All language subtitles for The Bandit ENG

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 PLAYING)

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.

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 old boy

that probably you people
are gonna recognize like that.

MAN 1: Ladies and gentlemen,
Burt Reynolds.

MAN 2: Burt Reynolds, the most
exciting star on the screen today.

MAN 3: Burt Reynolds
is Gator McKlusky.

Whether he's racing the law
or chasing the ladies.

(GRUNTS)

MAN 4: Burt Reynolds, the
quarterback who'll tackle anything.

You saw Charlie Bronson
in the lens. (ALL LAUGH)

REPORTER: 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, I've never
seen Burt draw the line.

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

The insurance companies
draw the line sometimes.

But really and truly
he doesn't draw the line.

I've seen him do some things
which is flat scary.

I mean, there's no
other way to put it.

(GROANING WEAKLY)

INTERVIEWER: What is
the job of a stuntman?

(CHUCKLES)

GARY COMBS: The objective
of the stunt guy

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

They dress you like him,
even fix your hair, whatever.

And whatever they want to do,
whether it'd be a horse fall or high fall

or who knows, a fight,

be able to do it as many times as
you can do it without getting hurt.

BILLY BURTON: 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.

And then they'll bring the actors
out and they'd do 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?

(GUNSHOTS)

Those goddamn bastards! Told
me they weren't gonna shoot back!

(SQUAWKING)

Burt trusted Hal and knew

that Hal was gonna
do the stunts

that would really
make him look good.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

(GUNSHOT)

Hal and Burt were guys who
appeared at a time in the '70's

when anything can happen.

Burt was an actor with all the
accoutrements that an actor has.

And Hal Needham
was a man of action.

MAN: Ready?

BARRETT: I've seen a lot of actors
have good relationships with stuntmen,

but never like
Hal and Burt did.

COMBS: That was
the closest relationship

I ever saw in
the picture business.

BURTON: But you don't wanna get
too close to an actor. I don't believe...

(STAMMERING)

It's not gonna
work out very good.

WOMAN: Okay, Hal. How did you
meet Burt? Like, on Smokey and the Bear?

HAL: Smokey and the Bandit.
And the Bandit.

Was that something that he's found
as a property and then looked for you

to complete the movie
or did you come first?

No, I wrote Smokey
and the Bandit. Oh.

I understand you
directed this movie. Yeah.

This is kind of 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.

HAL: 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.

And I remember everyone said,
"Weren't you scared in the swamp?"

Only 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 minibars.

So we finally realized
that our housekeepers

were helping themselves
to our beer.

So we asked them and they
said, "What? It's Coors beer, man."

"What are you doing?"

She said, "No, 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
make a movie"

"about getting Coors beer
to 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.

So we're like, "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
and last American cowboys...

JOHN RADEWAGEN: 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...

I said, "What are you doing?"

He'd say,
"I'm writing a story."

And he told me
a little about it

and I thought, "Okay, whatever,"
you know. (CHUCKLES)

They handed me this
mash of legal pad notes

and scenes and characters
and all this stuff.

I think my mother typed up the
script for Smokey and the Bandit.

LEVY: We played with
different names for the movie,

but I called it
The Bandit at one point

or Bandit.

I wanted to do,
hopefully, action comedy.

I just wanted to throw
something on the screen

that people can be
entertained with.

And I think that
laughter is contagious,

and I think
people enjoy action.

Not violence, action.

LEVY: We were gonna sell it
to a company called AIP

which made small
exploitative genre movies.

That was
its first incarnation.

We wanted to do
something on our own.

Look out!

(THUDS)

ENGELBERG: Hal Needham had
made a living sort of falling on his head

for 20 or 30 years.

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

RADEWAGEN: 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 he said, "I want to
direct this movie."

People that ran
the studios... (STAMMERS)

They, "He's a stuntman,
he can't direct a movie."

"What are they
talking about?"

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.

RADEWAGEN: And they said,
"It's a nice script."

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

Hiya. How are ya?

Big star. Big star.

(CHUCKLES)

Burt and I were
on the show together

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

I said, "I gotta find me an igloo,
a teepee or something to live in"

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

And he said,
"Hal, come on over."

"Stay at my place
for a couple of days."

"I don't care."

My father moved in
to Burt Reynolds' house.

He was gonna stay there
for a week or two,

and then he was there for,
like, 1 1 years. (LAUGHS)

I mean, if you could
imagine putting together

a bachelor pad
back in... It was...

