White Lightnin’ review

            White Lightnin’ places the audience right into the mind of a madman, giving both narration and the viewpoint of its protagonist, the real life cult killer known as The Dancing Outlaw. Edward Hogg stars as Jesco White, the famed outlaw who got his start as a criminal because of his drug abuse at a young age. With the use of some of these drugs comes a state of mind in which reality is difficult to distinguish from hallucinations, and this is the position the audience is also put in at the mercy of the film’s storyteller.

            Despite early efforts by his father to help him become something other than a criminal, Jesco is set on a path of destruction. It seems purposeless, until he finds a cause to direct his madness at. Though he and his father rarely got along, Jesco feels to the need to avenge him when two local drunks kill him for sport one night.

            Even when Jesco puts to use what is father taught him and begins dancing for a living, his wild temperament make it difficult for any kind of stability. There is much more to this film than the psychopathic elements, and the dancing alone stands as a slice of honest Americana. It is the violence which comes with it that is truly frightening.