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. After he orders her out of his house, Melanie empties Jake's checking account, hoping to spur him into ending the marriage. But in the original ending, there was a fake-out that made audiences believe that Melanie died out on that beach. Henry and Mattie Sweet had one son, also Henry W. Sweet (1902-1990). Jake walks in holding Melanie in his arms who looks unconscious. Tennant recalled taking a trip to the South before rewriting the movie, and that helped cement its southern feel. Melanie , Jake , Sweet Home Alabama. . Ed King, the song's cowriter, contradicted his former bandmates in a 2009 post on his website. And, whoa, I'm gonna get in trouble over this whole dang post!"[16]. Tennant: I didn't realize how funny that line would be, but when Melanie [Lynskey] does her whole thing about Jaclyn Smith and the designer, she is just brilliant and can make anything work. I was not someone who yearned to be famous and there was a point where I did see a shift. The clips shown in the credits of the movie; is the child featured in their now happy lives, Witherspoons' daughter Ava? Sweet Home Alabama was the first film allowed to shoot in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attacks. 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 . The film ultimately ends with Witherspoons character staying with her ex-husband, and the pair of them get married again. In order to depict two people from Alabama, they had to practice their Southern drawl. of them Melanie's parents are "scared" by a punk with a pierced tongue, It was always let's just find someone good. And I was like, "I've known her since she was 15. Lucas: Reese was very unsure of me and had no reason not to be. Reese Witherspoon terrific heartfelt performance makes this movie work. Alabama Crimson Tide "Sweet Home Alabama" Iron Bowl Alabama vs. Auburn 2012 "Southern Comforts: 25 Best Songs About the South", "Unfurling 'Sweet Home Alabama,' A Tapestry Of Southern Discomfort", "The 25 Greatest Lynyrd Skynyrd Songs of All Time", Cash Box Top 100 Singles, October 19, 1974, "Lynyrd Skynyrd Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)", Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 28, 1974, "Danish single certifications Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama", "Italian single certifications Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama", "British single certifications Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama", "American single certifications Lynyrd Skynyrd Sweet Home Alabama", Recording Industry Association of America, "Lynyrd Skynyrd Song Turns Alabama Tourist Theme", State's New License Plates Feature Beach Scene and 'Sweet Home Alabama', "Dave Mustaine wrote a Metallica song ripping off "Sweet Home Alabama". 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. It is still roaming town because it somehow survived the attempt to blow it up and it either never had cancer or has gone into remission. The mildly entertaining romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama features an equally take-it-or-leave-it soundtrack that mixes country, rock, and pop and excerpts of George Fenton's score. 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. The home that Melanie tries to pass off as her childhood home, the Carmichael Plantation, is actually the Oak Hill Berry Museum, which is a historic landmark in Georgia. Intimidated by the city and her success, he returned home to make something of himself first. (c) universal music publishing, inc. It was released in the United States on September 27, 2002, by Buena Vista Pictures. All rights reserved. Ed Araquel/Netflix. "We all did what WE could do!" By this stage in the early 2000s, shed built a career quickly and impressively off a mix of very smart choices and very savvy commercial picks. Zero. The ending was reshot because test audiences thought Reese Witherspoon's character died. 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. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. Tennant said Parks had a dog who would jump in the water and fetch rocks that were at the bottom. Tennant has written a treatment for a sequel about Witherspoon's character's child going to college. 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. "I don't care about your past, all I want to know is if there's a place for me in your future.". Sign up for notifications from Insider! But I was terrified I was going to be fired before we even started. She and Jake have a heart-to-heart, and Melanie realises why he never signed their divorce papers. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. Its evenly balanced. The reaction of Melanie's mother at the supposed death of her daughter apparently upset the test audiences so much, that the production crew reshot the whole reception scene, minus the practical joke. Answer: baby girl. It's the "almost" part that makes the movie work. Reese Witherspoon was just coming off the success of "Legally Blonde" when she agreed to play the southern troublemaker turned New York City fashion designer Melanie Carmichael. 