By Michael Lyons
If the biggest competition you’re concerned about on Super Bowl Sunday is between whether to have another buffalo wing or more nachos before the next commercial comes on, you may not have much of a rooting interest in the actual game.
If that’s the case, consider using Super Bowl Sunday as an opportunity to celebrate the 45th anniversary of one of the most popular football movies ever made, “The Longest Yard.”
In it, Burt Reynolds plays party boy NFL player Paul “Wrecking” Crew, who finds himself arrested and thrown in a seedy Southern prison, after taking a cop on a drunken car chase
Crew is soon literally playing for his life, as he rounds up a Team of hardened convicts to face off against the prison guards in one of the roughest, backbreaking games of football you’ve ever seen.
This was Reynolds at his swaggering, charismatic, movie star best and he delivers a memorable performance that centers a film which is constantly waivering back and forth, effectively, between comedy and raw drama.
In supporting roles, Eddie Albert, cast against type, crafts a perfect performance as the calculating Warden and veteran character actor Ed Lauter brings depth to the role of the conflicted Captain of the Guards.
Released on August 21, 1974, “The Longest Yard” is more than just a “football movie. “ Under the helm of reliable and underrated Director Robert Aldrich, the film is an analogy for bucking the establishment and a compelling redemption tale.
There have been several remakes through the years (including one in 2005, starring Adam Sandler, with Reynolds returning in a supporting role), but comparing those remakes to the original “The Longest Yard” is like, well, comparing a regular football game to The Super Bowl.
Sources:
Wikipedia
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