After a decade of tv, desultory film gigs, and a one-off breakthru in John Boorman’s DELIVERANCE/’72 (never so daring again), Burt Reynolds hit the commercial & character paydirt needed to ride out the ‘70s with the one-two punch of WHITE LIGHTNING and THE LONGEST YARD/’74. (In retrospect, a remarkably short heyday, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT II is out by 1980.) It was LIGHTNING that earned Burt his Good-Ol’-Boy bona fides; still does. Looking fit at 37, he gets early release from prison to dig up admissible kickback dirt on Ned Beatty’s corrupt Deep Southern Sheriff, with a side order of personal revenge for his kid brother, murdered by Beatty in a harrowing prologue. The trick of the film is in how neatly the moonshine payoff storyline skips back & forth between grim doings, horseplay and sharply run car chases. That’s second-unit director/stunt driver Hal Needham putting up some serious action chops while journeyman director Joseph Sargent does the rest in solid fashion, his general lack of flair actually helping the film by keeping things grounded in something approximating reality.* Reynolds would overdose on Southern hayseed humor & moonshine ethics by the time he made GATOR/’76, his self-indulgent/self-directed sequel. But for a few years, and even occasionally after his ‘70s run, Burt held to his sweet spot.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Shades of Robert Mitchum (see THUNDER ROAD/’58) and Marlon Brando (check out Burt’s profile shots) hover around Reynolds at his best. If only he didn’t know it.
DOUBLE-BILL: *Sober-sided director Joseph Sargent let himself go just twice, in COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT/’70 and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE/’74.
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