15. New York fashion designer Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. Now we all did what we could do Stay up to date with what you want to know. The streets and storefronts of Crawfordville, Georgia, were used as the backdrop for the Catfish Festival and other downtown scenes. What happens next undermines that ending, though, as her husband seemingly carries the corpse of Melanie back into the wedding reception and announces that shes dead. Since "All Summer Long"'s release, the original song has also charted at number 44 on the UK Singles Chart. Andy just kept having my back. They were laying on the limousine as we drove away. 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. "All Summer Long" also samples Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", which has similar chord progression to "Sweet Home Alabama". From Reese Witherspoon to Josh Lucas. Tagged: Sweet Home Alabama, First Love. Jake and Melanie do this as a practical joke. Download Sweet Home Alabama stock photos. Literally, Nina Jacobson, head of Buena Vista Pictures, walked up the aisle before the lights had even come up and said to me, Were reshooting the ending., Lucas told Insider that he liked the original ending I thought it was funny and silly and weird, he remembered and was worrid when word came down that they were reshooting it. You can see tucked into the top of her left boot the battery pack for her microphone and the wires going up her skirt. As Melanie is walking across the battlefield looking for her father she steps across 'dead bodies'. Pop Market DiscogsPop culture, or popular culture, is the collection of ideas, opinions, and images popular within a culture at a given time. Als u niet wilt dat wij en onze partners cookies en persoonsgegevens voor deze aanvullende doeleinden gebruiken, klik dan op 'Alles weigeren'. "The audience loved the movie up until that shot." Lucas: It never bodes well when you hear you're doing a major reshoot, but it worked out. Lucas: We were in it. Sweet Home Alabama. It received a mixed critical reception[2] but was a success at the box office.[1]. Trivia: 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. She's recalling the life she had with Jake and the baby they lost due to her miscarriage. How come it took this long? Then he auditioned to play the male lead, Jake, in "Sweet Home Alabama. Sweet Home Alabama. Everyone was pretty much in the same zone, said Lucas in an interview with IGN. Free or royalty-free photos and images. 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. Learn to play Lynyrd Skynyrd with easy chords for beginners. And hardly anyone in America noticed. ", Lucas: I remember the audition so well because I don't know if there's a handful of auditions that I've ever had that I felt worse about. Felony Melanie - Sweet Home Alabama Suite (Score) George Fenton. There's this motto: Act like a movie star and people will treat you like a movie star. It held the record for best September opening for a decade. And thats just what the movie-going audience was looking for back in 2002. Spoiler warning: the ending of Sweet Home Alabama is directly discussed towards the end of this article. Apparently, I did. Tell the truth A list about the best ships in the DR franchise so far!Enjoy!Sources: thetoptensMusic: Despair Searching - Remix Cover (Danganronpa V3: . In a sequence Padahal, Bobby Ray merupakan sosok yang selalu mendukung impian-impian Melanie sejak kecil. "Sweet Home Alabama" follows Melanie as she travels to her Alabama hometown to finalize her divorce from her childhood sweetheart, Jake (Lucas), so she can marry Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), the son of the New York City mayor (Candice Bergen). 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. I originally had my doubts about seeing this one but I bought the DVD and I highly enjoyed the movie. Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music."[10]. That's not who I am, and maybe that's why I was right for Jake and have a connection to him. They put in the script a dog who dives for a bone feeling it was a good example of small-town America but the movie dog never wanted to go in the water. Written by C. Jay Cox, it stars Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey. Lucas has built an impressive career that includes movies like "Hulk," "Glory Road," and "Ford v Ferrari." I thought it was funny and silly and weird. caitlyn smith starfire vinyl. 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. Jake: The only reason I ain't signing is cause you've turned into some hoity-toity Yankee bitch, and I'd like nothing better right now than to piss you off. Expand. she would say to me. D In Birmingham they C love the G Gov'nor F Boo C hoo D hoo ! "[13], Further complicating the racial politics of the song is the fact that Merry Clayton and Clydie King, two well-known black studio singers, are heard on the track as backing vocalists. 