I think of all the homes
that Burt has had,

I think I like
that one the best.

The first thing
I think that people

would see when they go
into the bedroom

is the mirrors
on the ceiling.

BURTON: They were both
single and had a lot of girlfriends

and a lot of fun.

BURT: Bathroom is big.

And it too has mirrors.

And tile,
and I happened 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 early Indian.

I mean,
Indian kind of design.

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.

(LAUGHS)
(CHUCKLES)

I took the script home
and gave it to Burt.

Burt looked at it
and he said,

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

But he said the overall
concept was pretty good.

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

"and go get the money and if somebody
is fool enough to let you direct it,"

"says you can direct it."

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

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

ALL: We want Burt.
We want Burt.

ENGELBERG: Had Burt said
Adolf Hitler, I would've agreed.

Burt was a big movie star.

ALL: We want Burt.

MAN: Are you here to see
Burt? Who else? Who else?

RUDDY: 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.

MAN: Is it a lot of pressure, Burt,
being this kind of a sex symbol?

RUDDY: He struck such a chord
with the American public.

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

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

RUDDY: The humor and the joy,
and the honesty, it was real.

So he became the number
one star in the world.

Just one on the cheek?
Huh?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

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

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

(APPLAUSE)

Hello.

Hello, sweetheart.

You like my bear?

MAN: If he gave you
a few acting tips.

(ALL LAUGHING)

WOMAN: You should just
come tonight

instead of running off
to be with your girlfriend.

Where were the kids when
you told them? Oh, I don't know.

MAN: What do you mean you
don't know? Were they sitting there?

WOMAN: No, of course not.

You try carrying
that around with you!

MAN: Son of a bitch!

I couldn't help it, damn it.

MAN: Scene.

BURT: It's wonderful to see
somebody tackle something this difficult

and make it work.

Fear of failure is something
that's ingrained in all of us.

You gotta fight through it

in order to be better.

INTERVIEWER: In a nutshell,
could you tell me

what the story of
Smokey and the Bandit is?

(BURT CHUCKLES)

I couldn't tell you what the
story is of Smokey and the Bandit

if you put a gun to my head.

We had done two Burt
Reynolds movies at United Artists,

a picture called Gator and a
picture called White Lightning.

And it was the same movie
over and over again.

He was the good old boy,
slightly on the other side of the line

regarding law and order.

Gator. Gator McKlusky.

Shirley. Shirley.
How are you, darling?

All right.
Well, hi there.

BURT: I didn't wanna play good
old boys for the rest of my life.

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...

It wasn't a question of money.

They were asking... They were
offering me more money than Hal was,

but I'd promised Hal
that I'd do this film.

HAL: And 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 at 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.

LEVY: If you're gonna do a
bootlegging movie, you need a blocker.

You got a truck driver and you
got 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)

LEVY: Jerry was a character.

Hello, ladies.

You know, and then
you gotta have a girl.

Hi.

Who are you?

(HAL SPEAKING)

I wanted Sally Field
and they 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 him.

My wish was with the Sheriff, let's put
somebody in this movie that doesn't belong.

JACKIE GLEASON: And I made it
just as incongruous as it could be.

First of all,
I got a pencil mustache.

For a sheriff? A Southern
sheriff with a pencil mustache?

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.

RADEWAGEN: All the politics created a
tremendous amount of pressure on Hal.

He'd put his reputation
on the line

to get Smokey and
the Bandit done.

DAVID: 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."

WOMAN: We have some
childhood photos of you,

and I thought maybe, Arnold,
see if you can recognize.

HAL: I was a farm kid.

All I remember about that part of
my life is using the mule's backside

as the compass up and down
some cotton rows in Arkansas.

INTERVIEWER: Was there any
time at all for hobbies or anything that

would give you pleasure
or be fun? Hobbies?

Hobbies?

I can tell you've
never seen a sharecropper.

Listen, just getting
food on the table,

staying warm in the wintertime

was a major accomplishment.

My childhood,
man, you gotta know

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

There's nothing
lower than that.

DAVID: 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'd never seen anybody do
so much with so few tools."

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

But after about
two and a half 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,
"Gotta 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'm in an airplane,

the guy's riding along
on a horseback

and I dive out of the airplane,
or jump out the airplane,

and knock him off the horse,
called a bulldog.

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)

HAL: We had 30 days
to make a great movie.

The film commission
has been very aggressive

in terms of luring
not only us,

but a lot of
film companies here.

It's very helpful.

