Williams's screen time in Smokey is relatively brief, but he makes an immediate impression as Little Enos Burdette, who sets the movie's cavalcade of car crashes in motion alongside his on-screen dad (and off-screen friend), Big Enos, played by Pat McCormick. If there was ever a film that acted as kind of a clubhouse for a time and place, it's Smokey and the Bandit." "Billy Bob Thornton once said that, in the South, Smokey and the Bandit is considered a documentary," songwriter-actor Paul Williams tells Yahoo Entertainment with a laugh.
It also became part of the pop culture firmament of the American South, where it's viewed as being more than just a smashing good time. Helmed by stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham, Smokey and the Bandit sped to a mighty $126 million, lapping the domestic gross of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Forty-five years ago, Smokey and the Bandit went head to head with Star Wars over the long Memorial Day weekend, and while George Lucas's space opera emerged as 1977's biggest hit, audiences happily went " East Bound and Down" with Burt Reynolds's boisterous bootlegger over and over again. Han Solo may be the galaxy's best smuggler, but back here on terra firma, no one outraces the Bandit. What I am saying is, it’s a blockbuster with little brain but a lot of heart, and that has earned it merit among many- including someone who is venerated like Hal Needham would probably never get venerated.Pat McCormick and Paul Williams as Big Enos and Little Enos in Smokey and the Bandit. It was also the second highest grossing film of its year of release after ‘Star Wars.’ This was apparently Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite movie, and also the film that he watched last before his death. For modern audiences, this mix may be a little jarring.But once you get attuned to, it’s an enjoyable watch. The thrilling chase sequences are always tempered with comedy which often border on the slapstick. It’s for the fun of watching Reynolds getting the better of the seemingly endless trail of cops that’s after him, time after time, occasionally with the help of his trucker friends on the road. It’s a set of reductive characterizations for sure.īut it’s not for depth of characters or realism that you should watch ‘Smokey and bandits’- if at all you choose to watch it. Carrie represents the enduring innocence which you could still find amidst life’s travesties. ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ was the directorial debut of Hal Needham- a leading film stunt director.Īs you may expect with someone like that at the helm, there are some pretty exciting action and chase scenes to be found in the 90 minute run time.īandit embodies the road-is-my-first-home spirit of Americana while the racist, profanity-spewing sheriff embodies the worst of America. This is literally the entire plot of the film.
For this reason, they are now after Bandit(and also because Bandit is wreaking havoc on the road). The groom-to-be she ran away from is played by Mike Henry- the offspring of the sheriff played by Jackie Gleason. In fact, Snowman actually rides the truck in which the Coors are transported while Bandit himself drives a Pontiac Trans Am.Īlong the way, he happens to pick up Carrie- a runaway bride who is played by Sally Fields who exudes a quirky charm in the role. )īandit brings his buddy, Snowman(Jerry Reeds) along for the ride. (Since Coors didn’t use preservatives and so got spoiled in a few days, it wasn’t available anywhere outside of Texas- its state of manufacture- at that time. But, here’s the thing: Bandit should finish the up-and-down trip in 28 hours, covering a distance of 1,800 miles in that time period.
You may wonder what’s the big deal in that. The story, for what it’s worth, is about Bandit(Burt Reynolds)- a trucker with exceptional driving skills accepting a bet that sends him to Texas where he should get 400 cases of Coors beer and get back to Georgia’s Atlanta. For another, there’s that cocky laugh, which gives you an undefinable glee every time you hear it.
ABOUT SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT MOVIES MOVIE
If you don’t like fast cars(and there is no reason why you shouldn’t), you still have reasons to like this film.įor one thing, it’s as charming as this kind of a movie could get. Essentially comprised of sequences involving high car chases, ‘Smokey and the Bandit’(1977) is strung together like a garland of fire crackers which emit the sound of Burt Reynold’s cocky laugh. If you like fast cars, you will love this movie.
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