All language subtitles for [fmovies.to] The Bandit - HD 1080p

[footsteps]

- I guess you're
asking yourselves

why I came down those stairs,

walked across these boards,

ambled past these props,

these theater trunks

cluttered with memories
of a thousand opening nights.

I guess you're asking yourself,

"What does that have to do

with tonight's show?"

Well, I'll tell you.

Nothing.

[country music]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Baby girl ♪

♪ Got my eye on you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Baby girl ♪

♪ Got my eye on you ♪

- My name's Hal Needham.

My face you will not recognize.

But I bet you've seen
a lot of my work.

For 20 years, I've been
a Hollywood stuntman.

♪ ♪

- ♪ It's not something ♪

- Not too bad, huh?

When a stuntman does
that kind of driving,

he better have his act together,

because there's
no room for error.

♪ ♪

But recently, I graduated.

I directed a movie.

And that movie starred
a dear friend of mine,

my old roommate,

a good ol' boy that probably

you people are gonna
recognize...

[snaps fingers] like that.

♪ ♪

- ♪ Baby girl ♪

♪ Got my eye on you ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[tires squealing]

- Ladies and gentlemen,
Burt Reynolds.

[dramatic music]

- Burt Reynolds.

The most exciting star
on the screen today.

♪ ♪

- Burt Reynolds
is Gator McKlusky.

Whether he's racing the law

or chasing the ladies.

[banjo music]

[dramatic music sting]

- Ah!

- Burt Reynolds,
the quarterback

who will tackle anything.

- You saw Charlie Bronson.
[laughter]

[sirens]

- Now you're Burt Reynolds'
stuntman.

Where does Burt like
to draw the line

as far as doing his own stunts
are concerned?

- Well, actually, uh,

I've never seen Burt
draw the line.

He'll do just damn near anything
you want done.

The insurance companies
draw a line sometimes,

and, um, but really and truly,
he doesn't draw the line.

I've seen him do some things
that, uh,

were just flat scary--I mean,
there's no other way to put it.

[dramatic music]

- [heavy breathing]

[desolate music]

- What is the job
of a stuntman?

- [laughs]
The object of the stunt guy

is to come in and look as much
as you can like the actor.

They'll dress you like him and
fix your hair, whatever,

and whatever they want to do,
whether it be a horse fall,

high fall, or who knows,
a fight,

be able to do it as many times

as you can do it
without getting hurt.

- In the old days,
they would go out,

and they would shoot four or
five days with all stuntmen.

No actors.

The wide shots were
for stunt people.

[motor roaring]

And then they'd bring
the actors out,

and they'd do the--
the tight shots,

and the medium shots.

- If you're the biggest
actor in the world,

you want to have the best
stuntman in the world

next to you--
why not?

[bullets ricocheting]

[country music]

- God damn, Pops, didn't tell me
they were gonna shoot back!

♪ ♪

[geese honking]

- Burt trusted Hal
and knew that Hal

was gonna do the stunts

that would really make him
look good.

♪ ♪

[tires squealing]

♪ ♪

- Hall and Burt were guys
who appeared

at a time in the '70s
when anything could happen.

Burt was an actor with all

the accoutrements
that an actor has.

And Hal Needham
was a man of action.

- Ready.
[cymbal crashes]

- I've seen a lot of actors

have good relationships
with stuntmen,

but never like
Hal and Burt did.

- That was the closest
relationship I ever saw

in the picture business.

- But you don't want to get
too close to an actor,

I don't believe.

And--just--you know,

you just--it's not gonna
work out very good.

- Okay, Hal,
how'd you meet Burt,

like on Smokey and, uh,
and the Bear?

- "Smokey and the Bandit."
- And the Bandit.

Was that something that
he found as a property

and then looked for you

to complete the movie,
or did you come first?

- No, I--I wrote
"Smokey and the Bandit."

- Oh. I understand
you directed this movie?

- Yeah.
- This is kind of, uh,

an unusual case,
isn't it, Hal?

I mean, I've heard of actors
turning director.

I've heard of writers
turning director,

but never a stuntman.

[dramatic music]

- I was doing a film with Burt

down in Georgia called "Gator."

That's the thread that put
"Smokey" together.

- We spent a lot of time
in the swamp, you know,

and I--I remember,
everyone said,

"Weren't you scared
in the swamp?"

Only, you know, Needham was
from down there.

The rest of us
were from other places.

He was, like, at home.

We had a lot of Coors beer

we'd brought down
from Los Angeles,

because in those days,
at the end of the work day,

everyone got a beer.

Needham and I were
talking about how

the Coors kept disappearing
from our mini-bars.

So we finally realized
that our housekeepers

were helping themselves
to our beer.

So we asked them, I said,
"It's Coors beer, man.

You know? What are you doing?"

She said, "Well, I get
like $20 a six-pack

for this beer down here
'cause you can't get it."

Hal and I looked at each other,
and we said, "Well,

"maybe we should--
maybe we should make a movie

"about getting Coors beer,
you know,

on the East Coast."

- At the time,
I really had some doubts

whether this was
even true or not.

In other words,
I don't know how you

prohibit a beer company
from shipping beer

from one geographical location
to the other.

- Said, "Hey, let's just
do a trucking movie

"with Coors and fast cars,

and let's see what
we can come up with."

And at that time, the trucking
industry was very romantic.

♪ ♪

Modern truckers,
the last American cowboys.

♪ ♪

- He told me he was
writing a screenplay.

Everybody said,
"Nice pipe dream, Hal."

- In between shots, he'd be
over in his room,

and he's scribbling down,
and I said,

"What are you doing?"
He said, "I'm writing a story!"

You know, and he told me
a little about it,

and I thought, "Eh, okay,
whatever," you know?

- He handed me this mash of,
you know,

legal pad notes, and scenes,
and characters,

and all this stuff.

- In fact, I think my mother

typed up the script
for "Smokey and the Bandit."

♪ ♪

- We played with different
names for the movie.

Probably called it "The Bandit"

at one point, or "Bandit."

- I want to do, hopefully,
action-comedy.

I just want to throw something
on the screen

that people can be
entertained with,

and I think laughter's
contagious,

and I think people enjoy action.

Not violence, action.

♪ ♪

- We were gonna sell it to a
company called AIP,

which made small, exploitive
genre movies.

That was its first incarnation.

We wanted to do something
on our own.

♪ ♪

- Look out!

[gunfire]

[dramatic music]

- Hal Needham had made a
living, you know, sort of

falling on his head for
20 or 30 years.

And, you know, he's a nice guy--
not a Rhodes scholar.

[trumpet music]

- Hal said to me,
"I'm getting too old

to bury my head
in the dirt anymore."

In the back of his mind,
he always wanted to be

either a star or a director.

- Every stuntman,
every second unit guy,

every cameraman, everybody--
you know the old joke,

everyone wants to be a director.

- He had the script
that he had written,

and he took it
to Universal Studios,

and said,
"I want to direct this movie."

- People that ran the studios,
he--you know, he--

"He's a stuntman.
He can't direct a movie.

What are they talking about?"
You know?

[sweeping orchestral music]

Unless you have
that movie star,

that bankable movie star,
that says,

"I want to be the Bandit,"

you're not gonna get it made.

♪ ♪

- They said,
"It's a nice script.

Do you think you can get your
roommate to star in this?"

- Hiya. How are you?

Big star. Big star. Me.

♪ ♪

[tires screeching]
[laughing]

- Burt and I were on
a show together, and, uh,

I came in one night, and I said,
"You know, Burt,"

I said, "I got to find me an
igloo, a teepee,

"or something to live in,

'cause I just got thrown
out of the house."