They've closed
highways for us,

they've torn up part of
an old bridge for us

that we're gonna
throw a car across.

It's just terrific.

MAN: (ON BULLHORN) Mark.
Hold all the noise,

all the talk,
everything. Quiet.

ENGELBERG: 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,

I got up, sort of, stood around
waiting for things to happen.

The production manager
asked me what we should do,

and I didn't have a clue.

LEVY: I remember
the first day.

Hal had pulled 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.

Jackie was sitting
in this director's chair

wearing a black Gucci
leisure suit

with a red carnation.

No one was there.

He was the first person
on the set.

(LAUGHS)

INTERVIEWER: Was directing
anything at all

like you thought
it was going to be?

HAL: 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.

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

Hal would shoot 16
pages a day. MAN: Yeah.

We did things
that were insane,

right on the edge
of insanity.

COMBS: Hal Needham
directing Burt,

this was a brand new
process for them.

I think he just
wanted Burt to be Burt.

I had no qualms about going
in there and saying, "Action."

(HAL SPEAKING)

(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)

(HAL SPEAKING)

INTERVIEWER: Oh, my God.

(HAL SPEAKING)

PAUL WILLIAMS:
We'd walk on the set,

and there's the Panavision
camera and all the lights,

and there's Burt Reynolds.

BIG ENOS: Old legends
never die. They just lose weight.

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

And you go, "Oh, my God. How
did I... How did I wind up here?"

(LAUGHING)

Now, gettin' to Texarkana and
back in 28 hours, that's no problem.

It ain't never been
done before, hot shit.

Watch your language,
little lady.

The problem is
that Coors beer.

You take that east of Texas
and that's... That's bootleggin'.

BURT: There were 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 had 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 normal kid.

He got in just as much
trouble as anyone else.

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

I remember he came in
and he says,

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

"You can go home now."

"Your father's here.
You can go home now."

And he looked to me and 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."

BARRETT: 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.

BURT'S FATHER: He got tore
up in his senior year in high school.

Tore the cartilage out
of both sides of both knees.

WATSON DUNCAN: Well,
he was sort of lost.

All he'd ever done
was 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 an alcoholic.

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

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."

I opened the book
and I went, "The..."

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

I saw something in Burt.

I saw the spark.

I hated Riverboat.

I hated doing it.

I had this character I called
Dumb-Dumb the Whistleblower.

(IMITATES BLOWING HORN)

MAN: Boiler deck!

Carney, cut it to
half speed.

Aye, sir! Half speed!

BURT: They would
bring in the stuntmen.

They were the men,
we were the boys.

(GUNSHOT)
(SCREAMS)

The stars always migrated
to the stunt guys.

They saw some realness.

There was no acting.

BURT: They were the jocks,

and that's what I've been.

(INAUDIBLE)

BURTON: Burt was very capable.

He could do it all,

but you can't do it all.

You gotta have a...
You need a double.

HAL: Over at Universal,
they just hired me

to come in
and double somebody.

They'd 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."

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 WHINNYING)

(MAN GRUNTS)

(HORSE WHINNYING)

BURT: 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 wanna be an actor."

I've always felt that Burt

kind of wanted to be doing
what Hal was doing.

HAL: He'd 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.

MAN: Cut! Cut, cut!

LEVY: They were the pirates,
running around having a good time.

When I first saw that group,

reminded me of Butch Cassidy
and the Hole-in-the-Wall gang.

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

That's a great line
in that movie, Butch says,

"Listen, I've got vision,
everyone else is wearing bifocals."

Hal Needham was
the Butch Cassidy character.

COMBS: Hal was...
He was an innovator, you know?

I've never seen him
back off from nothing.

They say, "We want you to
get in this car, go down there",

"turn it over at
90 miles an hour,"

"blow it up,
come out on fire,"

"run across the street
and die."

I say, "Okay."

BURTON: He, more or less,
got a group of guys together

that could do anything.

HAL: We just started our own
organization called Stunts Unlimited.

BURTON: Right when we started
Stunts Unlimited,

we had our office on
the lot of Paramount.

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

HAL: For four years,

we were the biggest, best-known
organization in the world.

BURTON: Got up early in
the morning, 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, when
you get back to the hotel,

you stop at a bar,
you have a couple of belts,

have a couple more, say,
"Let's go, man!" (LAUGHS)

Off to the 1 7th 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 drink a lot of
champagne in the movie.

We're sitting at
a table and just

more or less talking with Pat
McCormick and Paul Williams.

