The Longest Yard, 1974.
Directed by Robert Aldrich.
Starring Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Bernadette Peters, and Mike Conrad.
SYNOPSIS:
The 1974 comedic drama The Longest Yard, starring Burt Reynolds, arrives on 4K Ultra HD courtesy of Kino Lorber, which commissioned a new 4K restoration that has the film looking better than ever on home video. It’s not a great movie, but it’s a lot of fun, and Kino Lorber ported over the previously available extras, along with creating a new commentary track.
When I was a kid, the Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run movies epitomized my experience with Burt Reynolds. For years, he was the wise-cracking guy with a sly smile and all kinds of slick ways to get himself out of trouble. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered movies like Deliverance and The Longest Yard and realized he was more than that.
Was he a great actor? That’s debatable, but he was certainly a good actor who could be counted on to deliver solid leading-man performances. He’s always struck me as someone who could have been remembered very differently if only, for example, he had taken the offer to do Terms of Endearment rather than Stroker Ace.
Of course, Hollywood history is full of stories of talented people who could be counted on to get base hits but just missed a home run on multiple occasions. (Yeah, I know, I’m using a baseball metaphor in a review of a football movie).
The Longest Yard wasn’t going to be the kind of movie that made him a huge box office star, especially since his character doesn’t have much depth, but it still shows that he could be more than just the Bandit. In this film, he takes on Paul “Wrecking” Crewe, a washed-up ex-football player who left the sport in disgrace because he engaged in point shaving.
After a nasty fight with his girlfriend, he takes her sports car for a joy ride and ends up getting arrested for his antics, complete with an 18-month prison sentence. When he arrives, the warden informs him that he wants Crewe to help with the prison guards’ football team and help them win a championship.
However, Captain Wilhelm Knauer, who runs the prison guards and is a central figure on their team, doesn’t want Crewe’s help and tells him to say “No” to the warden’s offer. The other inmates don’t like Crewe because of the point-shaving scandal, though, and Crewe decides to help the team anyway to win their respect.
That complication seems to fall away from the story, though, as Knauer becomes angry at Crewe for fielding a team of inmates to play against the guards in an exhibition game. The warden likes the idea of giving his team what he expects will be an easy win, and when the prisoners show some competitive ability during the game, he pressures Crewe to ensure that the guards win by at least three touchdowns.
You can see where this is going, of course, but this is one of those movies where the journey is much more important than the destination. It’s fun to watch Crewe assemble his team and even flirt with the warden’s secretary, played by Bernadette Peters, as he tries to redeem himself with the prisoners, even though he knows it could end in the warden extending his prison sentence with bogus criminal charges.
Kino Lorber has issued this film in a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition that takes advantage of a new 4K restoration. This isn’t the kind of movie you’ll play to show off a high-end 4K setup, but it looks great on both platters. Fans of the film will certainly appreciate owning discs that won’t need another upgrade.
In the bonus features department, Kino Lorber ported over a pair of featurettes and a commentary track in addition to commissioning a new commentary with film critics Alain Silver and Kames Ursini, who wrote a biography about director Robert Aldrich. The pair dig deep into the history behind the film, Aldrich’s long career and pugnacious style of filmmaking, and other topics.
The other track features Burt Reynolds and producer Albert Ruddy, who produced The Longest Yard after The Godfather. The pair were also involved in the Cannonball Run movies, so they had a history together that’s evident throughout their commentary.
The final primary extras are a pair of 12-minute featurettes, Doing Time on The Longest Yard and Unleashing The Mean Machine. The former features Reynolds, Ruddy, some sports journalists, and others discussing the movie, and the latter brings them back along with some real NFL players to talk about its portrayal of the sport.
A trailer rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published June 1, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
