OVP: Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Film: Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleeson, Mike Henry
Director: Hal Needham
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Film Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

With the recent death of Burt Reynolds (in a fast-moving world, I still think "within the last year" should qualify as recent), I caught for the first-time ever a retro screening of Smokey and the Bandit.  As someone who has seen a few of Reynolds's pictures, but not most of his most important ones, I wanted to do a retrospective of Reynolds at the time on the blog, but never got around to it.  In an odd conundrum, if you look at our most recent articles about Reynolds, you'll see we've discussed his strange associations with two unusual Hollywood deaths more than we have his films in 2019.  Though I don't think I'll have time to get to a Reynolds retrospective again this year (he'd make a great future Star of the Month), I did want to get my thoughts out about one of his most famous film roles, the Bandit, in the much-loved 1977 car-chasing flick.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Bandit (Reynolds), a local driving legend, who is recruited to drive a truck full of bootleg Coors to a party in Atlanta, Georgia (truly random fact I didn't know before I saw this film-Coors Beer was illegal to distribute east of Oklahoma before the mid-1980's, making it something of a high-end commodity on the East Coast at the time).  Bandit has to make it across the country in 28 hours in order to secure his payment of $80,000, and works with his partner Snowman (Reed), who will drive the truck while Bandit stays in front in his Trans Am, ready to distract any police officers who might try and pull over the vehicle & confiscate its illegal contents.  Along the way, Bandit runs afoul of Buford T. Justice (Gleeson), a bombastic Texas sheriff whose son Junior (Henry) was meant to marry Carrie (Field), who has by happenstance been picked up as a hitchhiker/runaway bride by Bandit.  The movie progresses with our heroes (Bandit, Snowman, & Carrie) continually outwitting Buford and Junior as they successfully get to Atlanta, beer-in-tow.

The movie is about as subtle as a jackhammer, and is not for those who are hoping for high cinema (I find it mildly amusing that we're having Cleo from 5 to 7 and Smokey and the Bandit featured in back-to-back reviews this week as you couldn't find two movies more divergent).  The film is silly, slapstick fun, and feels at home in the same vein as Animal House or Airplane!.  This is decidedly not my cup-of-tea, and I'm not compelled to see the sequels (which are famously atrocious...Field herself called the follow-up the worst movie she ever made), but it's not a bad movie.  Reynolds & Field have a natural chemistry that works in the picture, her down-home champagne and him bootleg whiskey.  Gleeson, a comic legend for a reason, stands out in his supporting role as Buford T. Justice more in-hindsight because every 80's villain would borrow from this picture, but I will admit that it was Field & Reynolds I enjoyed the most in the film.

The movie surprisingly won one Oscar nomination in its era, for Best Film Editing, and I get where this is coming from even though some of the other movies that year (Star Wars and Close Encounters) were landmarks in editing instead of just enjoyable.  The car chase sequences are a delight-combined with a rip-roaring soundtrack (particularly Jerry Reed's "East Bound and Down"), The well-structured chases do not seem repetitive, making the action just good, easy fun.  The politics of the film are atrocious (racial & sexual, in particular), to the point where you almost want to knock off most of the points that are earned by the chemistry between the two leads, but unlike Airplane! I didn't feel like they overwhelmed the movie.  Smokey inspired an endless parade of terrible sequels and ripoffs, but the original is pretty amusing, and an indication as to how Reynolds became such a big star in the first place.