And he said, "Hell, come on
over--stay at my place

for a couple of days,
I don't care."

- My father moved into
Burt Reynolds' house.

He was gonna stay there
for a week or two,

and I think he was there
for like 11 years.

[laughing]

I mean, if you could--
if you can imagine

putting together a bachelor pad
back then--it was--

it was...I think, of all the
homes that Burt has had,

I--I think I liked
that one the best.

- The first thing, I think
that people

would see when they go
in the bedroom

is, uh, the mirrors
on the ceiling.

- They were both single,
and, uh,

had a lot of girlfriends, and

a lot of fun.

- Bathroom is big,

and it too has mirrors,
and tile.

And I happen to--tile is my
second-favorite thing in life.

It just gives me joy, tile.

If I could spend
the rest of my life

in a room, it would be
tiled and mirrored.

The dining room is, uh,
early Indian.

I mean, Indian kind of design.

Uh, I think it's
kind of classy.

Third-favorite thing in my life
is Indians.

If I could find an Indian with a
mirror who did tile work,

I would probably be happy
for the rest of my life.

- [laughing]

- I took the script home
and gave it to Burt.

Burt looked at it and he said,
"Hal," he said,

"that's the worst dialogue
I've ever read in my life."

But he said the, uh, the overall
concept was pretty good.

He said, "If you can take
my name power,

"and go get the money and
somebody that's fool enough

to let you direct it," says,
"you can direct it."

[upbeat music]

- And Burt said, "You know,
there's only one man in America

who can direct this movie,
that's Hal Needham."

- ♪ Shake it, shake it ♪

all: We want Burt!

- Had Burt said, you know,

Adolf Hitler,
I would have agreed.

Burt was a big movie star.

all: We want Burt:
- Are you here to see Burt?

- Who else? Who else?

- What happened was there was
so much goodness

in Burt Reynolds
that he made people happy.

And that's a natural gift
that he had.

- Burt Reynolds.

Tough. Sexy. Superstar.

- Is that a lot of pressure,
Burt?

Being this kind
of a sex symbol?

- He struck such a chord
with the American public.

- We're so glad--
- I work alone.

[laughter]

- The humor, and the joy,
and the honesty.

It was real, so he became

the number-one star
in the world.

- ♪ Shake your groove thing,
shake your groove thing ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, ♪

♪ Show 'em how we do it now ♪

♪ Shake your groove thing,
shake your groove thing ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Show 'em how we do it now ♪

- Put one on the cheek.
- Huh?

[crowd cheering]

♪ ♪

I just think I'm the best
Burt Reynolds there is.

[laughter]

[serene music]

♪ ♪

- In a nutshell,
can you tell me

what the story of "Smokey and
the Bandit" is?

- [laughs]
I couldn't tell you

what story is of
"Smokey and the Bandit"

if you put a gun to my head.

- ♪ Thunder, thunder ♪

♪ Over Thunder Road ♪

♪ Thunder was his engine ♪

♪ And White Lightning
was his load ♪

♪ Moonshine, moonshine ♪

♪ To quench
the devil's thirst ♪

♪ The law, they never got him ♪

♪ 'Cause the devil
got him first ♪

♪ ♪

- We had done two Burt Reynolds
movies at United Artists:

picture called "Gator," and a
picture called

"White Lightning,"
and, you know, it was,

you know, the same movie over
and over again.

He was the good ol' boy,

slightly on the other side
of the line

regarding law and order.

- Gator?
Gator McKlusky?

- Uh...
- Shirley.

- Shirley? How are you, darling?
- Well, hi, there.

- I didn't want to play
good ol' boys

for the rest of my life.

At the same time, I was
offered a film

that had "Get the tuxedo out"

written all over it.

It was a career-changing part.

I said "No," and nobody could
believe I said "no."

My agent couldn't believe it,
and, uh...

It wasn't a question of money.

They were asking--
they were offering me

more money than Hal was,

but I promised Hal

that I'd do this film.

- I'm gonna give credit
to my roommate.

I mean, he put his career, his--

everything on the line
so that I could have

a shot a directing this.

- Candidly,
I could not determine

whether Hal had the ability
to direct a movie or not.

Universal reluctantly agreed
to make the picture.

[funky music]

- If you're gonna do
a bootlegging movie,

you need a blocker.

You got a truck driver
and you got a--

a blocking car guy,
you got two.

- I don't remember whether
Burt, or Hal,

or both of them suggested
Jerry Reed.

- Hello.

[grunts]

♪ ♪

[screaming]

- Jerry was a character.

- Hello, ladies.

- You know, and then
you got to have a girl.

- Hi.

- Who are you?

- I wanted Sally Field,
and they had a lot of, uh--

had a lot of people
that were against that.

They kept saying,
"She's not sexy."

And I said, "This nun

is dangerously sexy."

♪ ♪

- And then we had to have
someone chasing 'em.

- My wish was,
with the sheriff,

"Let's put somebody in this
movie that doesn't belong."

- And I meant it just as
incongruous as it could be.

First of all, I got a pencil
moustache for a sheriff.

A Southern sheriff
with a pencil moustache?

- When Hal left to do
"Smokey and the Bandit,"

Hilton Green at Universal told
Needham, he said,

"I hope you got
your roller skates on,

'cause you can't do it."

They had no faith in Hal
as a director.

- All the politics created

a tremendous amount of pressure
on Hal.

He put his reputation
on the line

to get "Smokey and the Bandit"
done.

- My father, he didn't
play the game.

He wasn't a Hollywood guy.

He was who he was.

He said, "If I didn't do
'Smokey and the Bandit,'

"I'd probably be picking up cans

on the side of the road
for a living."

- We have some childhood photos
of you,

and I thought maybe, Arnold,

see if you can recognize them.

all: Aww!

- I was a farm kid.

All I remember about
that part of my life

was using a mule's backside
as a compass

up and down some cotton rows
in Arkansas.

[laid-back country music]

♪ ♪

- Was there any time at all
for--for hobbies,

or anything that would--
- Hobbies?

- Kind of gives you pleasure
or give you fun?

- Hobbies?

I can tell you've never seen
a sharecropper.

Hey, listen: just getting
food on the table,

staying warm in the winter time,

was a major accomplishment.

My childhood, man,
you got to know,

being a sharecropper's son is
the bottom of the totem pole.

There's nothing
lower than that.

- I think he told me
they had dirt for floors,

but he was just very smart
for somebody

with a very limited education.

He told me one of his
friends once said,

"I've never seen anybody do so
much with so few tools."

[plane engine humming]

- I was in the 82nd Airborne,
Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

But after about 2 1/2 years,
I could see

that I got no credit

for my creativity
or being a great soldier,

and I was a good soldier.

I said, "Got to be
a better way.

I'm going west
till my hat floats."

And next morning, I was in my
car heading for California.

I never worked in a movie.

But I had all that experience.

I decided I was gonna be
a stuntman.

When I got my first chance,
I was ready.

I did a thing where I--
I'm in an airplane,

a guy's riding along
on horseback,

and I dive
out of the airplane--

or jumped out the airplane--

and knocked him off the horse--
it's called a "Bulldog."

♪ ♪

[gunshots]

They paid me a lot of money.

People said I couldn't do it
'cause I was too small,

too dumb.

I always had to prove otherwise.

- Hal Needham.
[applause]

- We had 30 days
to make a great movie.

[country music]

- The film commission has been
very aggressive

in terms of luring not only us,

but a lot of
film companies here.

It's--it's very helpful.