And then Burt Reynolds
walks up to the scene.

Does Burt try to put
the make on you?

No, we wish, but no.
(BOTH LAUGH)

No, we're
more or less hoping

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

(TIRES SCREECHING)

MAN: Watch out!
Everybody move back.

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

Smokey and the Bandit being filmed
here at Lakewood Fairgrounds, Atlanta.

HAL: Pontiac division of General
Motors gave us four sedans

that we used as police cars,

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

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.

It's beautiful, huh?
Honey, hush.

Jerry Reed went,
"Honey, hush."

The way that he said it, it was the
greatest looking gal you'd ever seen.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

You bet I love it.

I mean, I really get a kick
out of driving a Firebird.

(INAUDIBLE)

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

connecting 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.

INTERVIEWER: What about
all the nutty stunts in cars?

You ever have
a really far-out car run?

Oh, yeah.
(CHUCKLES)

First of all,
see, I love cars.

I can make a car talk.

Slant it sideways, spin it
completely around 360 degrees,

do all those things with it.

I know exactly
where that car is at.

MAN: 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 we're making a movie.

BURTON: Fast cars,
that was dangerous stuff.

Whether we're jumping a boat, or
jumping a car, or jumping a horse,

it was all the...

It all stemmed from
the basics of stunt work

where it all started with
the horse and the fight.

(SHOUTS)

HAL: I believe, personally,
that when you work with animals,

you stand a better chance
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 will 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.

INTERVIEWER: 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"?

HAL: (CHUCKLES) I've never
turned down a stunt.

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

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

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

There was a stunt where
I should've said something,

but I thought,
"Wait a minute."

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

When you're doubling
a leading man,

you wanna make him
look like a hero.

LEVY: White Lightning,
there's a scene where

Burt Reynolds' character
being doubled by Hal Needham

is trying to
escape police officers

when 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, he
fell down. (LAUGHS)

But he always
finished the shot.

Well, I'll be damned.

BURT: Busted his spleen.

Damn near died.

You know, stuntmen,
(CHUCKLES)

you can get hurt right there, and
they just haul you off and keep shooting,

but the actor goes down,
you're done.

HAL: We were shooting The
Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,

he had a hernia down in the
bottom of this canyon and it was

200 feet up.

I 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 onto my back,"

"leave some of that rope
down here,"

"I can carry you
out of here."

So I carried him up
the hillside on my back.

(LAUGHING) We got to the top.

They had a chopper
which I threw him in

and they forgot to get me,

and I was rolling on the
ground, all out of breath.

(HAL 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 hell of a man.
Love, Burt."

BURT: We had this 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.

LINDA MCCLURE: 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.

(LAUGHS)

It was an interesting time.

BURTON: Burt and Dinah
were lovers.

She was a cougar at the time,
I guess. (LAUGHS)

I'd like to make it eminently clear
that there are many areas in which

Hal does not double.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Okay?

(APPLAUSE)

HAL: I want to know something.

He and I started almost
simultaneous. What happened?

I mean, I'm better looking than he
is, I'm... (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

What? What?

I'll explain it to you.

Okay. I wish somebody would.

Yeah. It's very simple.

You don't have any
problems... Okay.

...because you're
a real choreographer.

I mean, those fights
are staged...

HAL: I'll 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?

RADEWAGEN:
Hal wanted to be a star.

I think, secretly, he would've
liked to be Burt Reynolds.

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's side.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

HAL: 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.

MAN: Go ahead
and bring him on by.

HAL: The next day, there
was not a dog in the dog pound.

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

Burt said, "That's your dog,"
and that's how he got in the movie.

Now, Bo, I'm tellin' ya, Fred
here ain't gonna be no problem.

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

(BOTH LAUGHING)

MCCLURE: 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?"

(LAUGHS) "It was fabulous!"

And it's the song
of the movie.

Break for that Bandit One.
Break for that Bandit One.

Yeah, Snowman. Come on back.

This is Sheriff
Buford T. Justice again.

I lost that Trans Am.
Set up a roadblock.

Good idea.

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 speakin'.

You'd better not
come this way.

(HORN HONKING)

This is the Bandit, darling.

And how can I help?
Bring it back.

BURT: I knew the music before I
knew the man, and the music got to me.

I got that
all worked out.

BURT: This Bandit character
loved Jerry Reed.

We have a relationship that's very
similar in some ways between me and Hal.

He was crazy, but crazy good.

LEVY: What is a good old 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.

