Classic 70s Movie: “Smokey and the Bandit”
September is Classic 70s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from John Henderson.
Movie Title: Smokey and the Bandit
Year: 1977
Writers: Hal Needham & Robert L. Levy (story), James Lee Barrett and Charles Shyer & Alan Mandel (screenplay)
Lead Actors: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason
Director: Hal Needham
Plot Summary: A maverick race car driver makes an 80,000-dollar bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX, to Atlanta, GA within 28 hours.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 70s Movie: The movie is a non-stop car chase, full of incredible stunts and a feel-good vibe from start to its satisfying conclusion. Along with Jaws in 1975 and Star Wars (released two days prior to Smokey and the Bandit), it marked a break from many of the serious movies that had been prevalent to that point. While films such as All The President’s Men and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest were quite popular, audiences were starting to respond more to escapist entertainment. By 1978, films such as Grease, Animal House and Every Which Way But Loose were all huge box office hits.
Smokey and the Bandit also led a wave of similarly-themed “good ‘ol boy” trucker movies such as Convoy (1978) and Breaker! Breaker! (1977) and helped inspire television’s The Dukes of Hazzard.
In the 1970s, Burt Reynolds was already a popular movie actor with films such as Deliverance and The Longest Yard but Smokey and the Bandit made him a star. According to a New York Times article, Reynolds was the #1 top money-making star at the box office from 1978–1982.
The movie also made a film star out of Sally Field who was primarily known as a television actor in such shows as The Flying Nun and Gidget. In 1979, she would win an Oscar for Best Actress for her work in Norma Rae.
The success of Smokey and the Bandit led to two sequels as well as four other movies directed by Needham and starring Reynolds, including 1978’s Hooper which was also a top ten box office hit that year.
Released May 27th, Smokey and the Bandit made $126 million in 1977 (second only to Star Wars) and is ranked as the twelfth highest-grossing movie of the 1970s. The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: Shortly into the movie, Bandit is being chased by the cops. As he eludes them, he eases his car up to the camera and smiles directly at the audience before driving off. It’s a cocky move but in this movie with its good-humored tone, it works.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: Bandit, on asked why he’s agreed to the challenge: “For the good old American life: For the money, for the glory, and for the fun… mostly for the money.”
[regarding Bandit sleeping in a hammock]
Big Enos: “Son, you’re looking at a legend.”
Little Enos: “I guess a legend and an out-of-work bum look a lot alike, daddy.”
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie:
1. The stunt work. Director Needham started in the industry as a stuntman. Later, he did stunt coordinating and second unit directing on films such as White Lightning, Gator, and The Longest Yard, all starring Reynolds whom Needham stunt-doubled for on several films. As a result, the stunt work in this movie is amazing and undoubtedly a main reason for the film’s success. One stunt in particular should be mentioned. It features Bandit’s Trans Am jumping 70 feet across a demolished bridge. The car used was specially modified to get up to the speed required to make the jump and was totaled when it landed on the other side.
2. The plot of the film involves getting a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta and getting caught with the beer was a crime of bootlegging. At the time, Coors, which is brewed in Colorado, was not licensed in states east of the Mississippi River due to its lack of preservatives which caused the beer to spoil within a week if it was not kept cold during transport.
3. There is one scene in the movie that puts a damper on the fun, however. Immediately after the bridge jump scene, when Justice discovers that one of the sheriffs involved in the pursuit is African American, he looks at his son and laments “What the hell is the world coming to?” I guess you could defend it as showing just how out-of-touch Justice is but it’s played for laughs and, as a result, is incredibly uncomfortable and lets all the air out of the scene. Click here to see it:
Thanks, John! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
We already have a set of 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 70s Movies.
Thanks to all of you for your participation in this project, creating a resource for writers, movies we should all watch to help learn the craft of screenwriting!
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