Sorted Issue 38 Jan_Feb 14 v2_Layout 1 03/12/2013 09:40 Page 26
CULTURE
DVD & BLU RAY
Getty Images
With Martin Leggatt
Stunt Double
Y
ou will be reading this review some time after I’ve actually written it, and the chances are that the source of my inspiration will have largely passed you by. The truth is, my subject matter hastily changed following the news that legendary Hollywood stuntman and director Hal Needham had passed away following a battle with cancer. At one time, Hal was the top‐ earning stuntman in the movie industry, commanding huge fees in a career that gained him 56 broken bones, a twice‐broken back, a punctured lung and the loss of most of his teeth. He was the primary stuntman for the highest‐paid actor in the world, Burt Reynolds, with whom he forged a very close friendship; he even lived in Reynolds’ property for 12 years. It was this friendship that allowed Needham to transition seamlessly from stuntman to director. The chances are that if, like me, you enjoyed a Burt Reynolds film during the seventies, Needham was the director. His first effort, for which he also wrote the screenplay, was made with the encouragement and talent of his dear friend. The film was an instant smash hit, more 26
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than recouping the very modest $3.3 million outlay and the extra $1 million that was Reynolds’ standard fee for a film. The name of the film? Smokey and the Bandit. Needham had originally hoped to make the film as a more modest B movie costing just $1 million, with his friend Jerry Reed as Bo “Bandit” Darville. However, after showing the script to Reynolds, the part was destined to become synonymous with the blue‐eyed headliner, with Reed playing truck‐driving sidekick Cledus “Snowman” Snow.
IT IS INCREDIBLY FUNNY AND WAS A HUGE BOX OFFICE SUCCESS AS A RESULT. Anchored around Reynolds, other big names were attracted to the film. Each proved to be shrewd casting, none more so than the dogged policeman in pursuit of the eponymous Bandit, Sheriff Buford T Justice, played by an excellent Jackie Gleason. Gleason was pretty much given a free rein to ad‐lib as much of his dialogue and the results are sidesplittingly funny; none more so
than the interaction between Justice and his muscular yet dim‐witted son Junior, played by Mike Henry of Tarzan fame. The premise of the film is very simple, but thanks to the interplay between the characters it is incredibly funny and was a huge box office success as a result. The Bandit is hired by scheming father and son team, the Burdettes (Pat McCormick and Paul Williams), to run an illicit shipment of Coors beer across America without being caught by the police. The Bandit, resplendent in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and accompanied by Frog (Sally Field), acts a diversionary ‘blocker’ to enable his friend Snowman to haul the cargo in his truck unmolested. In addition to the acerbic dialogue, the film is peppered with prolific use of ‘CB slang’ (developed by users of citizens’ band radio), which adds to the film’s originality and attraction. It became the fourth‐ highest grossing film of 1977, the year of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Saturday Night Fever. To finish fourth behind such high‐profile films is an indication of the film’s significance. Following the old axiom of ‘why change a winning formula?’, Needham followed the film up with
Smokey and the Bandit