most amazing dogs, but they aren't good film dogs. It's a movie you'll forget you ever saw. 1 Comments. Boo!' Vinyl Records, CDs, and More from pop. Courtesy of Songs Of Universal, Inc. on behalf of itself, and EMI Longitude Music, Universal Music Corp. on behalf of itself and EMI Full Keel Music Official Licensed Product. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazineshere. It has come and gone ever since and I'm now way further beyond that where I don't give it much credence either way. Busy city girl comes to her rural idealic small town. The cat had cancer and Melanie wanted it to die a "humane" death. Mountain View, California - August 31, 1991 - Old used ticket for the concert of, Sweet Home Alabama Stock Photos, Images & Pictures. "[5], The film grossed over US$35 million in its first weekend. During the end credits some photos are shown with the cast. Reference: Quiz: Sweet Quiz Alabama . Show 1 more answer. Jake's glassblowing shop was filmed at an old mill named Starr's Mill, in Fayette County, Georgia. Add a different answer. If youd like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitterhere, and on Facebookhere. I thought I bombed so badly that I called my agent at the time afterward and was like, "Listen, please tell them I'm so sorry but I deserve another chance, let me go back in and do it again correctly." This is why Reese says, "People need a passport to come down here." And she said, "I made this movie nobody is going to see. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping , 1974, 4/4, 98bpm. "Sweet Home Alabama" lyrics on lynyrdskynyrdhistory.com, Lynyrd Skynyrd Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour, Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album, 20th Century Masters: The Best of Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour, God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sweet_Home_Alabama&oldid=1141674206, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Single chart usages for Billboardrocksongs, Certification Table Entry usages for Denmark, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming figures, Certification Table Entry usages for Italy, Certification Table Entry usages for United Kingdom, Certification Table Entry usages for United States, Pages using certification Table Entry with sales figures, Pages using certification Table Entry with sales footnote, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming footnote, Articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In 2002, the song inspired the title and plot of the film, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 06:20. We needed someone who looked like Reese, and Dakota was 40 years old when she was 10. There was a silence on the phone for quite a while. Director Andy Tennant did test the ending too, ultimately conceding that no one though it was funny. And, whoa, I'm gonna get in trouble over this whole dang post!"[16]. More trivia for Sweet Home Alabama. Design and text 1996 - 2023 Jon Sandys. Jake asserts that they will be married one day, whether they are cousins or not. Written by C. Jay Cox, it stars Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey. You can see tucked into the top of her left boot the battery pack for her microphone and the wires going up her skirt. Melanie Carmichael: The truth is I gave my heart away a long time ago, my whole heart, and I never really got it back. Danganronpa has little in the way of straight-up romance, but boy do the creators love teasing the hell out of some ships, especially ones that end in . They then go and dance as the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Sweet Home Alabama" plays. Kid Rock's 2008 song "All Summer Long" interpolates "Sweet Home Alabama" on the chorus and uses the guitar solo and piano outro, as well as the "turn it up" shout before the guitar solo; Billy Powell is featured on the track. "We all did what WE could do!" It received a mixed critical reception[2] but was a success at the box office.[1]. Lucas: It never bodes well when you hear you're doing a major reshoot, but it worked out. 5:02. Copyright 2000-2023 Dreamstime. I caught some of "Sweet Home Alabama" on tv the other day. Answer: It was only humane from Melanie's skewed, immature-at-the-time perspective, believing the cat would be killed instantly. Answer: baby girl. Lucas: There wasn't much heat on the movie, we didn't have the premiere at a glitzy theater, but what happened there is to this day one of the strangest experiences of my life. In order to depict two people from Alabama, they had to practice their Southern drawl. I keep hearing that others from the movie would absolutely love to do it. I was not someone who yearned to be famous and there was a point where I did see a shift. Tell the truth But that's as close as I got. Tennant: When we tested the movie, people really didn't like the slap so we cut around it. Wanneer u onze sites en apps gebruikt, gebruiken we, gebruikers authenticeren, veiligheidsmaatregelen toepassen en spam en misbruik voorkomen, en, gepersonaliseerde advertenties en content weergeven op basis van interesseprofielen, de effectiviteit meten van gepersonaliseerde advertenties en content, en, onze producten en services ontwikkelen en verbeteren. Design and text 1996 - 2023 Jon Sandys. Dreamstime is the world`s largest stock photography community. Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music."[10]. There's a flash of lightning and it cuts to a wedding reception. Free Sweet home Alabama tab for the acoustic guitar. It was also the first film ever allowed to film in Tiffanys since Breakfast at Tiffanys in 1961. Wynn's Pond in Sharpsburg, Georgia, is the location where Jake lands his plane. Song listed in our famous tablatures. Most of the downtown scenes were filmed in Crawfordville and Taliaferro County. Use them in commercial designs under lifetime, perpetual & worldwide rights. It's the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. Reese Witherspoon was at the height of her box office powers when she decided to take the lead in Sweet Home Alabama.By this stage in the early 2000s, she'd built a career quickly and impressively off a mix of very smart choices and very savvy commercial picks. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young: Friends or Foes? she would say to me. And then Reese called me and said, "You are never going to believe this, they sent me your script! The audience loved the movie up until that shot. Apparently, the clincher was the moment when the parents were looking at their dead daughter didnt get any laughs. "Watergate doesn't bother me" because that stuff happens in politicsbut someone's conscience ought to bother them for what happened to Wallace. It never bodes well when you hear youre doing a major reshoot, but it worked out.. Als u niet wilt dat wij en onze partners cookies en persoonsgegevens voor deze aanvullende doeleinden gebruiken, klik dan op 'Alles weigeren'. The romantic comedy originally ended with a fake-out that Reese Witherspoons character was dead. 7. Earl Smooter: You can't ride two horses with one ass, sugarbean. In the original scene, she slaps him and walks away. Tennant: "Sweet Home Alabama" is on all the time. In the original ending of the movie, Melanie leaves her wedding and races to the beach to reconcile with Jake. It was funny on paper and then when we shot it, when Josh says "Melanie Carmichael is dead" and you cut to Mary Kay with that reaction that her daughter is dead it was just like, "Who thought this was funny?" 7 biggest mistakes in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, The 20 biggest mistakes in The Wizard of Oz, 40 biggest mistakes in The Big Bang Theory, 6 Cool things you've never noticed in movies, The biggest mistakes in the Harry Potter movies, 25 mistakes you never noticed in great movies, 7 mistakes in Beetlejuice you never spotted, More questions & answers from Sweet Home Alabama. Now Watergate does not bother me Jake walks in holding an unconscious Melanie and announces to the room, Melanie Carmichael is dead. The guests are gobsmacked, then he says, Long live Felony Melanie and Witherspoons character pulls a Harry Potter, jolts awake and gives him a kiss. It's the "almost" part that makes the movie work. Turns out this incredibly dark turn was intended in the original script as a joke, though. But poor Josh was whacked a good number of times. Pet cemeteries, just like human, have sturdy stone headstones to withstand the elements, not plastic. Fred Ward's character is racist, says Tennant. Melanie realizes Jake is the artist and that he owns the resort. "[4] Andrew Sarris, critic for the New York Observer, said that the movie "Would be an unendurable viewing experience for this ultra-provincial New Yorker if 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon were not on hand to inject her pure fantasy character, Melanie Carmichael, with a massive infusion of old-fashioned Hollywood magic. That part was eventually cut out of the movie. Visible crew/equipment: As Melanie is walking across the battlefield looking for her father she steps across 'dead bodies'. So I had to throw him off the dock and from that moment on he hated me. paul pion cantor net worth. D Now we all C did what we could G do. I would do everything and anything to work with Melanie Lynskey again. And Sweet Home Alabama, on the surface a pretty frothy romantic comedy, would cement her place as a hugely successful leading actor. He later returns, saying he still wants to marry her, and the wedding is immediately set in motion. Some of it was, "Josh, punch line. as well as other partner offers and accept our. We all talked about accents and stuff in terms of toning ithaving a gentle, subtle, quiet element to it. Another part of "Sweet Home Alabama" was also controversial in its reference to George Wallace, the governor of Alabama and supporter of racial segregation: In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo) The hit led to two television rock show offers that the band declined. Then he auditioned to play the male lead, Jake, in "Sweet Home Alabama.