"For the money, for the glory, and for the fun...mostly for the money. ": A Burt Reynolds Memorial Poll

Did we have to mention every one of these ghastly things

He missed out "Silent Movie"

^^Wasn't sure how big his part was in that...otoh I did include The Player because I think he has one of the best cameos.

Was he not in North Dallas Forty? Or was that Mack Davis and ... someone else

Nick Nolte.

Sorry, right, Mac Davis and Nick Nolte. I always get that one confused with Semi-Tough. Guess I should take it to the Mixed Up! thread

Decided to vote for fave instead of best and went with Sharky's Machine.

RIP Burt
https://imgur.com/a/7T5u9mw

i'll try again

https://i.imgur.com/qav1t25.jpg

http://awfullibrarybooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/burt-reynolds-2-1.jpg

He was the biggest star in Hollywood for several years and his movies out-earned all the competition. You look at that list of titles and you have to ask... why?

Voted Sharky’s, such a beautifully-shot, eerie, romantic, occasionally brutal film. The End and Sharky’s proved he was a gifted, tasteful director, I wish he’d done more. Also he was a bloody hilarious leading man and Best Friends in particular is sorely under-rated.

Sharky's Machine is the shit -- it also features an extremely good Henry Silva psycho gangster performance, of which there are shockingly a high amount.

Hustle with Catherine Deneuve is a lovely film, both romantic and gritty

Voted Boogie Nights, seen eight of the others. Of those, I like the Allen and Payne films, even if I didn't immediately remember that he was in them and, while hardly substantial, I agree that his cameo in The Player was great. And while it might not be the best time to say so, his work with Hal Needham might very well represent the worst recurring actor/director combo in history.

I've been vaguely meaning to see Sharky's Machine for a while now.

Henry Silva turns 90 this month btw - yes he's still alive

The Hollywood Reporter says Smokey and the Bandit was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite film. (Wikipedia says "one of his favorites").

I've reserved Sharky's Machine at the library. Inexplicably saw Smokey 2 but not the original, also the putrid Rough Cut.

Of what I've seen, I'd narrow it down chronologically to

Deliverance
The Longest Yard
Hustle
Semi-Tough
Breaking In
Citizen Ruth

His cameos in Everything About Sex and Silent Movie are certainly funnier than all that indelibly smarmy shit on the Carson show.

Burt Reynolds career might have been a lot different if the studio hadn't butchered the most ambitious film he directed, the 1985 STICK. It still has its qualities.https://t.co/do5o92Sh6u

— Dave Kehr (@dave_kehr) September 6, 2018

I rewatched Cannonball Run last night out of sheer nostalgia having not seen it since I was a kid.

ILL ADVISED.

Suckiest suck to ever suck. Yeesh.

bloopers were the best part!

I could smell that one when it came out.

Who played Reynolds in Carvey's Tonight Show sketches on SNL? I'm sure I remember this.

Hartman iirc?

lot of garbage in here but he has a few bright spots. Morbz is correct to call out Citizen Ruth, he gets a great walk-on in that

yes xp

I watched Sharky's Machine last night. Henry Silva was ubelievably weird. So much screaming!

*un-believably

Silva was a particularly good villain in a number of '80s films, mostly disreputable w/r/t critics (Sharky's, Code of Silence, Above the Law)

After killing a redneck rapist, it's party time. #BurtReynolds pic.twitter.com/iMLl5AGuqw

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) September 6, 2018

I never for a millisecond thought he was hawt

Look at him: it's like he fell on his face.

caught him in an "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (he was 24) not long ago, also featuring Harry Dean Stanton and Murray Hamilton

https://goo.gl/images/Vx1TkR

oh hell, anyway

https://goo.gl/images/Vx1TkR

and I'd forgotten the Bill Forsyth film, Breaking In, was written by John Sayles.

I rewatched Cannonball Run last night out of sheer nostalgia having not seen it since I was a kid.

ILL ADVISED

Ha! I watched it last night too. Not a good movie by any means, but kind of endearingly slapdash?

The commentary track by Needham & Albert Ruddy has to be heard to believed.

I mean, Gumball Rally showed you can make a coherent and funny movie about the Cannonball Baker race. So it's very obvious Needham & Co. threw their hands in the air and instead had a Match Game/Hollywood Squares party at 110 MPH on Fox's dime and just remembered to film it.

not even ~endearingly~ slapdash for me

Jackie Chan having to play Japanese was O_o

that's like the only thing I remember about that film

XP Apparently he was really angry about that.