They've closed highways for us,
they've, um--

tearing out part of an old
bridge for us

that we're gonna
throw a car across.

It's just terrific.

- Mark.
- Hold all the noise.

All the talk, everything.
Quiet.

- The entire picture was shot
16, 17 miles

away from the center
of downtown Atlanta.

In the motion picture business,
you put up a sign

that says
"Entering Mississippi,"

and you're entering Mississippi.

But with respect and affection
for Hal,

this was as new to him, really,
as it was to me.

When we went to work
the first morning,

you know, I got up,
sort of stood around,

waiting for things to happen.

You know, the production
manager asked me

what we should do,
and I didn't have a--

you know, a clue.

- And I remember,
the first day,

Hal and I pull up
to the location.

Sitting under a tree
in a director's chair,

with his Fleetwood stretch

gold limo next to him

was Jackie Gleason.

And Jackie was sitting
in this director's chair,

wearing a black Gucci
leisure suit

with a red carnation.

And no one was there.

Was the first person on the set.

Nobody else!

- Was directing anything at all

like you thought
it was going to be?

- Well, I had no fear going in.

I mean, we're not doing
"Gone with the Wind"

or "Fiddler on the Roof."

It's action comedy.

Just light it for the color,
and let's shoot it.

Speed, speed, speed.

- In a big movie, you may do
three pages a day.

Hal would shoot
16 pages a day.

We did things that were insane,

right on the edge
of insanity.

- Hal Needham directing Burt,
uh,

this was a brand-new process,
you know, for them.

- I think he just wanted
Burt to be Burt.

- I--I had no qualms
about going in there

and saying "Action."

- Yeah.

- Oh, my God.

- And, well, and...

- You walk on a set, and
there's the Panavision camera,

and all the lights,
and there's Burt Reynolds.

- Old legends never die,

they just lose weight.

- A legend and an out-of-work
bum look a lot alike, Daddy.

You go, "Oh, my God,
how did I--

how did I wind up here?"

- [laughing]

Now, getting to Texarkana
and back,

in 28 hours, that's no problem.

- It ain't never been done
before--[horn honks].

- Watch your language,
little lady.

The problem is that Coors beer,

you take that east of Texas,
and that's, uh,

that's bootlegging.

There was a lot of things
about the South

that I was embarrassed about,

but there were also things
about the South

that were wonderful.

I had hoped to make

something out of that

in a way that nobody'd seen.

Nobody thinks of Florida
as being South,

but if we had enough time
on this show,

I could take you places
where you'd realize

that this is the South.

I wanted to make it so bad
when I was growing up here.

I mean, I really wanted
to make it bad.

But great, great memories.

Really great memories.

My dad is a cowboy.

He's tough, and leathery,

and the most honest man

I've ever known in my life.

- We had our little
off and ons,

but he was a--
a normal kid.

He got in just as much trouble
as anyone else.

- He put me in jail one night
for getting in a fight.

I remember he came in,
and he says, uh,

"You kids, uh,
your father's here.

"You can go home now.

Your father's here,
you can go home now,"

and he looked at me, he says,

"Your father ain't here."

So I stayed there all night.

There's a saying
in the South, that

"No man is a man

until his father
tells him he is."

- I think his dad expected
a lot out of him.

He was kind of the golden
boy in football,

and it looked like he was gonna
have a great

pro career and college career.

[crowd cheering]

- He got tore up in his senior
year in high school,

tore the cartilage out of both
sides of both knees.

- Well, he was sort of lost.

He--all he'd ever done
is play football.

I was getting ready to cast
and direct the play,

"Outward Bound."

And Burt sat in the front row
in my English literature class,

and he looked like the guy
that I wanted

for the role of the alcoholic.

- And I said,
"You're out of your bird."

You know, and I said,

"I've never been
in a play in my life."

I somehow went to that room,

and walked in there,
and he looked at me,

and he said, "Read."

And I opened the book
and went "The--"

and he said, "That's it.
You've got the part."

- I saw something in Burt.

I--I saw the spark.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[fanciful music]

- I hated "Riverboat."
I hated doing it.

I had this character I called
"Dum-Dum the Whistleblower."

You know...[imitating horn].

Connie, cut it to half-speed.

- Aye, sir. Half speed!

- They would bring in
the stuntmen.

They were the men.
We were the boys.

- [screaming]

- The stars always migrated

to the stunt guys.

They saw some realness.

There was no acting.

- They were the jocks,
and, uh--

and that's what I'd been.

[upbeat music]

- Burt was very capable.

He could do it all.

But you can't do it all.

You got to have a--you got to--
you need a double.

- Over at Universal,
they just hired me

to come in
and double somebody.

They say,
"Yeah, here's your outfit."

I said, "Who am I doubling?"
They said, "Go down

"to the set and find
somebody dressed like you,

and that's who you're doubling."

And I got down there,
and it was Burt.

♪ ♪

- Hal came in to do a stunt,

and he was gonna be doubling me,

and I thought, "Hell,
I can do that."

♪ ♪

[horse whinnies]

♪ ♪

[shouting]

♪ ♪

He said, "You could be
really handy."

"Handy" is a super compliment
for a stuntman.

He always said,
"Actors are candy-asses.

I don't want to be an actor."

[glass shattering]

- I always felt that Burt

kind of wanted to be doing
what Hal was doing.

- You come out to my place
on Saturday and Sunday,

and there'd be 18, 20 stuntmen
out there practicing.

- Most people are in less than
top physical condition.

The first and foremost
for every stuntman

is a good warm-up,
as it should be for you.

- Medic! Medic! Medic!

- Yeah, they were the pirates.

Running around,
having a good time.

[groove music]

When I first saw that group,
it reminded me

of Butch Cassidy and the Hole
in the Wall gang.

And we were kind of all
the Hole in the Wall gang.

♪ ♪

There's a great line
in that movie.

Butch says, you know, "Listen,
I got vision.

Everyone else
is wearing bifocals."

Hal Needham was the--
the Butch Cassidy character.

♪ ♪

- Hal was--he was an innovator.
You know?

I never seen him
back off from nothing.

- They'd say, "We want you
to get in this car,

"go down and turn it over
at 90 miles an hour,

"blow it up, come out on fire,

run across the street,
and die."

I'd say, "Okay."

- He more or less got
a group of guys together

that could do anything.

- We just started
our own organization

called Stunts Unlimited.

- Right when we started
Stunts Unlimited,

and we had an office
on the lot at Paramount.

Paramount didn't even know
we had an office there.

- Three or four years,
we were the biggest,

best-known organization
in the world.

♪ ♪

- Got up in the--
early in the morning,

and went to the set,

went through wardrobe,
makeup, hair,

got a burrito,
jumped on your horse,

went to work--
it was just the best.

And then at night,
you get back to the hotel,

you stop in the bar,
you have a couple of belts,

have a couple more and say,
"Let's go, men."

Off to the 17 Bar and Grill.

Close it down.

We would come in,
the wranglers would be

going to work to get the horses
ready for us.

We'd grab a shower
and go to work.

It was--it was mad.

And Hal really had a rule

that you didn't bring
your wives on location

because of that.

It would cause problems,
you know?

Well, we went through
a lot of wives.

♪ ♪

- What do you two do
in the movie?

- Well, we're sitting--
we drink a lot

of champagne in the movie.

We're sitting at a table, and

just, uh, more or less

talking with Pat McCormick
and Paul Williams.

And then Burt Reynolds walks up
to the scene.

- Has Burt tried to put
the make on you?

- No. We wish, but not.
[laughter]

- No, we're more--
we're more or less hoping

that he'll let us put
the make on him.

