IMDb user comments for
The Longest Yard (1974)

advertisement

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Index

51 comments in total

---

23 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
A classic of the genre., 15 giugno 2005

Author: MovieAddict2008 da UK

You just can't get away with this stuff anymore. In the first ten minutes, Burt Reynolds has beaten his girlfriend, stolen her car, gone on a massive police chase, dumped the sportscar off a bridge, then attacked two cops. Oh, and he's the hero of the movie, too.

Nowadays the remake -- starring Adam Sandler -- is rated PG-13 and he's a total wimp. Back in the '70s you could get away with being vicious, sexist, homophobic and racist and live to tell about it. In 2005, Adam Sandler says the F-word in one of his movies and parents are banning the film companies.

Yup, this film is clearly racist, homophobic and misogynist. Women are treated as sexual objects throughout, from the opening to the part where a prison warden's intern requests sexual favors from Burt Reynolds in return for handing him a movie-reel he needs.

African-Americans are portrayed as racist tough guys who are better than the whites at football, and they call whiteys "honkies" and other such words. In return all the whites are racist towards the blacks and it creates an interesting tension.

The homophobia sneaks into play when it's suggested one of the inmates is in love with Burt Reynolds. Quite a funny scene, actually.

"The Longest Yard" was one of Robert Aldrich's most successful films and many claimed it was him "selling out," but viewed 30 years later this really does stand apart from many of the other sports-comedy films of the decade. What is so special about "The Longest Yard" is probably that it plays like a mix between "Cool Hand Luke," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Smokey and the Bandit" -- it's got car chases, it's got sports, it's got funny stuff, BUT it also spends a lot of time developing its characters and creating some very dramatic sequences.

This is well directed, gritty, and fun -- not as much a "comedy" as you might expect, it is actually more serious. By the end of the film we've come to root for a bunch of murderers and rapists and even Burt Reynolds, and let's face it -- when was the last time you saw Burt Reynolds in a movie and actually LIKED his character?! A classic of the genre.

---

17 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Real men; no schtick, 3 gennaio 2000

Author: julikell da United States

"The Longest Yard" does not depend on the tiresome innocent-man-behind-bars schtick to evoke the inmates' humanity. Crew, Caretaker, et al are not men because they have been falsely accused, but because they maintain their manhood under conditions of mental and physical cruelty. Their humanity isn't a plot or script convention, but the core of their character. It's refreshing to discover that you're cheering for criminals despite their unapologetic bravado. IMHO, the best "prison" film ever made.

---

8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Burt Reynolds: The Tom Brady/Joe Montana Of His Day, 21 gennaio 2008

Author: ccthemovieman-1 da Lockport, NY, United States

This could be best made - and was - in the early '70s when it was really the "in" thing (even more than today) to promote criminals as good guys and authority figures as bad guys. Who better than make a criminal into a lovable, good guy we all want to root for than Burt Reynolds? Box-office-wise, Burt was the hottest thing going in the 1970s and playing a lawbreaker seemed to be tailor-made for him, from "Smokey And The Bandit" on down the line. Few, if any, of the characters he played were wholesome guys, let's put it that way. He's still acting and still playing sleazy roles here there: Mr. "Boogie Nights" porn-man himself.

Once Hollywood got total freedom, the liberal filmmakers were like little kids in the candy store. They trashed every authority figure in the culture, from politics to religion. A favorite target - which remains to this day - is the warden of a prison. He's always (see "Shawshank Redemption" for another good example) an evil guy and the prisoners are usually good guys, naturally. Well, don't try to find out if that is true in real life. The shock in this movie was seeing nice-guy Eddie Albert play the mean warden, but he pulled it off convincingly. Most of the characters in this movie are over-the-top, but that was the idea.

This movie manipulated all of us, including a young-and-stupid me, to root for the prisoners (rapists, murderers, thieves, etc.) in the big football games against the prison guards. That's another group which also is shown (post-1960) to be sadistic SOBs. In essence, that's the story in this film: a big football game played at the end in which all us manipulated fans can root for the cons. Along the way, Burt gives us his normal glib-but-entertaining wisecracks and personality and we get some wild characters to go with him, such as the very likable "Caretaker" (James Hampton).

There is no denying Burt's appeal in this film and his incredible popularity in those 1970s films. He's macho enough, as the quarterback here, for the guys to respect him, and still be a ladies' favorite. Hell, this guys is Joe Montana and Tom Brady rolled into one!

I can't say the same for Richard Kiel, but "Jaws" (as became later in a James Bond movie), was always fun to watch. Some real-life pro goons, like Green Bay's Ray Nitchke, join the cast for some gridiron realism.

Overall, a brainless-but-lots of fun flick and very fast-moving one, typically sleazy (er, "gritty," as critics preferred to call them) movie of its decade. I give it decent "stars" mainly because it was so entertaining.

