LIVE POLL: Favorite Moonshine Making, Running or Drinking Movie

@TheOldJalapenoman​, I am glad you mentioned it, as it was creative plot point and worthy of noting. But, since it is a Friday poll I am trying to keep the answer pool in the 3-7 option range and exclusively focused on those movies that moonshine dominates the story. Plus, I think I am pushing the scope by even limiting it to moonshine making, moonshine distribution and moonshine consumption. I am even hesitant to include 'The Great Escape', where the moonshine is only part of the story, but since the moonshine plotline plays out over several scenes and has tunnel repercussions, I decided to include it for a combination of reasons.

@urbanemovies​ 

Face-Off polls have 2-5 options, and since you removed face-off from the title maybe you don't have to limit the list to seven.

Sometimes, non-face-off polls have gone live on Fridays.

@Jessica​,

I was aware Face-Off polls have two to five options, that why I removed the face-off extension once I got above five. The answer pool is more driven by the strength of the moonshine plots, and to some degree star power to get quality answer options. 

Since, I feel there are two perfect options that seem to have it all (Lawless & Thunder Road), and three more strong options that have bewteen 2,000-3,000 in IMDb votes, plus another two that have minor drawbacks (The Great Escape & Moonrunners), seven seems like the right number, unless I missed an obvious choice.

Most of the other possibilities seem to be more flawed either with lots of votes (>5k), but moonshining being a secondary plot point, or less voted (<1k) with moonshining being a more significant part of the total story. There definitely seems like there was a "golden age of moonshine movies" in the 1970s, but since then those movies with moonshining have been more complex movies and seemed to move that plot element more to the background.

I also looked at number of well-voted bootlegging movies, but most were about beer or commercially-made smuggled imported hard liquor and not within the moonshine scope or in the spirit of the holiday. The rest of decent moonshine bootlegging movies seems to be either not well-voted in numbers, ratings, or both. I did find a couple foreign-made films that conceivably could be included, but those either were flawed or I felt that as group they weren't true to this uniquely American holiday or the rural backwoods American origin of term.

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of Moonshine’s Name

The name “moonshine” is a perfect example of language capturing a complex cultural phenomenon. From its roots in old English describing secretive nighttime activity to its association with illegal distilling during America’s turbulent Prohibition era, the term reflects both practical realities and deeper social meanings.

Moonshine embodies the spirit of defiance, resourcefulness, and tradition. Its name conjures images of secret stills under glowing moonlight, families passing down recipes, and communities bound together by shared history.

This rich tapestry makes the word much more than a simple label for illicit liquor; it’s a symbol of human resilience and ingenuity.

Whether encountered in a dusty Appalachian cabin or on a modern liquor shelf, moonshine’s name carries with it stories of survival and rebellion. It reminds us how language evolves alongside culture, preserving moments of history and identity.

For those fascinated by names and their meanings, moonshine offers a compelling case study — and if you enjoy exploring unique names, you might also appreciate the variety of fun and amusing team names or the charm of clever group names for cousins.

Names, after all, are powerful vessels of meaning, connecting us to our past and shaping how we understand the world.

If I added any other moonshine titles, they likely would come from these two tiers:

White Lightning 1973 1h 41m PG  6.4  (6.7K)

Big Bad Mama 5.7  (3.5K) 1974 1h 24m R 

Stalag 17 7.9  (60K) 1953 2h

Still 2018 1h 36m 5.2 (1.5K)

The Moonshine War 5.9  (729) 1970 1h 40m 

Thunder and Lightning 5.3  (597) 1977 1h 35m PG 

The Devil's 8 5.1  (482) 1969 1h 38m PG-13 

Moonshine Highway 5.8  (411) 1996 1h 36m PG-13 

@urbanemovies​   Okay, but if you want to concentrate on just moonshine, you rreally need to look at the series of Snuffy Smith silent films from the 20's about Snuffy Smith and Barney Google.  This continued as cartoons in the 30's, two feature length films in the 40's, and then a cartoon television series in the 60's.  Look up Barney Google and Snuffy Smith on Wikipedia if you want all of the titles and the history of the series.

The biggest live action film was probably Private Snuffy Smith from 1942.  

@TheOldJalapenoman​ I appreciate any suggestions you want to make and I will evaluate them for thier worthiness in the poll in regards to the "moonshine" theme.

Based on a keyword search, there are 156+ movies that have even a passing reference to moonshine, but the vast majority will be not enough about "moonshine" to be useful, as they won't fit the scope of the question, and the single scene or passing reference won't be substantial enough to be memorable decades later to polltakers. Those movies that are moonshine-centric enough are more likely to be not well-seen enough or not well-rated enough to be viable. As only a few poll takers will have seen the ones about moonshine, and the few that did see those films won't view them favorably enough for them to be a prefered options. 

The two feature-length Snuffy Smith films are moonshine-centric enough in their stories, but with 202 & 142 votes, they are not well-seen enough to be good answer options that a poll taker will have likely seen and with being 4.5 & 4.1 in their IMDb ratings, not likely to be rated highly enough to be a preferential choice, if they had been seen. Choices like these might get a handful votes here and there, but never seem to rise above the bottom quarter in the voting results.

I generally like the poll answer options to have 25k votes or more, but I am willing to lower that threshold to 5k to 10k for older movies. In this answer pool, I had to lower the vote threshold to 2k to get enough quality answer options that still checked all or most of the other boxes to be good fits. 

I made a special exception to list Moonrunners in the pool with 500 or so votes, simply because it was the precursor to the 'Dukes of Hazzard' franchise (with those franchise films getting up to 85k in votes) and was far more about moonshining than any of the other four franchise movies that seemed to be about everything but moonshine (from going to Hollywood to defeating a plan to turn Hazzard County into one big coal strip mine).

Sniffy Smith Franchise

@Pencho15​ Thanks.