Everybody! The time has come to celebrate the return of the Football season. Oh, wait it's already here, as well for me with Nebraska sticking it to Colorado, sorry not sorry to all Buff fans out there and Deion Sanders if you ever read my reviews moreover Dallas Cowboys beating the Browns on the first week. I'd say life couldn't be better, though I'd like every fan to think it doesn't last long. Though with every football season you need to find the right Football movie to celebrate the occasion and surprisingly enough the Longest Yard has officially turned 50 years old, and no I'm not talking about the 2005 version though will have a lot to talk about that I'm talking about the 1974 film that made Burt Reynolds a household name. Now having watched the film through I'm beginning to see that producers for Smoky and the Bandit were looking at this movie and saying to themselves holy crap we should make a movie where Burt is just driving cars.
An Ex-Football star (Burt Reynolds) making time forced by the warden (Eddie Albert) to organize a team of inmates to play against his own line-up of guards. The warden tries to blackmail him into throwing the game, but the convicts have their own ideas and see the game as an opportunity to repay some of the brutality they have endured.
Albert S. Ruddy who wrote and came up with the idea/concept to the Longest Yard after a conversation with his friend who at the time was the richest women in America who was married to an All-American football player who was a first-round draft choice by the NFL then later suffered a bad injury that sealed his fate. Getting back to Albert S. Rudy who was also the producer behind great films like the Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, him and the rich lady were having a normal conversation while her hubby was trying on three different jackets and asking which one to pick, and in her own words said "take all three because when I kick you out you'll need them", love right? So, after that conversation at the clothing store Ruddy was inspired to write the idea for which would later become the Longest Yard. Even Ruddy knew Burt Reynolds would be the perfect actor for the starring role, though Ruddy was asked by Reynolds to direct the movie, he knew he had to get Robert Aldrich famous for classics like The Flight of the Pheonix with Jimmy Stewart and the Dirty Dozen with Lee Marvin. Surprisingly Aldrich wanted Reynolds to tone down his stunt work mainly because I believe he wanted the film to be real as it gets, and Reynolds asked if there's going to be hitting involved the Aldrich reply's if he knows Packer’s legend Ray Nitschke? Reynolds said yes and Aldrich said, "well he'll be playing a game called kill the actor", for which when you make a football movie that should be a great one liner to say to your movie star. Burt Reynolds as in actor is amazing in the movie I mean this is really the one true movie that he's great in, moreover well all know Reynolds is great in the movie even without is infamous mustache, but Eddie Albert who a lot of people even the younger generation would know that he's infamous for Green Acres and with this movie he does a great job separating himself from is iconic role in Green Acres to a charming and horrible warden who is everything wrong about the prison system and Albert's does a great job at that. Getting back to Ray Nitschke as a football player he does a great job at that, and though he only has a few lines through the movie but even when he's up against Reynolds he's funny moreover does a good job as a first-time actor in a movie about football and four years later he was inducted into the pro football hall of fame. Not just Nitschke who helped with the football scenes, but Vikings legend Joe Kapp helped with a lot of the Football scenes especially to make them real as possible. Now I can probably tell you that the original is a billion times better, for which it is no doubt about that. And I have a full memory of each of the two movies growing up and I can honestly tell you that each of the movies are the same in terms of dialogue and scene structure and now having re-watched the original movie I kind of have to look at the Adam Sandler movie as a disgust but not so bad because, really because Reynolds himself plays the coach part though granted the football scenes are most certainly different but deep down the original movie is a hundred times better for many reasons its own movie but most importantly the 2005 version of the film just have that typical Sandler jokes that only Sandler would consider funny and to me that's just why I would pass the Sandler Longest Yard. What makes the Longest Yard a great Football movie is that the film is about dignity no matter how bad people treat you or how much self-respect you lose in life you must build yourself up and stand up for yourself. The other thing what makes the film great is that a bunch of murders, criminals and terrible men are giving this lost Quarterback the chance to gain the dignity and wanting to win the game against the Guards even if it means spending thirty years of his life in prison. So, if you’re looking great football movie, I would highly recommend watching The Longest Yard for anyone who hasn't seen it, and you can most certainly check the film out on Paramount + if you have the streaming service then your weekend will be great if you choose to sit down and watch the fifty year old film.
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