♪ ♪

- Watch out! Everybody clear.

- What you just saw was a scene
from the new Burt Reynolds movie

"Smokey and the Bandit,"
being filmed here at

Lakewood Fairgrounds
in Atlanta.

- Pontiac division at
General Motors gave us

four sedans that we used
as police cars,

and they gave us two Trans Ams,
and that was it.

[engine roaring]

- O-o-kay!

- By the second week
of the picture,

both the Trans Ams
had been destroyed

and we had to go back and beg
to get a couple more.

- Beautiful, huh?
- Honey, hush.

[laughter]

- Jerry Reed went,
"Honey, hush."

['70s rock music]

♪ ♪

The way that he said it,
it was

the greatest-looking gal
you'd ever seen.

♪ ♪

- I love it, I love it!

I mean, I really get a kick

out of driving a Firebird.

♪ ♪

- There seems to be a thing
about that bloody Trans Am.

As a symbol of
your getaway steed.

The male animal, it is
the wannabe warrior

who's now working
at a factory somewhere

connected with that character,
that car.

Maybe it's the element
of escape.

I mean, it's an escapist movie,

but it's a movie about escape.

That was a great answer.

- What about all the nutty
stunts in cars?

Have you ever had a--
a really far-out car run?

- Oh, yeah. I mean...

First of all, see, I love cars.

I mean, I can make a car talk.

Slide it sideways,
spin it completely around,

360 degrees,
do all those things with it,

and know exactly
where that car is at.

- Why do you drive
like that, Hal?

- Why do I drive like that?

Well, there's a couple reasons.

Number one's money,
and the second one is, uh,

we're making a movie.

- Fast cars, that was
dangerous stuff.

Whether we were jumping a boat,

or jumping a car, or jumping a
horse, it was all the--

it all stemmed from

the basics of stunt work,
it was all started

with the horse and the fight.

[country rock music]

- Whoo!

♪ ♪

- I believe personally
that, uh,

when you work with animals,
you stand a better chance

of, uh, of getting
somebody hurt

than you do with automobiles,
'cause the automobile

doesn't care about the
explosions or the bullet hits

or the whatever it is--

it'll go wherever you steer it,

and it'll only go as fast

as you mash the accelerator.

♪ ♪

- It's like the Westerns just
slowly faded out,

and here come
all the car pictures.

- Okay, fearless,
let me ask you this:

has there ever been a stunt
that somebody wanted to do

in a movie that you said,
flat-out, "No."

- [chuckles] I've never turned
down a stunt.

I said, "If--if you can
put a man on the moon,

you can damn sure figure out
a way to do a stunt."

- Couple of times, Hal did
get in over his head.

There was a stunt where
I should have said something,

but I thought,
"Well, wait a minute.

He's Hal Needham.
Keep your mouth shut."

- When you're doubling
a leading man,

you want to make him look
like a hero.

[engines roaring]

- "White Lightning,"
there's a scene where

Burt Reynolds' character, being
doubled by Hal Needham,

is trying to escape
police officers,

where he sees a big old sand
barge pulling out

into the middle
of the river.

So he turns the car sideways,
and then goes

down the dock
and jumps the car.

Think it was probably 70, 80
feet across to the barge.

Even though he was banged up
pretty good,

he got out of the car and
continued to play the part.

And after we cut,
and he fell down--

[laughing]

But he always finished the shot.

- Well, I'll be damned.

- Busted his spleen.

Damn near died.

- You know, stuntmen, you know,
[laughing],

you can get hurt right there,
and they just

haul you off and keep shooting.

But the actor goes down,
you're done.

- We were shooting "The Man Who
Loved Cat Dancing."

He had a hernia down in
the bottom of this canyon.

It was 200 feet up.

They couldn't even get
a chopper in there.

So I turned to Burt and I said,
"Tell you what, son,"

I said, "If you can hold on
to my back,

"they throw that rope down here,

I can carry you out of here."

So I carried him up the
hillside on my back.

We got to the top,
they had a chopper,

which they threw him in, and
they forgot to get me out,

laying on the ground
all out of breath.

You know...[laughing].

That's just a shot
of Burt and I

down at his ranch in Florida.

It says, "To the best roomie

"a guy could ask for,
and a helluva man.

Love, Burt."

- We had this kind of crazy
schedule,

that I used to wake up
in the morning,

and would be stumbling
down the hall,

and there'd be a note on the
bathroom door that said,

"The place is yours,

"but I need it for the next
three days.

Hope you don't mind.
Love, Roomie."

And that meant I got out,
and I did.

- I don't know that I fell
in love instantly,

but I sure did like the guy.

My first date with Hal
was at his house

with Burt and Dinah Shore.

[laughing]

It was an interesting time.

- Burt and Dinah were lovers.

She was a cougar
at the time, I guess.

- I'd like to make it
eminently clear

that there are many areas
in which

Hal does not double Burt.

Okay?

[laughter and applause]

- I want to know something:

he and I started
almost simultaneous.

What happened?

I mean, I'm better looking
than he is.

I'm more talented.
What? What?

- It--I'll explain it to you.
- Okay.

I wish somebody would.
- Yeah.

It--it's very simple.

You don't have any problems.
- Okay.

- Because you're a real
choreographer.

I mean, those fights
are staged...

- I tell you what,
I don't care who it is.

I always say the biggest thing
about a man is his ego.

And I'm no different
than anybody else.

- All right.
- Ready?

- Hal wanted to be a star.

I think, secretly,
he would have

liked to be Burt Reynolds.

- Ah!
- On the other hand, I think

Burt wanted to be Hal Needham,

but knew that his bread
was gonna be buttered

on the movie star side.

[applause]

[laughter]

[country music]

♪ ♪

[cheering]

- For a little PR, we put an ad
in the paper that,

"Burt Reynolds is gonna
be the judge

"of a dog show to pick a dog

to be in the movie"
and everything.

[dog barking]

The next day, there was not

a dog in the dog pound.

We was in a park, and it was
just a sea of dogs out there.

Burt said, "That's your dog,"

and that's how it got
in the movie.

- Now Bo, I'm telling you,

Fred ain't gonna be a problem.

- I can see he's gonna be
a major asset.

- [laughing]

[laughter]

- Jerry Reed hit it off
with everybody.

And on the set,
he had his band there.

Hal and I were invited
up to his suite,

and they played this little song
called "Eastbound and Down,"

and asking Hal, "Do you like it?
What do you think of it?"

Ha ha, it was fabulous!

And it's the--
it's the song in the movie.

- A-one, two, three, go.

Breaker, breaker, one-nine?

How bout that Bandit?
You got them ears on, son?

♪ ♪

♪ Eastbound and down ♪

♪ Load it up and truck it ♪

Break for that Bandit one,
break for that Bandit one.

- Yeah, Snowman. Come on back.

- ♪ Long way to go and a short
time to get there ♪

♪ I'm eastbound, just watch
ol' Bandit run ♪

- This is Sheriff
Buford T. Justice again.

I lost that Trans Am!
Set up a road block!

- Good idea.

- ♪ The boys are thirsty
in Atlanta ♪

- Bandit, this here's
the Grave Robber.

Put the pedal to the metal,
good buddy.

And we'll hold this county
mountie as long as we can.

Come on.

- Bandit, honey, this is

the Good Witch of the North
speaking.

You'd better not come this way.

- ♪ Eastbound, just watch
ol' Bandit run ♪

♪ ♪

[horn blaring]

- This is the Bandit, darling.

- And how can I help?
Bring it back.

♪ ♪

- I knew the music before
I knew the man,

and the music got to me.

I got that all worked out.