There's not a lot of angst in
the good old 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 the only thrill
for us, really,

is your getting some
enjoyment from what we do.

Oh, my God.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

I 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 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

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

which is where you let
every vein show in the neck

and you just go for it
with every take,

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

Well, he gets an Oscar in
Preparation H and I get a smile.

That's an actor?

But he was brilliant in
A Streetcar Named Desire.

A Streetcar Named Desire.

What was he? A conductor?

That was the time when everybody
wanted to be Marlon Brando.

INTERVIEWER:
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?

BURT: I wanted to play
the rebel.

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

RUDDY: I said, "Jesus Christ.
He looks like Brando."

BURT: 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.

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, uh...

I said, "He is?"

And he said, "Come on!"

He was pulling me
by the shirt.

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 Hubert Cornfield said,

"Marlon,
isn't this fantastic?"

And like a dummy,
I was going like this

'cause I thought I'd been
brought over to be introduced.

But he never looked up.

He just went, "Mmm."

And I still had my hand out.

And it was deathly silence
in the place.

And I suddenly...

I had the urge to kill.

I mean,
to reach across and kill.

I want to be mean. Who
the hell does he think he is?

RUDDY: Burt had that thing that you
have to have to become a leading man

and he could go after you.

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

So he'd... You couldn't fuck
around with Burt too much.

I wanna go on
killin' white men.

(SPEAKS OTHER LANGUAGE)

He says you will
have to prove yourself.

I'll prove myself.

Just give me a chance.

LEVY: Burt wanted to be a star, and
I think he'd have done most anything.

(SPEAKING IN OTHER 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. (CHUCKLES)

(WHINNYING)

(BOTH 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."

So I fell down
the stairs and talked.

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

Thought you were
an authority on architecture.

I didn't know
your hobby was boating.

(GROANING)

I think I've probably chosen
worse than any actor

in the history of films.

(CONVERSING
IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

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

They said, "Tahiti."

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

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

(PANTING)

Sometimes, you have to lose
yourself before you can find anything.

(CHUCKLES)

Any snakes around here?

INTERVIEWER: 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 four out of five
pictures here, which really 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. Mmm-hmm.

BURT: Changed everything
for me.

I had never done
a part that good,

but I understand this guy.

(WHOOPING)

I could play him.

We gotta get rid
of that guy.

Just how are you
gonna do that, Lewis?

Where?

Anywhere.

Everywhere.

BURT: 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.

Hello.

Nice, you look so sharp, again
tonight. You're dressing so well...

Thank you.
I was just pressed.

They just pressed me.
The whole thing?

Did you get into your clothes?
They 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
haven't changed a bit.

No, I haven't.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

MAN: Listen,
Deliverance is a really...

It's from a novel.
It's quite serious.

It's got rape and murder
in it and all those things.

Mmm-hmm. And here you
are, cavorting like a jackass.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Not being a jackass,
just cavorting like one.

Hmm.

BURT: I gambled,
I really gambled.

I mean, Deliverance was BC.
Before Cosmo.

The gamble was would I ever be
considered a serious actor after that.

When I died, on my tombstone
would they say,

"His contribution
to the world was,"

"he was the first
male nude centerfold."

What it's 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 wish he hadn't done it.

But 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.

RADEWAGEN: Posing catapulted
Burt Reynolds to household name.

He became, then,
the guy.

(ALL LAUGHING)

That's literally true.

(AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING)

How many people like him,
with the mustache?

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

And then,
without the mustache?

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

This is a hell of a time to
tell me. (ALL LAUGHING)

I think you should stick
with the mustache, Burt.

Definitely stick
with the mustache.

BURT: 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.

RUDDY: It was a bad choice
'cause it trivialized him.

And I know he
was sorry about it,

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.

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

I'm one of them actually.
(CHUCKLES)

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

for you 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,

"What's the competition?"

I can't stand in the 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 them up.

(SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)

Hold it! The beer!
Watch the beer!

(BOTTLES BREAKING)

(LAUGHING)

You all right?
Very funny! Very funny!

I thought it was funny.

To move people to laugh,
it's extremely difficult,

crossing a lot of
different cultures.

And there's no question,
you ask anyone,

anyone who is in the
creative end of this business

and they will always tell you,
you take a guy like Jackie Gleason.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)

GLEASON: 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
the thing and"

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

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

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

"Okay, let's go."

Good shit!

I got the evidence!
Put the evidence in the car.

But, Daddy...

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.

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?

INTERVIEWER:
No, it's three things.