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. Melanie reconciles with her friends and learns that after she split with Jake, he had followed her to New York to win her back. While visiting a nearby restaurant/resort with a glassblowing gallery, they admire the glass sculptures that are similar to ones they have seen in New York. And that turned out to be "Legally Blonde." It's not a popular opinion but Wallace stood for the average white guy in the South. This could mean that the Sang-wook we see in the final scene is in fact Ui . Trivia. The script was just as bad as I thought it was before, but I thought the idea was great. (01:08:15), Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when Melanie is on the beach with Jake and she goes to kiss him she has her hands on his face, but in the next shot her arms are stretched out and she wraps them around his neck. 29. My producing partner and my editor, who are both women, were in the edit room with me. (31,898) 6.2 1 h 48 min 2002 X-Ray PG-13. Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback. 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. When Melanie's mom says stuff like, "Go get them Yankees," and we play it for laughs, I don't know. There are only two hitches. It was also covered by The Jacquie Young Band, Alabama, Wild Junkers, Chihiro Onitsuka and other artists. Tennant: I may have had Reese slap him a few more times just to fuck with him. The stuff she does in every take is wonderful. Tennant: I don't know why we thought that was really funny. So I went home and talked to my wife and she said, "I was proposed to at Tiffany's." With a $35.6 million opening weekend, the movie held the record for the best-ever September opening for 10 years. The site's critics consensus reads: "Reese Witherspoon is charming enough, but the road to Alabama is well-traveled. ", 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. Reese and I were in this relationship in a sense, not in a real-life one, but in terms of the characters they were in this thing. You can unsubscribe at any time. Glass that forms when lightning hits sand, as in the film, is called fulgurite. They were developing it for Charlize to star. Charlize Theron was originally supposed to star in the movie. So there were some intense moments. And then "Legally Blonde" came out, and I got a call from the studio and they were like, "What do you think of Reese Witherspoon?" Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, 'play that again'. On a beach in the fictional town of Pigeon Creek, Alabama, 10-year-old Jake Perry and Melanie Smooter inspect the result of lightning striking sand. And my agent said, "We spoke to them and they thought you were great and they are going to bring you back." 30 Melanie and Jake have a _________ at the end of the movie. What is humane about blowing it up and if it was gonna die of cancer all those years ago why is it still roaming around town? "Watergate doesn't bother me" because that stuff happens in politicsbut someone's conscience ought to bother them for what happened to Wallace. Pet cemeteries, just like human, have sturdy stone headstones to withstand the elements, not plastic. When Melanie announces her engagement, her father Earl asks her mother, Pearl, to pull the bologna cake out of the freezer. It's a riddle to me. Design and text 1996 - 2023 Jon Sandys. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazineshere. Andrew arrives to surprise Melanie, but upon learning her true background and that she never told him she was married, he angrily leaves. It was also the first film ever allowed to film in Tiffany's . Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. But theres still something of a case of what-if here. Sweet Home Alabama was the first film allowed to shoot in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attacks. He moved to New York City in the mid-1990s and began acting onstage while getting bit parts in movies like "American Psycho" and "You Can Count on Me." It was a Civil War reenactment going on eight or 10 miles away. 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. Tennant: That's a scene you don't expect in this kind of movie. He has the divorce papers, which Melanie hadn't signed. In the original ending of the movie, Melanie leaves her wedding and races to the beach to reconcile with Jake. Since "Sweet Home Alabama" opened in theaters Tennant made another rom-com hit, "Hitch," starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. Even though theyd known each other for a while prior to working together, Reese didnt remember who he was! Tennant: What happened was Reese's daughter, Ava, went to school with my son, so I would see Reese on occasion. The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity. The historic homes shown at Melanie's return to Pigeon Creek were shot in Eufaula, Alabama. Reese Witherspoon was at the height of her box office powers when she decided to take the lead in Sweet Home Alabama. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the . Andrew Hennings , Sweet Home Alabama. 