Having proved himself the rare director able to coax the best from ‘Good’ Burt Reynolds (the surprisingly resourceful actor) and ‘Bad’ Burt Reynolds (showboating Good Ol’ Boy) in THE LONGEST YARD/’74, director Robert Aldrich re-upped for seconds on this downbeat police detective character piece. Once would have been enough. Here, a similar coarseness in action, character & execution sours without the earlier film’s comic distancing. (Even worse when it flips sentimental.) Meant to be tough/true-to-life, it’s just hard-to-buy/needlessly vindictive with Burt as a burnt out cop going thru the motions on girl’s probable suicide (drugs, sex, runaway kid). Pushed to dig deeper by parents (Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan) and partner (Paul Winfield), or to wrap it up by boss Ernest Borgnine, Reynolds’ homelife is also imploding since he’s attached to high-class hooker Catherine Deneuve and she’s attached to possible suspect/crime syndicate lawyer Eddie Albert, a big money client with connections. Stewing when Denueve brings work home (left over phone sex with customers from BELLE DE JOUR?), Burt finally erupts, forcing himself on her. That does the trick (no pun intended), clears the air, opens their hearts and sets up a pair of violent endings to resolve all Burt’s crises. Steve Shagan’s pretentious, not to say misogynist writing earns much of the blame, but Aldrich is also seriously off form. Lurching preposterously to the Reactionary Right here, Aldrich, about to turn sixty at the time, then lurched just as far to the Liberal Left on his next, TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING/’77. Mid-life crisis?
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, Aldrich fore and aft. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/11/longest-yard-1974.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/07/twilights-last-gleaming-1977.html
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