Why else would one accept a bet to bootleg cases of Coors from Texas to Georgia?Īn underrated actor who would be denied the Oscar in 1998, Reynolds sold Bandit’s emptiness too, whether he was goading old pal Cletus Snow (the fast-talking Jerry Reed) - Bandit’s longest relationship - into joining him on his boozy hero’s journey, trying to coyly woo Field’s Frog during a woodsy pit-stop, or pausing to pay Justice a compliment for the doggedness of his interstate “high speed pursuit.” “I’ve been chased by the best of them,” says Bandit, “and son, you make ’em look like they’re all runnin’ in slow motion.”īy movie’s end, Reynolds’ beloved and beguiling performance made it clear: it wasn’t Big Enos’ money that Bandit needed, but the thrill of the chase. Yes, he was a Pontiac-driving prima donna, but also a wandering soul whose search to fill the void ate up miles and miles of open road.
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Even when he was comparing Sally Field’s legs to a carrier pigeon’s - “Last time I saw legs like that they had a message tied to them” - or crowing about his own good looks - “We both like half of my face” - the actor allowed glimmers of Bandit’s humanity to seep through. Burt Reynolds starred in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit. But Reynolds’ Bandit wasn’t just a one-dimensional “smart aleck,” as Jackie Gleason’s Sheriff Justice derided him in Smokey.