Some interesting trivia is that both Cannonball Run and Stroker Ace were developed as action properties for Steve McQueen, and only became comedies after Reynolds signed on.

Voted Sharky’s, such a beautifully-shot, eerie, romantic, occasionally brutal film

Sharky's is pretty damn exploitative. What I remember after my watching it (on VHS!) years ago is an extreme close-up of Rachel Ward's ass, shot from the POV of Sharkey, after we've seen her get abused, and how terrible, TERRIBLE, the Ward-Reynonlds sexy banter is -- it's Airplane!-level worthy of parody.

But he's solid, actually, in a TV cop sort of way.

I was a bit taken aback by the skeeviness of Sharky's as well. It does have some great photography and other virtues but I'm not eager to rewatch it any time soon.

Is it as slimy as, say, 52 Pick-Up? 'Cause I love that kind of greasy early '80s thriller that makes you want to take a shower after you watch it.

Reynolds WAS a TV cop in a show called Hawk (part Native, of course). I think Dan August was a private eye.

I'm sure Burt was no day at the beach as a person, but his romantic relationship of a couple years with Dinah Shore suggested he must have good qualities. You don't hear bad words about Dinah, and she was about 20 years older.

I make no judgments about Reynolds as a person and don't care. He did admit in an interview I read years ago that Sally Field was the one who got away.

Is it as slimy as, say, 52 Pick-Up? 'Cause I love that kind of greasy early '80s thriller that makes you want to take a shower after you watch it.

― grawlix (unperson)

Soaking in it!

Is it as slimy as, say, 52 Pick-Up? 'Cause I love that kind of greasy early '80s thriller that makes you want to take a shower after you watch it.

Burt beats the hell out of her mid-movie, followed by a romantic interlude, and then at the end pushes her like a child on a tire swing, ymmv

Rachel Ward, also in in Against All Odds, set the bar for terrible femme fatales in the early Reagan era.

Burt beats the hell out of her mid-movie, followed by a romantic interlude, and then at the end pushes her like a child on a tire swing, ymmv

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion),

Ah yes! Then carries her to bed to the accompaniment of syrupy strings where he gives her a bit of stroker ace.

I also remember the governor character in Shakey being a homosexual?

The scenes in the vice squad room at the beginning (with Charles Durning as the chief) reminded me of Fort Apache, unperson, if that helps.

Fort Apache, now THERE's a sleazefest

Yeah, whatever else, Reynolds liked Florida and was involved in the arts wherever he settled down. His dinner theater with Loni Anderson in Jupier was famous for a while.

*Jupiter

Yeah, Burt & Dinah were like the Ashton & Demi of that time. He was also once married to Judy Carne which is somewhat intriguing.

I liked Burt Reynolds in many of his films and most of his appearances with Johnny Carson. There's something very friendly about a handsome leading-man type who doesn't take himself too seriously and can laugh at his own image.

He once appeared on a TV show I worked on but we didn't meet when he taped his spot. A few weeks later though, he dropped by the office about something else and we got introduced. We talked for about ten minutes about nothing that mattered one bit. But it did matter to me that he was the same self-deprecating guy with the hyena laugh who appeared often with Johnny.

Then one evening I was at a party and I listened as his ex-wife Judy Carne told a small group of folks how when she was married to him, Burt used to beat the hell out of her. From that point on, it became somewhat more difficult to like Burt Reynolds.

yeah, that was mentioned in the NYT obit. He also said of Loni Anderson "I never really liked her," which is a shitty thing to put out in public about somebody you have a kid with.

Never saw any of his Gunsmoke era, or Evening Shade.

he was at his Brando-est in Gunsmoke

https://i.imgur.com/JJeFDk4.png?1

YES. where is that? i want to go there

https://2018.xoxofest.com !

i want to go there too

inspired to make bear_on_burt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uWb784x.jpg?1

oh dear god

i'm biased, but i think it's a very nice pic

speaking of picks, i went for the boring one here (deliverance)

started watching Smokey & The Bandit for the first time, learnt 5 mins in that its back in cinemas next week, stopped.

