Redux: Smokey and the Bandit.

Review #033 Redux: Smokey and the Bandit.

Cast: 

Burt Reynolds (Bo "Bandit' Darville), Sally Field (Carrie), Jerry Reed (Cledus "Snowman" Snow), Jackie Gleason (Sheriff Buford T. Justice), Mike Henry (Junior Justice), Pat McCormick (Big Enos Burdette), Paul Williams (Little Enos Burdette), Macon McCalman (Mr. B), Susan McIver (Hot Pants), and George Reynolds (Sheriff Branford) Directed by Hal Needham.

Review: 

"I'll never win an Academy Award. But I'll be a rich son of a bitch." - Hal Needham

I first saw this movie at the age of fourteen in 2011. I found the movie (and I quote) "a load of fun.", one that proved quite humorous and captivating in its sequences involving cars, trucks...you get the idea. Over ten years later, it is interesting to consider how a film can age after 45 years. On May 19, 1977, Smokey and the Bandit premiered at Radio City Music Hall as a Rastar production from Universal Pictures. The way it came together might be as interesting as the actual film, since one has to remember that it was the brainchild of a former stuntman making his debut. Born in Tennessee, Hal Needham served in the United States Army as a paratrooper during the Korean War before entering Hollywood as a stuntman in 1956 (after stints as an airplane jumper and tree trimming), which resulted in work for various productions in television and film, and it was here that he met Reynolds while serving as his double on television in 1959, which soon resulted in a long-lasting friendship (to the point where he lived in the guesthouse of Reynolds for twelve years). He soon did stunt coordination and second unit action, most notably with The Longest Yard (1974). Needham approached Reynolds about doing the film based on his script (originally set for a B-movie target that would have had Jerry Reed as star) when he had trouble getting studios to take him seriously as a director. Reynolds, despite apparently calling it one of the worst scripts he ever read, decided to do the movie with Needham. For better or worse, this is the one film that Needham is best remembered for, despite the fact that he directed a handful of features and television work in the next two decades (his last theatrical film however was Rad (1986)). This would include further collaborations with Reynolds such Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run films (1981, 1983), and Stroker Ace (1983). The Bandit series would continue with Needham, Reynolds, Field, Gleason, and Reed each doing Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983) saw only Reed & Gleason return for what was surely far less returns than the previous film (which was already a huge disappointment). One further Bandit came around with four made-for-television films that were all directed by Needham in 1994 before he retired in 1999 (perhaps fittingly, his last project was a TV film with Reynolds as the star). Needham died at the age of 82 in 2013, but not before he was celebrated with an Honorary Academy Award as a pioneer in stunt technology and procedures in safety. The writers for the film were Needham and Robert L. Levy (who also served as a producer) for the story while the screenplay was done by James Lee Barrett (author/writer/producer best known for scripts such as The Cheyenne Social Club), Charles Shyer (his first credit), and Alan Mandel.

I could go quite a bit about weird trivia about this movie (like Alfred Hitchcock saying it was one of his favorite films), but it helps to get to the point. The reason the film works so well isn't really because of any great tense moments or elaborate directing (as this is a movie full of improvisation more than anything) There is a good reason this was the second highest grossing movie of the year of 1977, and that is because it captures the essence of entertainment that comes with adventure and humor. It is probably up there as one of the best films with Burt Reynolds as a star (one he cited as the most fun he ever had in making) and definitely a movie you could nickname a "Southern classic". We are talking a movie where Coors Banquet Beer is something to get down to Georgia (at the time, one could not buy or transport the beer east of Oklahoma) in a hurry that features three former television stars, two award-winning singers, a football player-turned actor, and a comedy writer-turned actor. But the main point is this: it may have a loosely-developed story, but it doesn't cloud all the fun and excitement one manages to get from the film, one that is the definitive feature for both Needham and Reynolds in its execution of comedy and adventure. It isn't perfect, but then no movie truly is perfect, and it is the importance of picking movies that one can see again and again that truly matters when it comes to an appreciation of cinema or "Americana" in general; in other words, it wears its appeal and flaws on its sleeve with no filter or shame.

Readers and anyone familiar with cinema of the time know that Reynolds cultivated his lovable rogue persona into stardom with Deliverance (1972) after years of toiling in television and low-budget films. Of course, this film wasn't his first rodeo when it came to car-action films, since White Lightning (1973) was a well-regarded hit in the South. He has the comic timing and confidence required here for a "good ol' boy" movie that winks to the camera with the appeal to everyone (the folks that want to be him and the folks that want to go home with him). Sure, Deliverance might be a tight rival on the top tier of Reynolds movies, but this is the movie I find myself going back to again and again more than anything (besides, his other films with Needham never quite had the same magic). It does seem weird to consider that Field was actually a television presence before finding eventual fame in film, but it was this film, alongside the TV production of Sybil (1976), that helped her break out of just being known as the star of Gidget and The Flying Nun, for which you can credit Reynolds for fighting for her to be cast (arguing that "talent is sexy"). As such, she makes an excellent partner to Reynolds because of her own quick timing and energetic grace that make for instant chemistry (they would star in three other films together). And then of course there is Reed. The Atlanta native grew up with an ambition to be a star in Nashville from a young age, and he eventually proved to be successful in country music (both writing and singing music alongside his guitar-playing). As a close friend of Reynolds, he had appeared with him in a variety of films such as W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1974) and Gator (1976), but it is his singing (which won him three Grammy Awards) that he is obviously best known for, particularly with his singing of "East Bound and Down" (written by Reed and Dick Feller), which has endured in my mind for many, many years with its beat and singing, with his energy proving quite infectious as both actor and singer. Gleason was a television icon for two decades, and yet he had time to dabble in film roles alongside singing (his "mood music", I kid you not, actually had one album that stayed on the top ten in charts for nearly three years), and Reynolds personally wanted him for the film, for which Needham would allow him free rein to ad-lib. In fact, it was Gleason who came up with one of the best little sequences of the movie: the one and only scene where Gleason and Reynolds share a scene together, which the two setup with efficient timing; Gleason and Henry make a worthy 1-2 bumbling punch together, which also goes for McCormick (writer on The Tonight Show) and Williams (Academy Award winning songwriter), who each serve as a useful foil for Reynolds. The 96-minute run-time proves just right when it comes to not overstaying its welcome (editors Walter Hannemann and Angelo Ross earned the film's one Academy Award nomination), one that moves from scene to scene with charm that paces itself with its car sequences that are executed crisply without just being loud silly sequences that wreck cars just to wreck cars. There are a handful of scenes one could highlight, such as Reynolds and Reed bumbling through acquiring beer from Texarkana or when Field tries her hand at driving the Trans Am (which still exudes sleek excellence), but the best way to enjoy it is to see for yourself. As a whole, it is the kind of fun-loving movie that packed the right people together for the right movie at the right time for a movie that has endured for 45 years because of how it captures the Americana spirit of fun and good times in all of the excesses that come with doing so for one of the best movies in the career of both Reynolds and Needham, a pairing like no other.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.