What's that?

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

(CHUCKLES) You sweet thing, from
now on you can say anything you want to.

Let's play tag. Tag!
You're it! (LAUGHS)

Tag?

HAL: I was 1 1 years old
when I saw my first movie.

INTERVIEWER: What was it?

HAL: It was called
Pop Goes the Weasel,

and I mean this
is way back, okay.

To me, I was amazed.

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."

(GASPING)

Oof.

HAL: I will never win
an Academy Award.

But I'm gonna be
very rich, so...

And I think I put out
entertaining films,

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

What happened, Daddy?

ENGELBERG: 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.

JUSTICE: Just keep your eye
out for that Mr. Bandit bastard!

Let me have a diablo sandwich,
a Dr. Pepper.

Make it fast.
I'm in a goddamn hurry.

ENGELBERG:
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?

You bet your ass on that, boy.

Oh, you got a little
mess there. Let me...

Let me help you out here,
get that off of there. That's...

Yeah, yeah.
Much obliged.

When we finished that scene,
Burt came to Hal and me,

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

Somebody chasin' you?

Nobody chasin' me, boy.

I been chasin'
a goddamn maniac.

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

but we started re-writing.

(INAUDIBLE)

Did Burt feel that Jackie was
upstaging him, stealing from him?

You know, I really don't know.

FEMALE REPORTER: Do you feel that
you are in competition to Burt Reynolds?

Oh, no, no, no, he plays
comedy, I'm in the lead in this.

Oh, let me pay for it.
Let me pay.

Oh, no. No, no. You're
an officer of the law.

I'd... I'd be honored.
Much obliged.

Where's the can?
I gotta take a squirt.

Oh, right back there.
Just used it myself.

GLEASON: I think that Burt
could be a very great comedian.

He can look at you
and say something

and then he gives you the
attitude that he's saying, "Who me?"

And that's a great quality for
someone who wants to do comedy,

I believe he could
be a great comedian.

LEVY: 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.

(WOMAN SPEAKING)

(HAL SPEAKING)

MCCLURE: Alan was
doubling Burt.

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

And Janet Brady
looked exactly like Sally

and just
continued to double her.

She could do the fight,
she could do the falls,

but her specialty was cars,
no question about it.

She and Alan Gibbs met,

they decide to get married.

And they get married during the
filming of Smokey and the Bandit,

and Hal gives Janet away,

as the father of the bride.

FEMALE REPORTER: Is it true
that there was nearly an accident

shooting the scene where the
car crashes on to the football field?

GIBBS: Oh, boy,
there sure was.

(SCREAMING)

We got shots that
didn't go in the film

'cause they were so scary.

When the car jumped
and I saw everybody

start running
out of the dug-out.

I saw one guy just
stand straight up

and the car just
hit the dug-out.

ENGELBERG:
A 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
they had watered it

and even though we put on Pirelli
tires to try to compensate for it,

we just couldn't get stopped,
that's all there is to it,

and I just thank God
that one of my

stunt men had enough
sense in there to...

And the stunt girl,
both to turn that car

and get it outside
of these people.

I said, we're gonna hurt somebody
bad, I want this stopped now.

You know, you can do anything in
the world in 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 tokus
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.

I was under a tree then,
hiding my face.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

When people go to a movie,

they get engrossed
with the character,

the lead character
and everything.

They don't think about us stunt
men, and I don't think they should,

but when an actor
is confronted

on national television
or something,

seems to me like
he should have enough

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

BURTON: Most actors
can't do their own stuff.

An actor went
on Johnny Carson,

"Oh, yeah,
I did all my own stunts."

And 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

because the public didn't know
what a stunt guy was.

Ironically, it was Hal who
let the cat out of the bag.

(UTENSILS CLATTER)

Hi there, David,
how are you?

Nice of you to drop in.

Thank you very much.

You okay?
Oh, I'm fine.

DAVID: Nobody had a bigger
shadow than Burt Reynolds,

and my father was really more
than ready to step out from behind it.

RADEWAGEN: When Hal
first met me, he said,

"This is the guy
who'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?

WOMAN: Next you'll
see Hal Needham.

Hal is wearing
an awning-striped caftan.

I'm not crazy about that.

WOMAN 2: Oh, I think
it looks great on him though,

it's got a hood,
you can cover all up in it.

RADEWAGEN: I think he
realized that acting wasn't his forte,

but certainly stunts were.

ANNOUNCER:
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?

