Smokey and the Bandit My Favorite Flick of All Time

If someone ever asked me what movie would be my choice as my all time favorite movie would be, it would definitely be Smokey and the Bandit. It never won a single Oscar and you would not find it on any all time best movie lists. Granted, the plot of it is not ground breaking at all.

It doest have a great cast though, consisting of Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, and Jerry Reed. The plot of this movie revolves around Bandit (Burt Reynolds) implying a bet that he can trek from Georgia to Texas and back bootlegging a few hundred cases of Coors Beer, which was an illegal offense back then.

If he does this, he will receive $80,000. To help him out, he enlists the help of his partner in crime Cletus (Jerry Reed), a truck driver. On the way back from Texas, Bandit picks up a runaway bride named Carrie (Sally Field). Hot on the heels of Carried is Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) whose son Junior was supposed to marry Carrie. At this point, Buford does not know that Carrie is riding along with a big time bootlegger.

The rest of the movie is basically Sheriff Justice trying to catch Bandit and Carrie. This movie isn't one where its multi layered and has to be watched more than once to discover everything about it. You can get the whole concept of the movie in one watching. To put it in simple terms, it is one long chase scene. The thing that works for me with this movie is that with all the hundreds of times that I have watched it growing up, it still holds up and holds my interest to this day.

I can pop it in anytime regardless of what kind of day I'm having and enjoy watching it no matter what. Hal Needham, the director of this movie was a veteran stunt coordinator. Therefore from his experience in that field, the chase scenes in this movie are arguably some of the best and most entertaining around. For most of the film, the shots give you the feeling that you are in the car with the characters hearing their conversations.

A prime example is all the scenes of Cletus in the cab of his truck talking to Bandit on the cb radio. In all of these shots, you feel like you are riding along with Cletus as his passenger in on the bootlegging scheme. These in-vehicle shots also provide you with Buford T. Justice's off banter and witty remarks which are some of my favorite parts of the movie. Hal Needham's style of having a 96 minute chase scene with dialogue thrown in succeeds for this movie.

The movie doesn't try to be anything more than what it is. It is what it sets out to be. That is a fun movie with lots of car chases and not a lot to think about when watching it. Usually I'm one for a movie with many layers to it but this movie departure from my norm works for me.