Hacker Cinema
Smokey and the Bandit
1977 · Film · 96 min
Part of Smokey and the Bandit Collection
Directed by Hal Needham
A race car driver tries to transport an illegal beer shipment from Texas to Atlanta in under 28 hours, picking up a reluctant bride-to-be on the way.
5 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Blockbuster carried the latest movies from all the studios. Everything newest and most desirable. They had a smattering of classics and art house and older genre films, but mostly it was about everything latest and greatest.
Netflix streaming seemed like that at first, but better! Now, they have a tiny slice of content. And as a content-producer, they seem willing to throw money at anything B-list.
Meanwhile, the studios became more risk averse as people started preferring to watch at home. Then theaters shut down and studios became more risk averse. And Netflix and Amazon arose and started playing studio games and studios became even more risk averse.
That trajectory of fear is mirrored in the content. The 1970s were known for directorial freedom and risk-taking. The 70s gave us Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Star Wars, Animal House, Annie Hall, Rocky, Halloween, Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance, MASH, and more - not all high art but all complete gems. Every decade since, we've seen a gradual progression toward samey-ness.
Next you’re going to tell me that Smokey and the Bandit wasn’t a documentary? Such a deceitful world.
They did have spotters along the way:
> In all, they managed to rustle up 18 lookouts along the run. These were people who drove hundreds of miles in many cases just to scout the road ahead of the fast-moving AMG for a stretch and let the team know of any police activity or other hazards ahead.
And, of course, they were familiar with that idea from the classic movie "Smokey and the Bandit" as referenced in the article, so they probably had a good reason for not doing it that way. I'd guess that hiring a caravan of people willing to get jail time, lose their licenses, and having their expensive, fast cars seized would be really, really expensive and would only keep a few officers busy for a few minutes. Plus, in hindsight, they were successful without it.
However, I find the downvotes on your comment interesting having read the "Help me ask 'Why you didn't just'" article posted yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21675717
You met several of the criteria for reducing the insult factor: Your comment is impersonal, forward-looking, and not condescending, without being passive-agressive. But you were still downvoted.
> It's kind of shocking that was big enough to be the premise of a film.
I don't think most people at the time were really aware of Coors smuggling being "big enough." I know I wasn't. It's just that it provided a premise for an illegal trucking run. Here's some background, from https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/smokey-and-the-bandit-and-coors/ :
"Turns out the plot of Smokey and the Bandit is centered on one lovable tycoon’s deep-seated thirst for Coors. ... The back story of how Smokey got made is a bit more interesting: prolific Hollywood stuntman Hal Needham was working on the set of Gator and was given a gift of (illegal) Coors.
"You read that right. Coors, ubiquitous potion of good time brohood, was once illegal in certain states. The movie was made in the late ’70s, and at that time, Coors was actually a regional product. It was made in Colorado, but because it wasn’t pasteurized and contained no preservatives, shipping could get a little tricky. Coors didn’t get national distribution until 1986. Which is why, in the 1970s, Coors wasn’t actually licensed to sell east of the Mississippi, making it, briefly, a rare and sought-after product.
"Coors’ cachet aside, Needham wasn’t a big beer fan, but he did notice that the Coors would disappear out of his trailer in small increments. Finally he figured out the maid was stealing two bottles a day. Realizing how important this beer was, to some anyway, he thought “bootlegging Coors would make a good plotline for a movie.”
"So in between being thrown around and set on fire and stuff, Needham actually wrote the script for Smokey and the Bandit. He showed it to his roommate at the time, who thought the dialogue was “horrible” but the plot was good enough. We’ve all had opinionated roommates, but Needham’s roommate was actually Burt Reynolds, the number one box office star at the time, and the inspiration for many a misbegotten mustache. Reynolds helped Needham get the movie made, and the rest is Dixie car chase and Coors history."
> Goodness gracious, I cannot think of a single movie I would like to "own".
Aww, c'mon. Not even this?
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-smokey-and-the-bandit-the-7-movie-outlaw-collection/19936994
Ah wait, you said single movie. Wink! Gotcha.