Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Best movie of this year hands down!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Purely Joyful Movie!

Best movie ever!

It's hard to believe that Smokey and the Bandit was the highest-grossing film behind Star Wars in 1977. This film is completely ridiculous, but it's also irresistibly fun. I tell you what, though, the 70s were a different time, man.

Anyone who doesn't get a kick out of this movie probably needs help. It's Burt Reynolds at his best - playing Burt Reynolds. It's Jackie Gleason. It's 1970s - CB radios, truckers, and a black Trans Am. It's fun, not at all serious.The Bandit (Burt) runs interference for Cletus Snow's (Jerry Reed) 18-wheeler who - on a bet with Big Enos (Pat McCormick) and his sidekick son Little Enos (Paul Williams) - go from Georgia to Texas to pick up 400 cases of Coors, which at the time wasn't sold in the east and was therefore illegal, and bring it back in record time. They get to Texas and get the beer, and on the way back the fun begins. Bandit is stopped in the road by a runaway bride (Sally Field) who gets in the Trans Am and she and the Bandit are then pursued - hot pursuit - by Smokey (CB radio slang for cop), Sheriff Buford T. Justice (the one and only Jackie Gleason), and his dimwit son, Junior (Mike Henry), who is the groom left at the altar. The Bandit, with the runaway bride, and Cletus have many adventures on the return trip, escaping the sheriff and Junior who are in hot pursuit all the way to Georgia in an incrementally damaged patrol car.I am confident that this movie got little critical acclaim and that it probably won no awards because it simply cannot be taken seriously.The editors who censored the movie for TV did a horrible job. Make sure you see the unedited version.

Plot; Two drivers agree to bootleg a load of beer 1,800 miles in 28 hours only to find their mission complicated by a runaway bride and a fiercely determined sheriff who happens to be her would-be father in law.Released during the late 70s CB radio craze here in the States, 'Smokey and the Bandit' would be easy to write off as a disposable byproduct of that short-lived fad, but that would be unfair. It ain't exactly high art to be sure, but it is a skillfully directed bit of automotive ballet enhanced greatly by charming and energetic performances from its leads. Burt Reynolds was the biggest box office star in America at the time, and it's easy to see why. He's got an innate likability and an effortless charm that never seems forced. On top of being impossibly cute, Sally Field is Reynolds' equal in every measure, and the two share a wonderful chemistry. Joined by singer Jerry Reed (who delivers what may be the best performance of the lot), they form as likable a trio of heroes as you're ever going to meet. But a hero is only as good as his villain, and the Bandit has a doozy in the form of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Thanks largely to a tour de force performance from the legendary Jackie Gleason, Justice steals every scene he's in and makes for a great comic foil for our heroes.Fun, fast-paced and good-natured, 'Smokey and the Bandit' is the proto Fast and Furious that easily hangs with and often exceeds its sleek 21st century progeny.

Smokey and the Bandit was one of the top selling items of 1977 - behind Star Wars, as apologists and hype-bandits have proclaimed. Its also the inception of a crass, commercially oriented feature film style with no plot, no substance, its oddly neutered of any real bite, and its overly slick editing appears to be pulled from the world of advertising.Core plot features a sex-god redneck smooth talker driving a product-placement Pontiac TransAm like a madman all over the road, drawing police attention from a bootlegging truck convoy. Its all part of an old money wager to get illegal goods across state lines before a set deadline, however the filmmakers don't even bother concluding its premise - instead setting the action up for a sequel. Whats really wrong with Bandit, besides the relentless sexism, is its sheer lack of depth or meaning; stunt coordinator Hal Needham should have been directing a car commercial or straight-to-VHS low budget b-movie, but his friendship with bankable star Burt Reynolds put money in the project, making the car chases more insane, and the camera work more impressive. All that, however, doesn't change the fact that Needham can't direct. A key sequence involving a truck stop where Reynold's wing man gets in a bar fight illustrates his shortcomings: the scene involves a charming animal, a race relations moment, comedic misunderstandings, a barroom fight sequence, some culture war implications and a bit of nostalgic country music to boot. While a decent director could wring some weight and emotion out of the sequence, as well as some good laughs, Needhams version reads something like this: Slick set up shots. INT: Fight sequence - CUT TO - EXT - Stunt Sequence. That's about it.Basically, Hal Needham's a pre-CGI Michael Bay.I'd have given the movie a one-star rating but moved it up to three because of a) some insane car stunt moves that would have certainly impressed viewers in '77 and because b) it has nostalgic childhood value for some folks out there. (HINT: leave it in the past, Smokey and the Bandit is not really a movie, it's a car commercial.)