Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, let’s go with arguably biggest comedy-action film of the 1970s: “Smokey and the Bandit” with Burt Reynolds and Jackie “The Great One” Gleason, in just about the funniest “good guy—sheriff” duo in cinema history.
At its heart, “Smokey and the Bandit” is a car-chase movie and Burt, in his signature role whose character is “Bo Darville” and his citizens band (CB) radio “handle” is the “Bandit,” does a great job and Gleason gleefully and wonderful abandon introduced himself to a new generation of fans as “Sheriff Buford T. Justice,” whose “handle” is “Smokey Bear.”
As for the plot of “Smokey and the Bandit,” you get Burt accepting a challenge to bring an 18-wheeler full of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, to Atlanta – and at the time Coors beer wasn’t registered to be sold east of the Mississippi River (they call it “bootlegging” in the film, but it was more of an administrative thing than true “bootlegging”).
Along the way with iconic music sung by Jerry Reed, who plays the “Snowman” to Reynolds’ “Bandit,” Burt picks up a hitchhiker (Sally Field, who gets hitched to the CB nickname “Frog”) and, unknown to Burt, she’s fleeing a wedding and running from Gleason’s son. Of course, Gleason chasing Burt is the soul of “Smokey and the Bandit.”
“Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977 helped shift the then-popular CB radio craze to new heights as well as introduced non-CB audiences to its slang and protocols. From a “smokey” (highway patrol troopers because of their distinctive “Smokey Bear” style hats) to a “Kojak with a Kodak” (an officer using radar akin to using a hand-held camera and described from a popular tee-vee show starring Telly Savalas as “Lt. Theo Kojak”) to an “Evel Knievel” (a motorcycle cop described from the legendary stunt performer) to “going 10-100” (urinating).
Well, alrighty, then!
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and watch “Smokey and the Bandit.” It is available free from several subscription services and is available to rent on a variety of streaming platforms. You will thank me later, if you find and watch “Smokey and the Bandit.”
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