After Deliverence, this may well be Reynolds best movie. I have not seen Boogie Nights. I am put off slightly by it content I think this is because he is playing himself-when in most films he is playing the fool. I would note that we have Tom Selleck's opinion that Burt was very funny in person
Here we have Reynolds as the football player he was in his Florida state days- This may be despite the premise and settings, One of the great sport movies. Remember players were often trapped in contracts -people went out to hurt other people on the playing field -due to slights or petty revenge. With the Warden we see a man using sport to make a political point.
The film was made in the early 1970s and don't we know it. Jim Crow is not forgotten - Burt's Crew is punished by being shackled to a black man. He is sent to work in work detail clearing a swamp. The Guards use racial slurs. Boy is loaded
I note that the Warden in one scene has a black prisoner acting as his manservant
I recognised many of the faces if not the names of the same actors who worked with Burt in later movies. I wonder if that was preference or central casting
Burt is gaoled for drunk driving, theft after a fight with his mistress and sugar momma. On the inside he is drafter or better conscripted into the Warden's team
We have a prison secretary who is hot for the inmates. Something that HMP service is currently struggling with too
We have a story about power leading to responsibilty. Burt's crew is a drunken playboy who had a talent for playing football. He didn't really care about anything else- on the inside he bonds with the men his is to lead. Tries to protect them
Oh and dad lied about the ending. It does not end in tragedy
