Folk Opry

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS Directed by JOHN G. AVILDSEN Screenplay by THOMAS RICKMAN

W.W. (Burt Reynolds) is a backwoods con man with a predilection for ripping off gas stations belonging to an oil company that has done him wrong in some unspecified way. The Dixie Dancekings are a musical organization that operates about as far up country as you can get without actually becoming a hermit. The former joins the latter --uninvited--as a ploy to elude a cop who has trailed him into a roadhouse where the Dancekings are playing. W.W. has no difficulty persuading the law that he is the group's manager. He goes on to convince the group that if he actually took over for them, fame and fortune--or at least a shot at the Grand Ole Opry--would be theirs.

Since that is what the Dancekings dream of and since this movie is a kind of folk tale, W.W. is able to make good on his promise. Before that happens, there are adventures on the road, including some comical chasing around in cars, an inventive assault on a drive-in bank, and a testy love affair between W.W. and the group's lead singer (Conny Van Dyke). There is also a reasonably subtle examination of a shifting relationship between band and interloper.

To know W.W. is to learn that he is not half as clever as he looks--or thinks he is. As the Dancekings' faith in his ability to conduct them to the top of the charts wavers, the group's desire to protect him from the worst consequences of his scheming grows in a rather touching way, though Director Avildsen sensibly makes no big thing of it.

No Nostalgia. Indeed, this refusal to inflate anything in the movie is its best quality. The story is set in the 1950s, on which much nostalgic yearning now centers, but Avildsen's camera focuses only casually on the artifacts of that period. There is at the moment a powerful desire among pop culturists (and cultists) to strip-mine the country-and-western field for meaningful nuggets that will help explain us to ourselves. That, too, is something Avildsen neatly avoids. Instead, he gives us the movie equivalent of the kind of song the Dancekings themselves might feature. It has a catchy beat and a clear emotional appeal. Easy to watch, the film is also easy to forget--but very pleasant and unpretentious.

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