SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT

US, 1977, 97 Minutes, Colour.
Burt Reynolds, Sajly Field, Jerry Reed, Jackle Gleason.
Directed by Hal Needham.

Smokey and the Bandit inviting a willing audience to identify and enjoy themselves. Bandit is the name, the villainy a mild case of interstate bootlegging; plot is a car chase with smashes, crashes, splashes, thrills, spills galore. Smokey is in his powerful car, his friend and dog in the accompanying truck, pursued by numerous police, but especially Buford T. Justice in the humorously exasperated form of Jackie Gleason who is after his son's jilting bride hitchhiking with the bandit, a lively Sally Field. C.B. communications enable help and eluding tactics from a cross-section of sympathizers along the way. Since it does not take itself seriously, a happily cheeky comedy. The team re-gathered for the more elaborate Hooper.

1. A successful comedy, popular film? Reflecting the enjoyment of the 705? How? Why?

2. Burt Reynolds and his impact? Hero, cheeky, affable? Sense of humour? Charm? Involved in something illegal . . . but? A hero being pursued by the police, in danger, using his wits, being smart? The bonds with the ordinary people along the way? Skills at cars, radio? Involvement in crashes and yet emerging safely? The ingredients for a popular myth hero?

3. The title and its indication of confrontation and chase? Focus on characters, police. irony of names? Indication of themes, symbols?

4. A picture of America in the 70s? The journey across the American roads through various States, the South? Americana and people, customs? Attitudes? The portrait of the various locations and the various States, the differing styles of the people, friendliness and co-operation, anti authority? Attitudes? A portrait of ordinary people?

5. The atmosphere of boot-legging in America? Traditions, the law, illegality? The pros and cons of illegal alcohol traffic? The situation in this film?' As pinpointed by the initial arrest? The portrait of the odd father and son, as figures of fun and ridicule? Their wealth, their dress, involvement with cars, wealth? Their challenge to the bandit? The humorous interplay of dialogue between father and son, their dialogue with the bandit and offering him the challenge, the money, and his setting his conditions?

6. How engaging a character was the bandit? A character audiences could identify with and like? Lazing the hammock, driving his cars, haggling for more money? The significance of his name and its reality? His reputation and his love for showing off? The way that he enticed his friend into the deal over his wife's disapproval? The hopes for more money, the thrill of the drive? Vanity? Humorously so - adolescent?

7. The bandit's friend and the bonds between the two men? His home life, his work, his driving the truck? His being presented as a foil to the bandit? Their working in tandem in the deal, on the roads, with the radio? The humour of the dog as passenger? A credible kind of driver and character?

8. The car as the extension of the bandit's personality, the skill and the power, the masculine drive? His exhilaration in driving, in getting half the journey done so quickly, the humour of the taking the beer and leaving the note? The details of the plan and its possibility of success? The irony of the girl, the wedding, being stomped, changing because of interaction with her? The significance of the relationship between the two, their talk, his learning from her, the bonds of affection? Her being a dancer, and his being a show-off? How was she a foil to him? A help to him?

9. Smokey and the police? In the form of Sherard Buford T. Justice and the humour of his name? The irony of his ineffectual son? The wedding and being jilted? The jokes of the father attacking the son? Of his pursuit of the girl, of his pursuit of the bandit, his exasperation because of radio communications, crossing State lines? His character, exasperation, language? His encounters with the various police? The people who put him wrong? The irony of his meeting the bandit in the cafe? The irony of their being so close together at the end? Merely a figure of fun? An authority symbol?

10. The portrayal of the other policemen doing the chasing, people's reactions to them, reactions to the mayhem with the cars?

11. The relationship between the bandit's car, the truck? The humour of the various manoeuvres of side-tracking the police, going cross-country, with the semi-trailers hiding the cars etc.? Why do people enjoy this so much?

12. The portrait of people on the way, the various men and women, the truckies, the prostitutes?

13. How comic a film, how much realism? The build-up to the climax and the eluding of the police? The final ironic conversation and the continued chase? The various themes of human nature, modern America? The music and the lyrics of the song and turning the bandit into a legendary figure?