This Bandit character
loved Jerry Reed.

We have a relationship
that's very similar,

in some ways, to me and Hal.

He was crazy,
but crazy good.

- ♪ Well, ol' Smokey's
got them ears on ♪

♪ He's hot on your trail ♪

♪ And he ain't going to rest ♪

♪ Till you're in jail ♪

♪ So you got to dodge him,
you got to duck him ♪

♪ You got to keep
that diesel truckin' ♪

♪ Just put that hammer down
and give it hell ♪

- What is a good ol' boy?

Someone that you really like
hanging out with,

and you can trust.

Doesn't take life too seriously,

but always gets the job done.

Not a lot of angst
in the good ol' boy,

put it that way.

- I suppose a lot of people
say that

people become actors because
they're unhappy with themselves,

and they get to hide
in somebody else's skin.

But that's not true--
people become actors, I think,

because we're people pleasers.

And, uh, the only thrill
for us, really,

is your getting some enjoyment
from what we do.

Oh, my God!

[laughter]

I'd like to be considered
somebody

who paid their dues
and is a good actor.

I think that there's
a school of acting, which,

I'm a great believer in this
particular school of acting,

which is called "Effortless."

And it--and I worked 20 years

to learn how to make it
look easy.

Quite honestly, it's very easy

to do what I call "The
Constipated School of Acting."

Which is where you let every
vein show in the neck,

and you just, you know, go for
it with every take.

And everybody says, "What a
brilliant actor he is."

Well, he gets an Oscar
and Preparation H,

and I get a smile.

[laughter]

- That's an actor?

- Well, he was brilliant in
"Streetcar Named Desire."

- "Streetcar Named Desire?"

What was he, a conductor?

- That was the time when

everybody wanted to be
Marlon Brando.

- And who were you?

- I didn't know who
the hell I was.

- Question, Rocky?
- Yeah, I mean, what is my, uh,

tertiary motivation here?

I mean, like,
I walk through the door,

and, uh, I see her.

Why?

- Why what, Rocky?
What's the question?

- Exactly.
What is the question?

I wanted to play the rebel.

The kind of label they'd given
me at the studio.

- Said, "Jesus Christ,
he looks like Brando."

- When I first
went to Hollywood,

everybody wanted me
to meet Marlon,

and I'd heard so many
Marlon Brando stories.

There's a coffee house on the
strip called Cyrano's,

and at the time,
it was the in place,

where all--everybody went

to see or be seen.

We walked in--immediately,
there was a director

named Hubert Cornfield
who ran over to me

and grabbed me and said,
"He's here!"

And I--you know, I, uh--
I said, "He is?"

And he said, "Come on!"

And he was pulling me by the
shirt, and we came around,

and we stopped in front
of a table.

And I suddenly realized
it was Marlon.

And Marlon--everybody was
looking at me except Marlon.

Marlon was looking...

right about there.

And, uh, Hubert Cornfield said,

"Marlon, isn't this fantastic?"

And, like a dummy,
I was going...

like this.

'Cause I thought, you know,

I've been brought over
to be introduced.

But he never looked up,
he just went,

"Mm."

And I still had my hand out.

And there was deathly silence
in the place.

And I suddenly--
I had the urge to kill.

I mean, to reach across
and kill.

And I want to be me--who the
hell does he think he is?

- Burt had that thing
that you have to have

to become a leading man.

He could go after you.

If he lost it, and I've seen him
lose it with some people,

so, you know, he'd--
you couldn't [...] around

with Burt too much.

- I want to go on
killing white men.

- [speaking native language]

- He says you will
have to prove yourself.

- I'll prove myself.
Just give me a chance.

- Burt wanted to be a star.

And I think he'd have done
most anything.

[speaking native language]

- Sometimes you learn more
from a bad film

than you do from a good film.

In that case, I should be
a very good actor.

[laughing]

- ♪ Navajo Joe, Navajo Joe ♪

♪ ♪

- ♪ Navajo Joe, Navajo Joe ♪

- ♪ Navajo Joe ♪

♪ Navajo Joe ♪

[horse whinnies]

- ♪ Navajo Joe, Navajo Joe ♪

[grunting]

- I got a lot of parts

because they didn't have to hire
a stuntman, you know?

They'd say, "Get that guy, he
falls down the stairs

and he talks okay," you know?

So I--I fell down the stairs
and talked.

As the years went by, I--
I fell less and talked more.

Thought you were an authority

on architecture.

I didn't know your hobby
was boating!

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Ah!

♪ ♪

[snake hissing]

- I think I've probably
chosen worse

than any actor
in the history of films.

[speaking native language]

- Some films, I said
"What's the location?"

And they said, "Tahiti."

And I said,
"I'll take that picture."

[mellow music]

♪ ♪

I did, uh, "Deliverance,"

which was my deliverance out of
bad films, I thought.

[heavy breathing]

Sometimes you have to
lose yourself

before you can find anything.

- Any snakes around here?

- I think Georgia is kind of
a good-luck charm for you.

Do you look on it as a real
good place to make films?

- I'd like to shoot 4 out of 5
pictures here,

which really wouldn't--
wouldn't sit too well

with a lot of people who want
to do desert movies.

"Deliverance" was kind of
like coming home, you know?

Changed everything for me.

I had never done
a part that good.

Because I understand this guy.

Yee-hoo! Whoo!

And I--I could play him.

We got to get rid of that guy!

- How you gonna do that, Lewis?

Where?

- Anywhere.

Everywhere.

I asked the director,
John Boorman,

what parts he'd seen me play

that would make me right
for this picture,

and he said, "I didn't see you
in a part.

But I saw you on
'The Tonight Show.'"

[applause]

- Heyo!

- Hello.
- So nice.

You look so sharp.
- Thank you.

- You're dressy.
- I was just pressed.

The just pressed me.
- The whole thing?

Do you get into your clothes?
- Pressed my entire body.

- Burt Reynolds was the catch
on a talk show.

Everybody liked
to be around Burt.

- It's nice to see you.
You--you haven't changed a bit.

- Oh, yeah.
[laughter]

- Listen, "Deliverance"
is a really--

it's from a novel,
it's quite serious.

It's all--
got rape and murder in it,

and all those things.

You know, and here you are,

cavorting like a jackass.

[laughter]

Not being a jackass,
just cavorting like one.

- Hmm.

I gambled. I really gambled.

I mean, "Deliverance" was B.C.--

"Before 'Cosmo.'"

[funky music]

♪ ♪

The gamble was, would I ever
be considered

a serious actor after that?

Would--when I died,
on my tombstone,

would they say, "His
contribution to the world

was he was the first
male nude centerfold"?

- ♪ Ooh, get it ♪

♪ Get it from the front now ♪

♪ Get it ♪

♪ Get it from the back now ♪

♪ Get it,
get it from the side ♪

♪ Get it,
get it all around ♪

- What's it like to be
pastor of a man

who posed nude
in "Cosmopolitan"?

This is what we Baptists
call "A problem."

I don't know--I didn't tell him
to take his clothes off.

And I--
I wish he hadn't done it.

But, uh, at the same time,
he did it.

He's free, and I'm free.

I feel free to wear my clothes,

and he feels free
to take his off.

♪ ♪

- Posing catapulted
Burt Reynolds to household name.

He became, then, the guy.

[laughter]

♪ ♪

- That's literally true.

[applause]

♪ ♪

[crowd shouting]

- How many people like him
with the moustache...

[cheering]

And then without the moustache,
like so?

[cheering]

- This is a hell of a time
to tell me.

- Yeah, I think you should stick
with the moustache, Burt.