HAL: Well, I'm gonna stick a rocket
in the back end and jump the river.

I spent all day
everyday looking for ways

to get Hal in front of
anybody you could, anytime.

(ENGINE REVS)

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

For the second time.

BARRETT: 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.

RADEWAGEN: When I first
started to go out to pitch Hal,

it was not an easy task.

I realized where I had
to go was to tell people,

"Well, Hal Needham
is Burt Reynolds' stuntman."

Now we have their attention.

INTERVIEWER: 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 all still
went back to Burt.

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

You know,
I know he took from me.

And for instance,
he took my wardrobe, okay.

He had them copy my wardrobe
that I wear normally all the time.

And that's what
he wore in the movie.

One day he came out, he and
I were dressed exactly alike.

RADEWAGEN: We worked a lot on that
because we knew that was coming every time,

and then he was off,
talking about stunts.

Presenting 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.

RADEWAGEN: Well, he had met
the guy that owned a toy company,

they said, "You know, Evel
Knievel's doll made a ton of money."

MCCLURE: 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 doll and it'll turn,

you could make the hat
fly off with a string.

RADEWAGEN: They had
designed the prototype,

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

We recognized that
we're gonna need a big event.

Hal and Bill Frederick came
up with the idea of the rocket car.

MAN: (OVER RADIO)
Three, two, one, ignition.

ANNOUNCER 1: Wow. Looks like
he's off in a good wind this time, kid.

ANNOUNCER 2: Thunderous
send-off to Hal Needham.

Climbing to four, to 500,

almost 550 miles per hour
and still climbing.

ANNOUNCER 1: That's faster
than programmed, kid.

ANNOUNCER 2: His chute
just came out, his chute deployed,

but it has not opened.

ANNOUNCER 1:
Ken, it has not opened.

He might be in very serious
trouble down there.

ANNOUNCER 2:
He's missed the red flag,

and he has crashed
at the end of the course.

I'm gonna tell you something,

the last couple of hundred
yards is a son-of-a-gun.

RADEWAGEN: 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 was never
gonna be a movie star.

So, Hal was under
tremendous pressure

to make Smokey and
the Bandit a success.

ENGELBERG: 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 come
up short, you got issues here.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

Sorry. I don't want
to get married.

Terrific.
That makes two of us.

Sally and Burt became an item
by that day of shooting.

Hold it, oh, wait,
one minute, here we have...

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
are liking each other.

Sometimes, you call action and
there are things that happen first.

(ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING)

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.

Frog?

Not 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 on
about this in America.

I think I'm a real good actor.

FEMALE REPORTER: 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.

(SINGING)
And there's no concealing

The fact I'm feeling bored

Bored! Bored!

I find Burt Reynolds
the 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.

PAULINE KAEL: He connects,
but he doesn't take very good parts.

He doesn't take the parts that
would 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.

WOMAN: 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?

BURT: 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 painful.

'Cause you can never
ever give them enough,

they always want
a little bit more.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

WOMAN 1: Is it true that you are
back together with Dinah Shore?

WOMAN 2: Do you plan on making
any movies on location in Chicago?

WOMAN 3: Would you like
to go for coffee after the show?

WOMAN 4: You said your
favorite sport was football,

is that what influenced you
doing The Longest Yard?

WOMAN 5: Is it true that you've
been trying to adopt a child?

And do you plan
on marrying again?

WOMAN 6: Burt,
do you really enjoy all this?

ENGELBERG:
Burt got sick down there,

and he was struggling
to come to the set.

You talk about
change in schedules,

I mean, Sally couldn't work without
Burt because it was in the car.

HAL: He did disappear for
a couple of days, yes.

But I don't want to
get into the reasonings.

RUDDY: Hal understood Burt
was an actor.

Being an actor, he was
high strung and neurotic.

I mean,
all actors are crazy, right?

I mean, Marlon Brando
walked out of acting

because he couldn't
take it anymore.

You must understand, their
face is on this 100-foot screen.

JUSTICE: You know who that is?

If they are embarrassed with what
they see, they wanna kill themselves.

So, the pressure
on an actor, on his ego

is so overwhelming.

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

Whoa, negatory, negatory!
What are you, crazy or somethin'?

We come this far,
ain't we?

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?"

RUDDY: There's one thing about good
old Southern boys, all the way through.

They have a sense of
loyalty to their friend.

BURT: I felt like, if anything,
I would rebel.

You got to be dangerous

as part of being sexy.

(TIRES SCREECH)

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 wanna jump something else!

