Fun on the Farm

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT

Directed by HAL NEEDHAM

Screenplay by JAMES LEE BARRETT, CHARLES SHYER and ALAN MANDEL

One of the surer signs of summer is the arrival of the annual Burt Reynolds country-and-western movie. Like their musical counterparts, these bumpkin epics (Gator and W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings) deal in broad comedy and simple emotions. Generally they just place their hero in one or more fast-moving vehicles while motivating one or more square characters to give chase to him. Between crashes, Reynolds is given a series of wisecracks that establish his basic screen character--shrewd, laid-back, a tad reckless and a devil with women.

This year's entry has Reynolds and a friend (Jerry Reed) accepting a bet that they can get from Georgia to Texas, pick up a truckload of Coors beer and bring it home in a day's time. The distance is 1,800 miles. The plan is for Burt, driving a sports car, to act as diversionary force if the Smokey Bears come around while Jerry chugs along with their precious (and, in Georgia, contraband) cargo.

Reynolds is soon offering aid and comfort to a damsel in distress. She is Sally Field, playing an industrial-show dancer who has deserted a yokel groom on their wedding day. He is a hopeless dummy, but his dad is not. His dad is, in fact, Jackie Gleason, portraying Buford T. Justice, a self-advertising legend among backwoods peace officers. He is determined to recapture Field for his boy. There is an endless chase, funnily staged by Needham. With the help of many CB friends, girl and brew are safely delivered from evil.

The whole enterprise is fairly tacky, but it is also rather jaunty fun. The primary market for pictures like this is the rural drive-ins, but city slickers should also enjoy Smokey's transitory pleasures. Indeed, the movie is far lighter on its feet than most of the super-productions that the studios are currently hyping.

Richard Schickel

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