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) I hadn't seen it since around the time it first came out. He tells everyone "Melanie Carmichael is dead." In her recollection, her initial response was negative: "[Clydie King] said the song was 'Sweet Home Alabama.' And then Reese called me and said, "You are never going to believe this, they sent me your script! Tagged: Sweet Home Alabama, First Love. In the present day, Melanie is a successful New York fashion designer who has adopted the surname "Carmichael" to hide her poor Southern roots. I was in no way established or had any real career to back that up. I was in director jail for about a year and then "Sweet Home Alabama" came around again. The early stuff in the movie, Melanie coming to Jake's house with the divorce papers for him to sign, we rehearsed that and there's a friction in the relationship and a real sense of love and passion underneath the surface. Melanie is engaged, but her past holds secrets in Alabama. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Melanies wedding to Andrew is disrupted when its revealed she never signed her divorce papers. That kind of became our North Star. In a 2013 interview, Clayton spoke at length about her decision to take the job. "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. qatar to toronto flight status. It was something I had never experienced before or since. I never had that mentality. When the movie . My memory was that Andy felt I'm the guy and then he really went to bat for me. 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. "When we showed it to a test audience the whole room was just like, 'What the fuck!'" he said. George Watters II. 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. A young woman who has reinvented herself as a New York City socialite must return home to Alabama to obtain a divorce from her husband after seven years of separation. Melanie goes to the Carmichael plantation and apologizes to Bobby Ray, whose family lives there. During Melanie and Andrew's wedding at the Carmichael estate, a lawyer arrives and halts the ceremony. I'm there tightening up things on the movie. Question: The clips shown in the credits of the movie; is the child featured in their now happy lives, Witherspoons' daughter Ava? Busy city girl comes to her rural idealic small town. Some of it was, "Josh, punch line. Jake and Melanie do this as a practical joke. Lucas: She rung my bell a couple of times. Thank you for visiting! Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. "[5], The film grossed over US$35 million in its first weekend. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a critical score of 38% based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 5.19/10. This film received mostly mixed reviews from critics. 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. (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. 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. I knew Reese because I had done a TV movie with her when she was 15. Its on the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. But at the same time, we were also making a comedy. Contact me | Privacy policy | Join the mailing list | Links. You can see tucked into the top of her left boot the battery pack for her microphone and the wires going up her skirt. 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. She ends up marrying him instead of her fiance. I was so uncomfortable and felt it wasn't working. The plot of the film revolved around the life of Melanie, a successful fashion designer. Despite the cognitive dissonance that Jewel's glossy cover of Skynryd's title track causes, it's actually not a bad reworking of the Southern rock classic into an adult alternative single. It was interesting because I had this moment where I was like, "Really?" 31 What does Andrew's mother do for a living in "Sweet Home Alabama"? raywest. 0; Melanie finds Jake at the beach planting lightning rods in the sand during a rainstorm to create more glass sculptures. You can be a stranger in a strange land if you're not from the South. Nonetheless, Clayton was persuaded to take the job, to "let the music be [her] protest. to get Wallace elected. Jake and Melanie do this as a practical joke. We would have lunch every year or so. The coonhound cemetery was on Moore Street in Crawfordville and the bar was located at Heavy's Barbecue near the town. As Melanie is walking across the battlefield looking for her father she steps across 'dead bodies'. I would say in some ways we pushed each other to try, I think, to find truth. Ridley Scott discusses The Last Duel box office failure, superhero films, Revisiting the 1970s films of Michael Caine: Pulp (1972), The 1950s movie that became the most expensive comedy ever, Revisiting Bandslam, and how it sets itself apart as a teen musical, Quiz Answers: 2nd September 2022 (Inside Number 10), Podcast: in conversation with Aline Brosh McKenna, Remembering The Outsiders: a video Film Stories, By continuing you accept the privacy policy.