Just saw The Last Movie Star last week The whole thing feels as shambolic as the film festival at which its set, and Reynolds feels like he’s suddenly realised that for 21 years he squandered the chance at a third act that Boogie Nights should have given him, but doesn’t quite know what to do about it.

I watched the trailer for Sharky's Machine on youtube today and the "up next" video was "the real reason you don't hear from burt reynolds anymore" :(

(I didn't watch it so I don't know)

find him charming and inyeresting in re the way he looked at his acreer and though maybe regretted itt later simply chose to have fun with his life, in his autobio he talks abt how many decisions he made in his films was purely on 'oh, shooting in jamaica? great' or chance to work with friends as opposed to this is a good part. list of roles he turned down/passed on is quite amazing too the Atlantic was citing some of them - 'Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Han Solo in Star Wars, Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the lead in Pretty Woman. He was James L. Brooks’s first choice to play the washed-up astronaut love interest in 1983’s Terms of Endearment'

tho according to Burt, Marlon threatened to quit if he was offered the part so he had no chance there app. attaching long quote from his book re Oscars night for Boogie Nights

THOUGH I’VE SEEN parts of Boogie Nights, I’ve never sat down and watched the whole thing. I asked family members not to see it and they didn’t. A few of the jocks I know gave me grief about it, but it was all in fun. I think.
The picture got rave reviews and my performance was recognized with just about every award you could win, and people were predicting I’d win an Oscar. I sat next to Charley Durning at the ceremony. Best Supporting Actor is always the first award.
Just before the show went on the air, Charley said, “You wanna change seats with me so you can be on the outside?”
“No, what are you talking about?” I said.
“You’re gonna get it tonight.”
“Maybe. But who should I thank?” I was so excited my mind was empty.
“Thank me!” Charley said.
“That’s a great idea,” I said. “That’s what I’ll do, I’ll thank you.”
I changed seats with Charley so I was on the end of the row, all set to dash onto the stage to accept the golden statuette, when Mira Sorvino announced: “And the Oscar goes to . . . Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting.”
I once said that I’d rather have a Heisman Trophy than an Oscar.
I lied.
As Robin ran toward the stage, for some inexplicable reason I saluted him. He claimed I flipped him the bird.
Then I had to sit there for the next two hours with people patting me on the back and saying, “You should have won!” But Charley saved me. He grabbed my arm and said, “I made it through World War II. What the hell’s this thing?”
That night I locked myself in my hotel room and shut off the phone to concentrate on feeling sorry for myself. Jon Voight called to commiserate, but per my instructions, the switchboard wouldn’t put him through. Jon being Jon, he came to the hotel, borrowed a waiter’s uniform, and carried a room service tray into the room. I was in bed with my face in a book and didn’t notice him . . . until he threw himself on the bed and kissed me square on the mouth. It shocked me out of my funk and we spent the rest of the night laughing. Jon can always make me laugh.

That’s kinda great. Durning sounds a kick <3

obit roundup (btw he hadn't shot the Tarantino role)

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5911-remembering-burt-reynolds

I saw it at the time and don't remember anything, but wasn't Pakula's Starting Over the first attempt to remake him as a more serious actor?

well, it was after Deliverance and Hustle.

(i know some ppl saw Hustle as a genre shoot-em-up, which was cloddish of them)

voted for The End, although having not seen it in 30+ years, no idea if it holds up

I thought of both Deliverance and Hustle, but with Deliverance he wasn't yet a big star--he didn't really have a persona yet--and with Hustle, it just wasn't a big film. I was thinking more of something that would get him some critical acclaim, maybe even an Academy Award nomination; Starting Over seemed like that kind of film. (I sometimes get Starting Over and It's My Turn mixed up.)

i'm not a huge Godfather devotee, but damn there was almost several terrible castings of Michael.

per a quick look at the b.o. charts, both Hustle and Starting Over were #17 in domestic b.o. in their respective years.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080605203026/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1975.shtml

I thought of both Deliverance and Hustle, but with Deliverance he wasn't yet a big star--he didn't really have a persona yet--and with Hustle, it just wasn't a big film. I was thinking more of something that would get him some critical acclaim, maybe even an Academy Award nomination; Starting Over seemed like that kind of film. (I sometimes get Starting Over and It's My Turn mixed up.)

― clemenza, Sunday, September 9, 2018

He was always proud of the film and thought he'd get an Oscar nod (Clayburgh and Candace Bergen did instead).

