For people of a certain age, Smokey and the Bandit isn’t just a film, it’s a cultural touchstone, the epitome of the Carter era and the anti-authority ethos of the post-Vietnam shift of society. The idea of a guy in a cool car driving rings around comical police officers was ubiquitous, and The Dukes of Hazzard and other shows highlighted this celebration rural/Southern rebellion.
Another element was the national speed limit, which I was too young to appreciate but which truckers (and everyone else) despised. Various countermeasures were developed, but in the time before cell phones, CB radios offered drivers a chance to share information on speed traps and the location of law enforcement.
Anyhow, I recently watched it with my 20-year-old daughter, and her reaction was interesting. She did not know what to make of it at first because the world that it was set in was so alien. The cars, the CBs, the casual lawbreaking attitude, the trucker culture, all of this was strange.
Jackie Gleason’s “Sheriff Buford T. Justice” also took some getting used to, but he slowly grew on her and by the end of the film he had her in stitches. No real surprises, but one thing that immediately got her attention was the price of two cheeseburgers and an iced tea: “a buck-fifty.” She sat up at that and stared at me in disbelief. Yep, things cost a lot less back then.
As for me, of course I had seen it many times before and watched the DVD when we initially bought it, but I did notice a couple of things that stand out in retrospect. The first is the lack of a sex scene. Now the film was rated PG, and certainly celebrated Sally Fields’ figure (especially her skin-tight jeans), but it was positively Hayes Code-compatible in terms of them kissing for a bit and then the scene ends and the next thing we see is Bruce Reynolds’ cowboy hat sitting on the car antenna, with obvious implications that they did the deed. Sally Field is also purring contentedly as they savor the moment before getting rolling again.
The other is that while there is some cussing, the F-word is actually blooped out by a horn, though the lip-reading is painfully easy.
It’s interesting that within a few years, sex scenes – nude or not – would be pretty common, even on broadcast television. Yet in 1977, there was still a degree of modesty in mainstream cinema.
Yes, some of the tropes are silly and the iconic Firebird being able to crash through barriers and buildings without so much as scratching the paint while cop cars are wrecked by the dozens is a bit silly, but the whole film is silly. I think it adds to the comedic aspect of it. Oh, and Jerry Reed’s music is great.
Chateau Lloyd 
Leave a comment