Definitely stick with it.

- The "Cosmopolitan" came out

30 days before "Deliverance."

It was very difficult for

98% of the film critics

to disassociate this character
who, you know,

laid down on a bear rug
like an idiot,

you know, and did this
strange thing,

with an actor who took his
craft seriously

and took the film business
seriously.

And a lot of people who

I trust their instincts
felt that

it might have cost me
a nomination that year.

- It was a bad choice
'cause it trivialized him.

And I know he was sorry, but--
and I was unhappy

to see it myself.

He didn't need it.

Most serious actors
don't do that.

A clown would do it.

- In fact, a lot of people never
forgave me for that.

I'm one of them, actually.

[country music]

♪ ♪

- What now do you look for?
What does a role have to have

for you to--
to really consider it?

- Well, I'm looking now
for humor,

because I happen to think that,

of my contemporaries, I have to
look around and say,

"Who--what's the competition?"

I can't stand in a doorway
better than Paul Newman.

And I can't have blonder hair
than Robert Redford.

But I can do comedy
better than either one of them.

I can eat 'em up.

- You know--hold it!

Just--the beer! Watch the beer!

[crashing]

[screaming]

- You all right?
- Very funny! Very funny!

- I thought it was funny.

- To move people to laugh

is extremely difficult,

crossing a lot
of different cultures.

And there's no question--
you ask anyone,

anyone who's in the creative
end of this business,

and they will always tell you:

you take a guy
like Jackie Gleason...

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- There wasn't any script
for me, believe me.

I never had a line of dialogue
written.

The director would stick his
head in the window of the car

and say, "Now, we have to go
up to the thing,

and you'll see him there--
what do you want to say?"

And I'd think for a second
and I'd say,

"How about something?"
He says, "Great.

Okay, let's go."

Good [...]!
[horn blaring]

[crashing]

I got the evidence!

Put the evidence in the car.

- But--but Daddy--
- You--

- But--
- Put the evidence in the car!

I'm gonna barbecue

your ass in molasses!

- I am not going to attempt
to give any messages

to the people out there.
- Yes.

- I can do two things and I
think I do 'em extremely well.

Action, I know I do well,

and my comedy isn't too bad,
all right?

- So, you do three things.
- What's that?

- You just sit there and look
good, that's the third.

- Oh, you sweet thing,
from now on,

you can say anything
you want to.

- Let's play tag.
Tag, you're it! [laughing]

[mercurial music]

- Tag?

- I was 11 years old when
I saw my first movie.

- What was it?
- It was called, uh,

"Pop Goes the Weasel,"
and I mean,

this is way back, okay?

To me, I was amazed.

[dinging]

Now, I relate today to what I
thought then, all right?

And I said, "Hell, that's what
I wanted to see,"

and I believe that's what
people want to see today.

[playful music]

[deep breaths]

♪ ♪

- Oh!

- I will never win
an Academy Award,

but I'm going to be very rich,
so--

and I think I put out, uh,
entertaining films,

and I think that's
what it's all about.

- What happened, Daddy?

- Both Hal and I realized that
this was gold,

and neither of us
wanted to touch it.

- I had never had a scene
with Burt Reynolds.

I had to sit down and write one.

That was the scene
in the lunch room.

Just keep your eye out

for that Mr. Bandit!

[country music playing]

Let me have a diablo sandwich,

a Dr. Pepper,
and make it fast.

I'm in a [...] damn hurry.

- In the original screenplay,
there were maybe

six or seven scenes
where the two of them

were together.

We shot that scene
in the restaurant

where Burt knows who Jackie is,

Jackie doesn't know
who Burt is.

- You must be in a hell of a
hurry, huh, Sheriff?

- Bet your ass on that, boy.

- Oh, you got
a little mess there.

- Hmm?
- Let me--

let me help you out here.

Get that off of there.
That's--

- Yeah. Much obliged.

- When we finished that scene,

Burt came to Hal and me,

said "I'm not gonna work
with Jackie anymore."

- Somebody chasing you?
- Nobody chasing me, boy.

I been chasing
a [...] damn maniac!

♪ ♪

- And, of course, I had no idea
what this was about,

but we started rewriting.

♪ ♪

Did Burt feel that Jackie was

upstaging him?
Stealing from him?

I--you know,
I really don't know.

- Do you feel that you're in
competition to Burt Reynolds?

- Oh, no, no, no.
He plays comedy.

I'm in the lead in this.
- Let me pay for it.

Let me pay for it.
- Oh, no.

- No, no, you're an officer
of the law.

I'd--I'd be honored.
- Well, much obliged.

Where's the can?
I got to take a squirt.

- Oh, right back there.
I just went, so--

- I think that Burt could be

a very great comedian.

He'll look at you
and say something,

and then he gives you
the attitude

that he's saying, "Who, me?"

And that's a great, uh, quality

for someone who wants
to do comedy.

I believe he could be
a great comedian.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- Every time you make a film,
it's a battle.

Hal, he always had a plan.

He was always willing
to take that chance

to do something special
and different.

- Oh.

- Well, I--

- Alan was doubling Burt.

Looks like Burt when he's
riding in the car.

And Janet Brady looked
exactly like Sally,

and has continued
to double her.

She could do the fights,
she could do the falls,

but her specialty was cars,
no question about it.

[tires squealing]

She and Alan Gibbs met.

They decide to get married.

[laughing]

And they get married
during the filming

of "Smokey and the Bandit."

And Hal gives Janet away

as--as the "Father"
of the bride.

- Is it true that there was
nearly an accident

shooting the scene
where the car

crashes onto
the football field?

- Oh, boy. There sure was.

[engine roaring]

- Ah!

[somber music]

♪ ♪

We got shots that didn't
go in the film

because they were so scary.

♪ ♪

- When the car jumped,
and I saw everybody

start running out of the dugout,

I saw one guy just
stand straight up

and the car just hit the dugout.

♪ ♪

- Couple of kids got hit.

Fortunately, no one
got hurt badly,

but, you know, there were

one or two kids
in the hospital.

♪ ♪

- When the car hit, two things
happened: number one was,

I was not aware that we had
watered this last night,

or that they had watered it.

And even though we put on
Pirelli tires

to try to compensate for it,

um, we just couldn't
get stopped.

That's all there is to it.

And I just thank God that
one of my stuntmen

had enough sense in her to--

and the stunt girl both--

to turn that car and, uh,

get it outside of these people.

- I said, "We're gonna
hurt somebody bad.

I--I want this stopped now."

You know, you can do anything
in the world

on a movie, but you can't stop.

- The absolute decision is mine,

because, I mean, I am the boss
in that case,

because it's my tuchus
that's on the line,

and nobody can tell me
how I want to risk it.

- Did you do the actual driving
in "Smokey and the Bandit"?

- I did all the driving except
the jump over the bridge.

Uh, I was under a tree then,
hiding my face.

[laughter]

- When people go to a movie,

they get--they get engrossed
with the character,

the lead character
and everything.

They don't think
about a stuntman,

and I don't think they should.

But when an actor's confronted

on national television
or something,

seems to me like he should
have enough huevos

to say, "No, I didn't do that."

- Most actors can't
do their own stuff.

Actor went on Johnny Carson--
"Oh, yeah.

I did all of my own stunts,"
and we--we didn't care.

We didn't want any recognition.

It was all about working,
and making money,

and going to the next show
and the next deal.

- The stunt community was kind
of a cloak and dagger thing.

I mean, there was no publicity.
There was nothing.

The public didn't know
what a stunt guy was.

- Ironically, it was Hal

that let the cat
out of the bag.