I don't recall it being very good. The pedigree did the work (ie, typical Oscar shit).

it's muffled in that TV movie '70s way.

the wall-to-wall carpeting absorbs the performances

I once said that I’d rather have a Heisman Trophy than an Oscar. I lied.

Damn. The Academy hands out dozens of Oscars every year, like banana pellets at a primate research center. There's only one Heisman winner per year.

Easily one of the strangest sets in film history. Ernest Borgnine's office in Robert Aldrich's Hustle (1975), all wood paneling and deep reds, with an incongruously black-and-white Los Angeles skyline seen out the window. No-one to my knowledge has ever attempted to explain this. pic.twitter.com/0BhJmuCR30

— 𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝕰𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞 𝕯𝖆𝖞 (@NickPinkerton) September 9, 2018

ha ha! wow

Film noir homage? Maybe Aldrich reused a shot from Kiss Me Deadly?

I watched Hooper last night for the first time - definitely enjoyable, much more in the Smokey & the Bandit vein.

Although I gotta say: Hal Needham’s movies look like fkn local news, they are SO workmanlike it’s almost depressing sometimes. The stunt sequence at the end was so cool but it was shot in such a “fuckit whatever” way that you miss the scope. Everything’s either close up or too far away, lol. But I do love how much room he gives Reynolds & the other actors to just be natural. Lots of personality, even if there is minimal (read: zero) flair

saw Smokey And The Bandit for the first time at a $5 screening this week: at first I was taken aback at the sometimes "set and forget" staging of some of the turnaround chase scenes, but it's not like there's no dynamics in other moments (the sense of propulsion in the Bandit / Cledus CB scenes!), and I ended up figuring that Needham was giving the viewer a perspective of what an IRL viewer might be startled by in those moments.

yeah maybe he started out shooting stock film or something — it’s pretty funny once you start to notice it

Watched Sharky’s Machine tonight. Kinda fun, definitely skeezy (though to answer a question from upthread, it’s not nearly as ugly as 52 Pickup; the scene where Burt slaps Rachel Ward around aside, most of the implied depravity is offscreen), but a bit overlong. This is actually time that I’ve managed to not like Charles Durning in a movie, which is a pretty dubious accomplishment. Henry Silva’s sicko villain was interesting, and there are some nicely staged sequences: I especially liked the mid-movie evidence processing montage sequence for it’s efficiency; Burt finds a nice way to avoid an info dump.

*actually THE FIRST time

ha ha! wow

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, September 10, 2018 1:25 PM (one week ago)

Film noir homage? Maybe Aldrich reused a shot from Kiss Me Deadly?

― Josefa, Monday, September 10, 2018 1:29 PM (one week ago)

saw Vertigo on 70mm yesterday: San Francisco outside Midge's apartment window is a B&W still by day, colour film by night.

Just found out (via the 80s All Over podcast) that Burt turned down Terms of Endearment to do Stroker Ace, home of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bRrhldHyfo

Jeezus.

it's a WFMU show of Burt-related movie music

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/81415

At Long Last Love is an "overlooked masterwork," says Richard Brody in this week's New Yorker. Hm.

director's cut showing in NYC along w/ Nickelodeon's

Of interest: https://www.indiewire.com/2013/06/at-long-last-the-definitive-version-of-at-long-last-love-131623/

Also fwiw that BluRay Bogs talks about is oop.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I don't say this often but

Oh for fuck's sake

whut

rmde @ ilx

Found Fuzz in the library. (A Kino Lorber DVD--a couple of days after seeing Kino Lorber's The Image Book. Eclectic company.) It's not nearly as bad as you might fear...but after a promising start, not as good as you want it to be. MASH must have been the most influential film of the early '70s--you could probably list at least a couple of dozen attempts to duplicate all the stuff people liked about it. (The claustrophobic-movie-poster thread is a good place to find such films, including Fuzz.) Fuzz starts with Altman regulars Tom Skerritt and Bert Remsen; also, pre-American Graffiti Charles Martin Smith. Two really weird things: Raquel Welch is barely in it--10 minutes, maybe--and she and Reynolds have virtually no interaction at all, even though they're working out of the same precinct.

Odd trivia: the writer of White Lightning and its sequel Gator once spent two years in a French prison for attempting to smuggle guns to the IRA in Northern Ireland. William W. Norton, who also co-wrote Big Bad Mama.