The Longest Yard (1974)

One of the biggest (if not THE biggest) box office stars of the 70's, Burt Reynolds, was well cast in 1974's "The Longest Yard". A former college football player at Florida State University, Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a former pro quarterback who has disgraced himself by throwing games. He lands himself in prison after slapping his girlfriend around, stealing her car and assaulting two cops. The prison, Citrus State, has a semi-pro football team comprised of the institution's guards and is run by the power hungry warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert). At Hazen's behest and to make his prison term as peaceful as possible, Crewe agrees to assemble a team of fellow cons to give the guards a scrimmage. This of course sets up the final third of the film.

"The Longest Yard" is entertaining through and through; there is not one sequence in the movie which drags on. The interplay between Reynolds and his collection of convicts is a riot. Fine support is given by character actors Michael Conrad, Harry Caesar, Richard Kiel and Robert Tessier as cons. Real life NFL stars Ray Nitschke and Joe Kapp, representing the guardsmen, lend authenticity to the live football action. Ed Lauter (Capt. Wilhelm Knauer), the leader and quarterback of the guards, provides an excellent counter to Reynolds character.

If there is a disturbing element to the film, it is the knowledge that one watches this movie rooting for the convicts- the worst society has to offer. This is effectively off set by depicting them humanely while showing the guards as racist and demeaning. The stereotypical southern prison suggests some of these cons (especially the minorities) were more than likely railroaded or at the very least given harsher sentences than they deserved.

This movie was typical of the times for its gritty and impoliticly correct themes- a breath of fresh air compared to today's ultra sensitive society. And the recent remake, as usual in these instances, doesn't compare to the wit and fun of its predecessor; Adam Sandler couldn't hold Burt Reynolds' jock as an entertainer.

One of my favorites!

Fmovies: Bitter former football player Paul Crewe (Burt Reynolds) gets into a physical fight with his girlfriend and gets sent to prison. Everybody dismisses Crewe for suspected point shaving. Warden Hazen (Eddie Albert) manages a semi-pro football team of prison guards. Captain Knauer (Ed Lauter) leads the team and orders Crewe from joining. Hazen is not happy with Knauer's result. Crewe reluctantly agrees to organize a prisoners team and play an exhibition game.

I don't mind the Adam Sandler version but it's nothing great. This version is so much better. It is darker. It's not as jokey but the black comedy hits so much harder. It starts dark with Crewe hitting his girlfriend. At first, it doesn't even seem like a comedy except for Burt's casual sly mannerisms. It reminds me of other serious prison dramas until it turns more into a sports movie. So it works as both genre. It has great emotions and touching relationships. It's a good drama and has a great feel good development. It essentially works in all areas.

If there ever was a manipulative film, this is it. By the end you are rooting for the prisoners (the nice guys, you know, armed robbers, murderers, rapists, child molesters) against those awful guards. Those poor sweet prisoners, being taken advantage of by those sadistic guards. Then there's the warden, Mr. Douglas from Green Acres, Eddie Albert. Rotten to the core. Bert Reynolds is his mugging best, first selling out, then winning one for the Gipper. It is violent, raucous, ridiculous from the stolen uniforms to the cross dressing cheerleaders. I am a non violent person, I knew everything was designed to work over my prejudices and my primitive feelings of revenge. And yet, when the game started, I was transfixed. I don't get it. Have I no taste?

The Longest Yard fmovies. Burt Reynolds plays Paul Crewe a real man's man. After showing his woman who's boss, he splits in her car and after a great chase scene, the police find him in a bar. So the ex-football player is sent to prison, where the warden offers to shave off some time if he makes a team of the convicts to fight (and lose to) the guards' semi-pro team in a pre-season game. Every part of the movie screams greatness. From the excellent acting all around, to the superb casting (Adam Sandler can't hold a candle to Burt in this movie, that remake is gonna be horrid) Ed Lauter is a great heavy , to the great tension-filled football game that comprises a good deal of the latter half of the movie. This is one of the exceedingly too few MAN's movie and they sadly don't make them like this anymore.

My Grade: A

DVD Extras: Commentary by Burt Reynolds and Writer Albert Ruddy (Among the best I've heard); 11 minute "Doing time on the Longest Yard" featurette; 11 minute "Unleashing the Mean Machine" retrospective; an exclusive look at the re-make (looking absolute crap); Theatrical Trailer;Trailers for "The Longest Yard" remake, "Coach Carter", "Macgyver: Season 1", and "Tommy Boy"

Eye Candy: Anita Ford in a red see-thru number

The Longest Yard refers not to the territory gained and lost in a football game. For Burt Reynolds its that prison yard that he's in for the next 18 months.

Reynolds isn't one of the noblest athletes ever to grace the National Football League. He was a quarterback who was thrown out of the game in a point shaving scandal. Now he's doing time for stealing his mistress's Maserati and causing a lot of havoc and mayhem when she called the cops on him.

The Longest Yard starts to look a little like From Here To Eternity where Monty Clift's company captain Philip Ober wants him to box for the post championship. Reynolds really isn't interested in playing football any more or helping warden Eddie Albert out with his semi-pro team of prison guards. But he's got less redress than Clift did in the army and Reynolds is not a person to make too fine a point of resistance.

What Reynolds suggests is a tune-up game with a squad of the inmates to play the guards to keep them in a fighting edge. Sounds real good to Albert who has a mean streak in him that Reynolds is slow to realize. There's a lot of possibilities to inflict some legal pain and for him to reassert his authority.

The Longest Yard is first and foremost about what Reynolds will do when the crisis comes. His track record doesn't suggest any heroics, but some people do surprise you.

The antagonists Reynolds and Albert are given good support by director Robert Aldrich's picked cast. Foremost among them are Ed Lauter as the chief guard, James Hampton as the team manager, and Charles Tyner in a particularly loathsome role as a prison stoolie. He will really make your skin crawl.

Bernadette Peters is also in The Longest Yard as Albert's secretary with the delightful name of Miss Toot who takes advantage of her position with a little sexual harassment of the prisoners. I do love that Dickensian name that was given her for this film. The only other female of note is Anitra Ford who is Reynolds mistress and whose Maserati he appropriates. When Burt says he earned that Maserati you can well believe it.

The Longest Yard is in a class by itself, a sports/prison movie. A film that created it's own genre. That has to count for something.

"The Longest Yard" does not depend on the tiresome innocent-man-behind-bars schtick to evoke the inmates' humanity. Crew, Caretaker, et al are not men because they have been falsely accused, but because they maintain their manhood under conditions of mental and physical cruelty. Their humanity isn't a plot or script convention, but the core of their character. It's refreshing to discover that you're cheering for criminals despite their unapologetic bravado. IMHO, the best "prison" film ever made.