Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

This is just a fun movie. If you like car chases, the besting of jerk cops, car crashes, and the tom foolery of brotherhood, this movie is for you.

The film starts off with two big shot money grubbers who are challenging anyone who can to smuggle a truck load of beer into their truck festival, and they're promising a huge amount of money to anyone who can do it. The problem is that this is almost impossible because it's illegal, and if they get caught by the police, the shows over. Now we are introduced to the Bandit (a young Burt Reynolds), a famous trucker who has never met a job he hasn't been able to complete. He currently is hired to sit around at a truck show as an exhibit, until he is challenged to complete this seemingly impossible task. Drawn by the exorbant amount of cash, he and his trucker buddy Snowman take on the task. Snowman drives the tractor trailer to be filled with beer, and the Bandit drives a sporty Pontiac Trans Am to screw around with the cops. They pick up their load with ease and head back. All seems to be going their way until Bandit picks up a young Sally Fields, who is running away from an unwanted wedding, and subsequently, a big jerk of a cop who just so happens to be her would be father in law. This sherif then takes on a personal vendetta to chase and capture the Bandit and the woman who left his son at the alter. With the dogmatic sherif on their tail, and in a race against the clock, will Bandit and Snowman be able to deliver their load on time to collect the cash? Or will the police catch up with them first?!

This is just a fun movie. The Bandit and Snowman are devil may care, happy go lucky truckers, And they're just looking to have a good time. We also get to see the really close network and bond truckers have with each other, and get to hear a lot of lingo. What I liked about this movie that I usually don't like about these car chase, run from the cops stories, is Taft these guys are just having fun. There's no life or death situation, they don't have any 'I'm so badass and cool cause I'm such a rebel' frowns on their faces, they're just laughing the whole time. There's no pretense to badassery. There's also no overdone slapstick stupidity just for the sake of cheap laughs. It's just what they do, and how they have fun. It's the reckless impetuousness of youth with a love of cars and trucks, and challenges. The movie almost has the feel of a western. It's just a couple of guys on their trusty 'steeds' trying to best incompetent lawmen. It's lighthearted, funny adventure.