What’s Aged the Best?
Burt Reynolds’s athletic movie-star performance, the sports realism, split-screen game coverage, car chase, period styling, Caretaker twist, and decision not to kill Crewe receive the strongest praise.
In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:38Read transcript
- A giant movie star leading a sports film is praised as a model that has become rare.
- The ashtray, cigarettes, radio football call, and gray leisure suit immediately establish the 1970s setting.
- The split-screen game coverage is praised for introducing a new visual grammar late in the movie without breaking immersion.
- The car chase benefits from the long skids and less precise handling of a 1973 Maserati.
- Anitra Ford’s look is treated as specifically evocative of the mid-1970s.
- The observed Ed Loudder is praised for a résumé spanning several sports movies.
- Michael Conrad’s later Hill Street Blues presence is noted.
- Using an announcer inside the sports movie is credited as a device later films repeated.
- Caretaker’s ability to obtain steroids, vitamins, and stimulants is treated as funny period detail.
- The very wide photography and multi-picture design are praised as theatrical choices.
- Caretaker’s murder is called both devastating and an effective story turn that keeps prison danger present.
- The decision to replace an ending where Crewe was shot preserves the movie’s satisfying resolution.
- Burt Reynolds’s dismissive later account of the remake is treated as evidence of his cranky persona.