[clattering]

- Hi there, David. How are you?
- Nice of you to drop in, Hal.

- Thank you very much.
- You okay?

- Oh, I'm fine.

- Nobody had a bigger shadow

than Burt Reynolds.

And my father was really

more than ready to step out
from behind it.

- When Hal first met me,
he said,

"This is the guy that's gonna
make me a star?

Let's get this thing rolling."

My assignment was to make Hal
a household name.

And wow, how do you do that?

- Next, you'll see Hal Needham.

Hal is wearing
an awning-striped kaftan.

- I'm not crazy about that.

- Oh, I think it looks great
on him, though.

It's got a hood so he can
cover all up in it.

- I think he realized that

acting wasn't his forte,

but certainly, stunts were.

- It's good weather for flying.

But Hal Needham
doesn't have a plane.

What he does have is a truck.

The distance between the ramps

comparable to
a 12-story building

laid on its side.

How are you gonna do that, Hal?

- Well, I'm gonna stick
a rocket in the back end,

and jump the river.

- I spent all day, every day,
looking for ways

to get Hal in front of anybody
you could, any time.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- To me, I remember it
'cause I broke my back.

For the second time.

- I can remember him
breaking his back

and ribs and getting
out of the hospital

and getting on an airplane
and going down

to do another movie.

- He was the first human
to test the airbag.

You know, when
nobody knew anything

about the airbag,
there was Hal.

- When I first started to go
out to pitch Hal,

it was not an easy task.

I realized where I had to go was

tell people,
"Well, Hal Needham is

Burt Reynolds' stuntman."

Now, we have their attention.

- He used to like to do
his own stunts anyway.

- Well, he started as a
stuntman, you know.

Originally, he was a stuntman.

- Unfortunately, when we
started some of the interviews,

they always still
went back to Burt.

- There's a lot of little things
that--that he took--

you know, that I--I know
he took from me.

Uh, and for instance, um,
he took my wardrobe, okay?

He had 'em copy my wardrobe

that I wear normally,
all the time,

and, uh, and that's what
he wore in the movie.

One day, he came out,
he and I was dressed

exactly alike.

- We worked a lot on that,

because we knew that was

coming every time.

And then, he was off
talking about stunts.

- Presenting...
[drum roll]

The Stuntman.

- And he's not just your basic,

everyday stuntman, either.

He was modeled
after Hal Needham,

the guy that I consider to be

the best stuntman
in the business.

- He had met the guy
that owned a toy company.

They said, "You know,
Evel Knievel's doll

made a ton of money."

It was sitting on his desk one
day when I went in.

I said, "Oh, my God, Hal,
you've got a doll!

A little stunt doll!
Give me a break!"

There's a little ram,
and you could fly the--

the doll, and it'll turn.

You could, uh, make the hat
fly off with a string.

- The had designed
the prototype,

but they didn't have
the market for it yet.

We recognized that we were
gonna need a big event.

Hal and Bill Fredricks came up
with the idea

of the rocket car.

- Three...two...one...

ignition!

[engine roaring]

- Wow, looks like he's off on a
good one this time, Ken.

- Thunderous sendoff
to Hal Needham!

Climbing to 400...to 500...

almost 550 miles per hour
and still climbing.

- That's faster than
programmed, Ken.

- His chute just came out--
his chute deployed,

but it has not opened.
- Ken, it has not opened.

He might be in very serious
trouble down there.

- He's missed the red flag
that he has

crashed at the end
of the course.

- I want to tell you something.

The last couple hundred yards
is a son of a gun!

- Hal said, "I'm not going
to put my life

behind a 700 mile-an-hour car
any longer."

It was sometime after
the rocket car event

that the toy finally emerged.

It never really made
a place in the market.

He knew he never was gonna
be a movie star.

So Hal was under
tremendous pressure

to make "Smokey and the Bandit"
a success.

['70s rock music]

♪ ♪

- There's a scene
in the picture where

it's a small dirt road--
bridge.

The car leaps the bridge,
flies through the air,

and lands on the other side.

- That was really dangerous.

There's no--that's a problem,
you know?

You know, you come up short,
you got issues here.

[tires squealing]

- Sorry, I don't want
to get married.

- Terrific.
That makes two of us.

- Sally and Burt became an item
by that--

that day of shooting.

- Rolling--oh, wait.
One minute. Here we go.

- We watched the dailies, and
you could kind of see it.

It was there.

When two people
are hitting it off

and you can tell
they're liking each other.

Sometimes, they call "Action,"
and there's

things that happen first.

- ♪ Call you the Bandit ♪

♪ ♪

♪ They call you the Bandit ♪

- I think the Bandit
covers up his vulnerability

and his sensitivity

with a lot of braggadocio,

and fancy shirts,

because I think, basically,
he's rather shy.

He's only good at one thing,

and that's showing off.

But he's great at that.

I don't wear
these kind of shirts.

I do wear cowboy hats.

I think--I'm not real positive
about this,

because there's a big debate
going about--

on about this in America.

I think I'm a real good actor.

[struggling]

- Burt Reynolds has been
top box office

for six years, mostly in
redneck tough-guy films.

Now, he wants to try
serious drama.

If you wanted to get away from
the good ol' boy image,

will the audience let you?

- If I'm good.
If I'm really good.

♪ And there's no concealing ♪

♪ The fact I'm feeling ♪

♪ Bored, bored, bored ♪

- I find Burt Reynolds
a most puzzling actor.

He has the power
and physical attributes

of the perfect screen tough guy,
yet he insists

on playing light comedies,
as if he saw himself

as a kind of Cary Grant
with muscles.

The point that seems
to escape him, however,

is that you can't be Cary Grant
and have muscles.

You've got to settle
for one or the other.

- He can act, but he doesn't
take very good parts.

He doesn't take the parts which
stretch him and test him.

He could possibly be as great
as Sean Connery

if he had more ease about
the way he looked.

You can always feel
that he wants to look good,

and this is fatal
in a male actor.

- Maybe he's getting
bad advice, Pauline.

- Or maybe there's fear in him.

- Burt, when you look in the
mirror, what do you see?

Who do you see?

- You're looking at a very
well-paid movie star.

And a starving actor.

Actor.

To be a personality is painful.

To be in the public eye
is--is painful.

Because you can never, ever
give them enough.

They always want
a little bit more.

[laughter]

- Is it true that you are back
together with Dinah Shore?

- Do you plan on making any
movies on location in Chicago?

- Would you like to go for
coffee after the show?

- You said that your favorite
sport was football.

Is that what influenced you
doing "The Longest Yard"?

- Is it true that you've been
trying to adopt a child

and you plan on marrying again?

- Burt, do you really
enjoy all this?

- Burt got sick down there,

and he was struggling
to come to the set.

You're talking about
changing schedules.

I mean, Sally couldn't work
without Burt

'cause it was in the car.

- He did disappear
for a couple of days, yes.

But I don't want to get into
the, uh,

the reasonings.

- Hal understood
Burt was an actor.

Being an actor, he was
high-strung and neurotic.

Now, all actors are crazy,
right?

I mean, Marlon Brando
walked out of acting

'cause he couldn't
take it anymore.

You must understand,

their face is on
this 100-foot screen.

- You know who that is?

- If they're embarrassed
with what they see,

they want to kill themselves.

So, the pressure on an actor,

on his ego,
it's so overwhelming.

[sirens]

- We ain't gonna make it, son!
We're gonna hang it up.

- Whoa, negatory, negatory,
what are you,

crazy or something?

We come this far, ain't we?

Look, when we say
we gonna do a job,

we do a job!

- And Hal came up and said,
"I give up.

