Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau
Released in 1974, The Longest Yard is a prison movie and a sports movie that stars mega-star Burt Reynolds. The film follows Paul “Wrecking” Crewe, a former NFL football star who is serving time in prison for stealing his ex-girlfriend’s sports car. While locked up, Crewe is forced by the warden of the correctional facility to organize a football team made of inmates. Rudolph Hazen, the warden, manages his own semi-professional team of prison guards, and he pressures Crewe to throw the game in the other teams favor. Crewe and the other inmates, however, see the game as an opportunity to get payback for the brutality they have been through while in prison.
The film is captivating, but it only works as well as it does because Reynolds is an absolute genius casting choice. The actor brings his usual suave demeanor to the role, yes, but there’s something to Reynolds’ performance in The Longest Yard that is more intense and deep than most any of the sex symbol’s other performances. Crewe is troubled and torn; throughout the film he never really knows what the best decision for himself or his friends actually is. The rules of the game are constantly changing, but Reynolds captures this brilliantly in his performance. The tone of the film is constantly shifting, as is the demeanor of its main character, but there’s few actors who could have pulled off this rather disorienting role in the manner that Reynolds does.
The other characters, many of them played by former professional football stars, also feature surprisingly strong performances, especially for non-actors. Their real, almost amateurish style, alongside a number of the film’s other production choices, gives the entire movie a very raw and gritty feeling. It’s a major strength of the film, as is the movie’s social and political commentary. The film is not shy in its deliberate references to Richard Nixon, and the film’s nuggets of social critique are what elevates it from a somewhat off-the-wall sports action film to something with real meaning and longevity. Tracy Wynn’s and Albert S. Ruddy’s story is sometimes scathing in its messaging, and it brings the film to new heights.
One need only to look at the 2005 remake of the film starring Adam Sandler to see how important this aspect is. Where the original film is sincere, this one is pure spectacle. While the original film has something definite and concrete to say, the 2005 remake is vapid and empty. All of the rustic, rough-around-the-edges charm of the original film is completely sanitized for the remake. Sandler is a horrific casting choice for the film, and even Reynolds himself, who stars now as the inmates old mentor, seems to be phoning it in. The catastrophic failure that is the remake of The Longest Yard only emphasizes the power, effectiveness, and impact of the original film. M
April 2024
