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| Burt Reynolds in the original version of "The Longest Yard". Source: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/longest-yard-burt-reynolds/ (May be subject to copyright) |
Although Burt Reynolds played Paul Crew in the 1970s, the first time I saw “The Longest Yard” was a Sunday night in the 1980s.
By then, he had put together a prolific career where he freely moved between cheesey action movies, romantic comedies, and straight-up comedies.
The last time I ever saw him, he was back in prison playing for a ragtag team of convicts beating a team of sadistic guards who tormented them in prison.
The years before
Probably the first Burt Reynolds movie I saw was “Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977 with real-life girlfriend Sally Field, Jerry Reed who was best known as a singer at that point, and Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Reynolds played the Bandit, driving a black Trans-Am with Field at his side, while Reed drove a semi-truck. They are bootlegging 400 cases of beer across stateliness with the Bandit trying to distract law enforcement. What I remember was the mural on the side of Reed’s trailer and the fact that as Gleason chased Reynolds and Reed, he kept losing more and more parts off his police cruiser.
Probably the first Burt Reynolds movie I saw was “Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977 with real-life girlfriend Sally Field, Jerry Reed who was best known as a singer at that point, and Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Reynolds played the Bandit, driving a black Trans-Am with Field at his side, while Reed drove a semi-truck. They are bootlegging 400 cases of beer across stateliness with the Bandit trying to distract law enforcement. What I remember was the mural on the side of Reed’s trailer and the fact that as Gleason chased Reynolds and Reed, he kept losing more and more parts off his police cruiser.
During art class at St. Joe’s, I remember trying to draw the truck and, more importantly, the mural on the trailer.
I also recall seeing Reynolds’ movies on peasant vision, carved up by commercial breaks. One was “Hooper” in 1978, where he played Hollywood stuntman Sonny Hooper. One scene I remember is Hooper crashing into a room, sliding across a table where people were eating, and stopping in front of a woman. She set her plate on his stomach so she could applaud.
Dawn of the decade
Burt Reynolds started the decade with “Smokey and the Bandit II” in 1980, which I also saw in the theatre. He followed that up with “The Cannonball Run” in 1981, which centred around an illegal cross-country road race, and provided him with a role very similar to “Smokey and the Bandit”.
Burt Reynolds started the decade with “Smokey and the Bandit II” in 1980, which I also saw in the theatre. He followed that up with “The Cannonball Run” in 1981, which centred around an illegal cross-country road race, and provided him with a role very similar to “Smokey and the Bandit”.
He would alternate funny and serious from then. The comedy “Paternity” was next in 1981, followed by action movie “Sharky’s Machine” the same year where he also directed. I saw a show, I think it was “That’s Incredible” that profiled Dar Robinson, a stunt man in “Sharky’s Machine”. There is a scene where Reynolds' character jumps off a building, and they show how Robinson did it. And how he is made up to look just enough like Burt Reynolds to make the scene look like Reynolds is doing the jumping. According to Wikipedia, that jump remains the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially released film.
The comedy “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” followed in 1982. There, I was young enough to still pronounce it “Worehouse”. I only discovered the correct pronunciation when I was spending a couple weeks in Brooks with my cousins. Two of my aunts went to see “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and my cousin told me what the correct pronunciation was. Another cousin told me what a whorehouse actually was.
Another comedy, “Best Friends” followed in 1982, where Reynolds co-stars with Goldie Hawn. Then came a string of movies where Reynolds played similar roles – “Stroker Ace” in 1983 where he played a NASCAR driver; “Smokey and the Bandit III” and “The Man who Loved Women”, both in 1983; and “Cannonball Run II” in 1984.
The last Burt Reynolds movie I saw in the 1980s was “City Heat”, another comedy where this time he teamed with Clint Eastwood.
After that I lost track of Burt Reynolds for 20 years.
Full circle
“The Longest Yard” is not only a great sports movie, but it is a great movie. Burt Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a disgraced former professional quarterback, stained by a point-shaving scandal, who winds up in jail. There, the warden taps him to help with the guards’ football team which plays in a semi-pro league. Crewe suggests a tune-up game, where the guards could play an exhibition game against the prisoners.
“The Longest Yard” is not only a great sports movie, but it is a great movie. Burt Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a disgraced former professional quarterback, stained by a point-shaving scandal, who winds up in jail. There, the warden taps him to help with the guards’ football team which plays in a semi-pro league. Crewe suggests a tune-up game, where the guards could play an exhibition game against the prisoners.
What follows is tough, funny, tragic, and poignant as Crew molds a disparate band of criminals into a football team, is forced to betray them, then rallies to lead them to victory.
My favourite part is the relationship Crewe develops with Caretaker, the prison scrounger, who serves as Crewe’s team manager. He is killed by another prisoner, and the warden tries to pin the rap on Crewe to blackmail him into throwing the big game. He starts to, then realizes he just can’t. He goes out and wins the game after he talks to the team in the huddle. As they break the huddle he says, “For Caretaker.”
Almost 30 years later, Adam Sandler remakes “The Longest Yard” and I was really skeptical, especially when I saw comedian Chris Rock playing Caretaker. Yet, they kept true to the original story and Caretaker again dies, and Crewe again dedicates the game to him.
What really separates the remake from an average re-boot is one simple thing.
Another character in the original movie is Nate Scarborough, a former pro football player now serving time, who helps Crewe out. He is played by Michael Conrad, best known as the sergeant who started episodes of “Hill Street Blues” with the phrase, “Let’s be careful out there.”
In the remake, the role of Nate Scarborough is played by – Burt Reynolds. It was inspired casting and Reynolds did the part justice.
That was the last movie I ever saw Burt Reynolds in.
Parting thoughts
I once read a review about the career of Burt Reynolds that essentially broke his career into two parts – movies where he had a moustache and movies where he didn’t. Without a moustache, he played serious roles. With the moustache, he played campy roles where he did not take himself too seriously. Actually, the review said he had no moustache in his good movies and a moustache in his bad movies.
I once read a review about the career of Burt Reynolds that essentially broke his career into two parts – movies where he had a moustache and movies where he didn’t. Without a moustache, he played serious roles. With the moustache, he played campy roles where he did not take himself too seriously. Actually, the review said he had no moustache in his good movies and a moustache in his bad movies.
That may be true to some extent.
His best roles may have been in “Deliverance”, “Gator”, “White Lightning” and “The Longest Yard”, where he had no moustache. The same was true of “Striptease” in 1996 and “Boogie Nights” in 1997. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe and several other awards for his role in "Boogie Nights".
All through the eighties and the campy roles, cheesey drama, and romantic comedies he had the moustache.
Even in the remake of “The Longest Yard” he had no moustache technically. He had a beard.
It’s all really just for fun, but all kidding aside, I find it fitting that the first movie I saw Burt Reynolds in and the last one were two versions of the same story.
He truly had gone and come back again.
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