I wanna jump a house!
I wanna jump something!

LEVY: We'd just
done the car jump.

The director yelled,
"That's it, that's a wrap."

That was the last...
The 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 and, you know,

we just nodded at each
other and that was it.

You're crazy!

LEVY: Kind of our moment.

We realized that it exists and it's
gonna be around a lot longer than you are.

BURT: Everybody was convinced
it was a toy car that went up,

but we all know
it was a real car.

MAN: With people in it.

BURT: With people in it.

And that's Needham.
MAN: Yeah.

It was never... He wouldn't
work with a toy anything.

That was the beautiful
art of it and that's the loss.

They'd figure out a way to do
it now without doing it for real.

We didn't have
that technology...

MAN: No, there were people
hanging it out there pretty far.

It all went together
and it was magical.

Universal... I think there's
a computer at Universal that

pretty much predicts what a
movie's supposed to make.

They put in all the facts, the
stars, the timing, how many theaters,

and I think that
computer spit out

for Smokey and the Bandit,
one million.

That was it.

ENGELBERG: The general
sales manager at Universal,

having seen
the movie by the way,

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

'cause the picture was so bad.

(HAL SPEAKING)

And I said, "Take it out!"

You do a comedy that
doesn't work... (EXCLAIMS)

Dead!

And only a fool does it,
thinking it's a sure thing.

LEVY: I thought it was
a very funny movie.

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

they opened the movie

in the Radio City Music Hall,
and then it died.

ENGELBERG: I said, "Wait a
minute, you opened it in New York"?

That's ridiculous.

BURT: It was a disastrous
screening. I mean...

The cards were, you know, "This
is boring, we've seen this before."

I thought, you know, what do I
do to get these guys to get it?

(GIRLS SQUEALING)

ENGELBERG: And I said, "Put
the damn thing out in the South."

That's who it was made for.

(CHEERING)

How many of you have seen Hal's
picture, Smokey and the Bandit?

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

I love it! I love it!
WOMAN: Everybody loves it.

I bet I've seen
that movie 200 times.

That's probably
plus or minus five.

That little number is the second
highest grossing motion picture

in the history of
the motion picture business.

BURT: 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.

It was so exciting.

Who was your favorite
in the film? Burt.

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."

Who's gonna hold your hat?

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 is an elegance.

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

MAN: You know,
in the days of silent movies,

the chase was often
the 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++.

Burt bought us
through the disco era.

He kept us all alive
and gave us a reason to say,

"Hey, we still
got a hero out here."

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.

This new talent that had emerged
on the American film scene,

Hal Needham,
made Preston Sturges,

and John Ford and all
of these people,

you know,
look like second stringers.

The critic thought this was, you
know, the Second Coming of Christ.

I mean,
the picture elevated Hal,

and Hal was
no longer a stuntman.

DAVID: So, my father
decided it was time to

move out of Burt
Reynolds' house.

You get married,
you settle down and then,

you have to move out,
you gotta get your own place.

BURT: I've always wanted
to have a theater,

all my life, 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 are you all doing?

And I think secretly,
most actors,

back in
the back of their mind,

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,
a lot of pain...

Get out of here! Punctuate it.

MAN: Burt Reynolds
is a hungry man.

I think he is hungry to show
everybody and the world that he is more

than the illusion
that he presents.

WOMAN: Do you want
to be taken more seriously

or would you go on doing
these stunting performances?

Well, I think that probably

20 years from now these "stunting
performances" as you call 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.

MAN: 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.

ANNOUNCER: Burt, the co-writer
and director of Smokey and the Bandit.

Your pal, Hal Needham.

First off,
let me say that I'm sure

nobody expects me to
play a 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.

BURT: I always told him
if he'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.

(APPLAUDING)

I just wanna make a wish.

(ALL LAUGHING)

RUDDY: Certain people
show up in your life,

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

But when the magic happens...

HAL: You know something?

You're looking at
the luckiest man alive.

So we're talking and I say, "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."

HAL: Folks didn't think too much
of me, what I was gonna amount to.

But for sure, for sure...

(VOICE BREAKING) My mom
is looking down on tonight

with a big smile on her face.

(CLEARS THROAT)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

I wanna thank the entire
Hollywood community

for allowing me
to be part of it.

Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.

BURT: When I heard that he'd passed,

I thought, "What in God's
name could kill him?"

"What could kill him?"

DAVID: He was the only guy
that I thought might live forever.

(TIRES SCREECH)

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.