Smokey and the Bandit

Hal Needham's first film as director. Needham was one of Hollywood's best-known stuntmen, and he built the picture exactly as a stuntman would: the story exists so that people can drive. The idea comes from real smuggling. Coors beer was not sold east of the Mississippi in those years and hauling it east was illegal; when Needham heard that, he had the core of his script. In the film the Bandit runs bootleg beer by truck from Texas to Atlanta, with a black Trans Am running ahead to draw attention. Sheriff Buford T. Justice, on his tail, is the engine of the comedy; Jackie Gleason improvised most of his lines on set. Burt Reynolds is the Bandit, Sally Field the runaway bride and Jerry Reed the trucker, who also sings the opening song, East Bound and Down. In 1977 only Star Wars outgrossed it. Who it is for: viewers who like 1970s car films and comedies that lean on pace rather than script. Who it is not for: anyone looking for plot. The story is one sentence, there is little written for the woman in it, and some of the humour built on the sheriff is coarse now.