Are you doing this?"

- There's one thing about
good ol' Southern boys,

all the way through.

They have a sense of loyalty
to their friends.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I felt like, if anything,
I owed it to Hal.

♪ ♪

You got to be dangerous

as part of being sexy.

♪ ♪

Too late now.

"Let's jump this bridge."

♪ ♪

- We jumped over that bridge!
We did that!

Did you see what we did?
- Yes, I did.

- I want to jump something else!
I want to jump a house!

I want to jump something!

- We'd just done the car jump.

Assistant director yelled,
"That's it.

That's a wrap."

It was the last--
end of the movie.

Needham, he and I looked over
the top of the Trans Am

at each other.

He just gave me a wry smile
and looked at me,

you know, and we just nodded at
each other and that was it.

- You're crazy!

- Kind of our moment.

You realize that it exists,

and it's gonna be around a lot
longer than you are.

- Universal presents...

This is
"Smokey and the Bandit."

- The general sales manager
at Universal,

having seen the movie,
by the way,

um, I don't think had much faith
in the picture.

He asked that we not
sneak preview.

I think he actually suspected

that he was going
to lose bookings

because the picture was so bad.

[banjo music]

- Hell...

You know?

They said...

[grandiose orchestral music]

♪ ♪

And I said, "Take it out!"

♪ ♪

- You're doing comedy,
it doesn't work.

[gagging]

Dead.

And only a fool does it

thinking it's a sure thing.

- I thought it was
a very funny movie.

And then--you know, we thought--
we had great expectations,

they opened the movie
in Radio City Music Hall,

and then we--
and it died.

- I said, "Wait a minute.

"You're opening it in--
in New York?

That's ridiculous."

- It was a disastrous
screening, I mean...

The cards were, you know,

"This is boring.
Seen this before."

I thought, you know,
what do I do

to get these guys to get it.

[screaming]

- And I said,
"Put the damn thing out

down in the South."

That's who it was made for.

- [shouting]

- ♪ Well, hello there,
neighbor ♪

♪ Now, how do you do ♪

♪ There's something I'd like
to say to you ♪

♪ You from my homeland ♪
[dog barking]

♪ My sunny homeland,
tell me friend ♪

♪ Now could it be ♪

- How many of you have seen
Hal's picture,

"Smokey and the Bandit"?

[applause]

- I love it. I love it.

- I bet I've seen that movie
200 times.

And that's probably
plus or minus five.

- ♪ Yeah, it's the view from
Louisiana, Mississippi ♪

♪ Alabama, West Virginia,
Tennessee, Carolina ♪

♪ Just any little place below
that Mason-Dixon line ♪

♪ Then you're in Dixie ♪

♪ Hooray, hooray for Dixie ♪

♪ 'Cause this old boy,
he's from Dixie too ♪

♪ Stand back, son ♪

- That little number
is the second-highest grossing

motion picture in the history
of the motion picture business.

- I'm glad it was, because
it was a picture

that wasn't made
for the critics.

It was made for the people.

- How did you like the movie?

- Oh, I just loved it.
- Oh, it was so exciting.

- Who was your favorite
in the film?

- Burt. [laughing]

Naturally.
The dog was good too.

- All of us that live in that
part of the country

go, "Yup, that's about
how it works," or

"he reminds me of my uncle,"

or "he reminds me of my dad,"
or "he reminds me

of my neighbor down the road."

- You know, in the South,
they think of

"Smokey and the Bandit"
as a documentary.

It had a cultural impact

that I don't think any of us
could have imagined.

I mean, to this very day,

it's a friendlier South

than maybe a lot of people
had seen before.

And maybe, in that,
there's an elegance.

- The buzz was huge.
I mean, it was huge!

♪ ♪

- You know, in the days
of silent movies,

the chase was often a highlight
of the story.

So, Hollywood figured, if
audiences like a little,

they'll love a lot,
and pretty soon,

there's no meal at all,
it's all dessert.

- It's not a B movie.
It's A-plus-plus.

Burt brought us through
the disco era.

He kept us all alive
and gave us a reason

to say, "Hey, we still got
a hero out there."

- When I say "Burt Reynolds,"
right now.

Black cowboy hat? Mustache?

Is that what you see?
It's what I see.

I also see him
in a Trans Am.

If he drove up in a Lexus,
it would just destroy me.

- The "Washington Post" critic,

in that person's opinion,

greatest road movie
ever made.

I mean, the picture
elevated Hal,

and Hal was no longer
a stuntman.

♪ ♪

- So, my father decided
it was time

to move out
of Burt Reynolds' house.

You get married, you settle
down, and then, uh,

you have to move out--you got to
get your own place.

[soft music]

- I've always wanted
to have a theater,

all my life, uh, ever since I
started being an actor.

- How are you tonight?

If you'll follow Bruce,
he'll take you to your seats.

- Good evening.
How y'all doing tonight?

[singing]

[applause]

- And I think, secretly,

most actors, back in the back
of their minds,

think about going back
to their hometown

and building a theater.

We have an apprentice program,
and they're learning

that it isn't just
stardust and moonbeams.

It's a lot of hard work
and pain.

Get out of here!
Punctuate it.

- Burt Reynolds
is a hungry man.

I think he's hungry to--to show
everybody in the world

that he's more than the illusion

that he--that he presents.

- Do you want o be taken
more seriously?

Or would you go on doing
these stunting performances?

- Well, I--I think that
probably,

20 years from now,
these "Stunting performances,"

as you called them,
will be considered

minor works of art.

And they'll say, "Those were
damn good films.

"For what they were.
They weren't trying

"to be anything other
than what they were.

But for what they were,
they were terrific."

- But you're still shooting for
a "Casablanca" in your career?

- Yeah, I'm shooting
for a "Casablanca."

And you know what I'll do when I
get my "Casablanca"?

I'll go right back and make
a "Smokey and the Bandit."

[applause]

- Burt, the co-writer
and director

of "Smokey and the Bandit,"
your pal Hal Needham.

[elegant music]

- First of all, let me say that
I'm sure nobody expects me

to play guitar or sing 'cause
y'all know better than that.

I only have
one God-given talent,

and that was to fall on my head.

And I'm thankful for that,
because it allowed me

to meet Burt Reynolds some
20-some-odd years ago.

- I always told him, "If you'd
have been a woman,

we'd have had
a great marriage."

He was an amazing man.

They don't come along like that
but once in your lifetime.

- You're a doll, I love you,

and I owe everything
to you, Burt.

Thank you.

[laid-back country music]

♪ ♪

- I just want to make a wish.

[screaming]

♪ ♪

- Certain people
show up in your life,

and the magic happens,
and it doesn't always happen,

but when the magic
happens...[claps].

♪ ♪

- You know something?

You're looking at
the luckiest man alive.

- So we're talking,
and I said, "Hal,

"can you believe your success?

"From the sharecropper's kid
in Arkansas,

you do
'Smokey and the Bandit'?"

"Yeah," he said.
"It's been a good run, man."

- Folks didn't think
too much of me

or what I was gonna amount to.

But for sure--

for sure--

my mom...

is looking down on tonight...

with a big smile on her face.

[clears throat]

[applause]

I want to thank the entire
Hollywood community

for allowing me
to be part of it.

Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.

♪ ♪

- When I heard that he passed,

I thought, "What in God's name

"could kill him?

What could kill him?"

- He's the only guy that I
thought might live forever.

[tires squealing]

- He liked speed.

He liked to bend the rules
a little bit.

He liked to live life
on his own terms.

Hal Needham was,
and will always be,

the Bandit.

[engine roaring]