The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, September 28-October 4
The Longest Yard (1974)
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Aldrich recaptured big league popular affection and box office, and found another smirking, macho kindred spirit in star Burt Reynolds, with this egalitarian comedic riot—a crowd-pleaser with a vicious, anti-authoritarian snarl. Reynolds is Paul “Wrecking” Crewe, a washed-up quarterback who gets locked up in Citrus State Prison for (upsettingly) battering a girlfriend and leading cops on a (more amusing) joyride choreographed by Hal Needham. The actor was a top running back in Florida State’s esteemed program, and he’s clearly relishing the redux here, though he doesn’t over-advertise his natural ability. Crewe’s taxed with assembling a Suicide Squad (and Dirty Dozen)-like team of “bad” inmates to “tune up” the Jerry Jones-ish warden’s semi-pro guard crew.
Crewe’s no-account, over-it attitude (he was banned from pro ball for shaving points) trickles down to every element of the film, though his eventual loyalty to his men is touching—and that’s saying something for a movie in which the climactic quarter includes two instances of Packers Hall-of-Famer Ray Nitschke getting beaned in the testicles. Character-filled faces from both the NFL and acting worlds (including the late Richard Kiel, the looming Jaws from James Bond films, and bald, blue-eyed menace Ed Lauter) people The Longest Yard, and Aldrich livens the material with screen-splitting image quadrants, ground-level huddle shots and judicious employment of slow motion. The Mean Machine’s uphill efforts include a union of whites and blacks, who initially claim they “don’t perform for honkies no more” but eventually share the inability to resist an opportunity to beat up on the guards. The game itself is at times daffy and thrilling, scored by the enthusiastic marching band and accompanying cross-dressing Citrus State Cheerios, having a grand time. Justin Stewart (September 30, 4:30pm, 7pm at the Metrograph’s Aldrich series)