---

11 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
I Don't Know Why I Like It, 14 settembre 2001
Author: Hitchcoc da United States

If there ever was a manipulative film, this is it. By the end you are rooting for the prisoners (the nice guys, you know, armed robbers, murderers, rapists, child molesters) against those awful guards. Those poor sweet prisoners, being taken advantage of by those sadistic guards. Then there's the warden, Mr. Douglas from Green Acres, Eddie Albert. Rotten to the core. Bert Reynolds is his mugging best, first selling out, then winning one for the Gipper. It is violent, raucous, ridiculous from the stolen uniforms to the cross dressing cheerleaders. I am a non violent person, I knew everything was designed to work over my prejudices and my primitive feelings of revenge. And yet, when the game started, I was transfixed. I don't get it. Have I no taste?

---

5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Jokey jock-brutality, 11 giugno 2005

Author: moonspinner55 da redlands, ca

Disgraced ex-pro football player Burt Reynolds is sent to prison after dumping his lover's car in the drink and assaulting two police officers; once behind bars, the oily warden coerces him into turning the other inmates into football players to compete with the guards in a game. Great story for a funny farce, but "The Longest Yard" isn't all cartoonish fun, it has some dimensions, and director Robert Aldrich is easy on the transitions in tone. The inmates look a bit long-in-the-tooth to be playing an extended, crushing game on the gridiron, but Reynolds' comic double-takes are very amusing, and the supporting cast is full of colorful characters, particularly James Hampton as Caretaker, Michael Conrad as Scarboro and Bernadette Peters as a secretary(whose hairdo is a punchline all by itself). There's too much emphasis on what a jerk warden Eddie Albert is, and too many shots of him looking aghast, and Ed Lauter's menacing act as the chief guard is tiresome, but the movie is surprisingly low-keyed and looks convincing. The split-screen visuals once the game gets going are fantastic, showing Aldrich's keen eye in capturing different behavior, although the game itself seems to go on forever--these players would be passed out from sheer exhaustion--and the warden's threats still hang in the air, unresolved.

---

9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
the greatest football film ever... period, 17 maggio 2005

Author: movieman_kev da United States

Burt Reynolds plays Paul Crewe a real man's man. After showing his woman who's boss, he splits in her car and after a great chase scene, the police find him in a bar. So the ex-football player is sent to prison, where the warden offers to shave off some time if he makes a team of the convicts to fight (and lose to) the guards' semi-pro team in a pre-season game. Every part of the movie screams greatness. From the excellent acting all around, to the superb casting (Adam Sandler can't hold a candle to Burt in this movie, that remake is gonna be horrid) Ed Lauter is a great heavy , to the great tension-filled football game that comprises a good deal of the latter half of the movie. This is one of the exceedingly too few MAN's movie and they sadly don't make them like this anymore.

My Grade: A

DVD Extras: Commentary by Burt Reynolds and Writer Albert Ruddy (Among the best I've heard); 11 minute "Doing time on the Longest Yard" featurette; 11 minute "Unleashing the Mean Machine" retrospective; an exclusive look at the re-make (looking absolute crap); Theatrical Trailer;Trailers for "The Longest Yard" remake, "Coach Carter", "Macgyver: Season 1", and "Tommy Boy"

Eye Candy: Anita Ford in a red see-thru number

---

8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Has aged well after 25+ years, 13 febbraio 2001
Author: ZR RIFLE

After seeing this flick again last year after I don't know how long, at first I wondered why I used to really like this film. But after watching the whole thing to the end, I remember why. This is one of those films that generated a whole bunch of "copy-cat" movies, none which are even worth remembering (or seeing). Sure, it's a macho-man movie, but it works, and to see the talent (both actors and ex-pro ball players) on the screen, this is a movie you can watch over and over. By the way, it was refreshing to see the widescreen DVD version which was just released.

---

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The Mean Machine...., 12 giugno 2005
Author: moviemuskie da America

Tongue and Cheek satire and sports movies generally are not exactly two movies genres that you combine together, however Burt Reynolds did not believe that, and as a result he starred in a movie that manages to be funny, poignant, intense, and everything in-between. I really don't know how the writers, producers and directors came up with something that turned out to be so awesome. The Longest Yard is masterful, it is funny, but it isn't a comedy, there is a lot of football but it is more than a just a sports movie, this is a hard movie to classify and maybe that is the reason it is so good.

Burt Reynolds plays a washed up football player who winds up in the slammer for drunk driving. While there the warden asks him to put together a football team to go up against the prison guards, who play in a semi-professional league. The prisoners are an interesting group of misfits and criminals, played perfectly by the various character actors in the parts. Burt Reynolds manages to be a brilliant lead of all of these crazy cons, and is perfect in this part. This movie is great but it doesn't exactly scream out greatness at first. This is a movie where you will be half way through and you will realize this is just a great movie to watch.

Aside from the fact it is just an off-beat movie it is hard to understand why this movie is so good, I don't know why myself, the jokes are not really laugh out loud hysterical, but it becomes apparent the reason this movie is so good is because it really ventured into areas that few films had, and while there are references to racial problems, homosexuality, although very muted, prison violence, crooked law enforcement officials and other issues rarely discussed on screen.

What I am surprised at is that these issues become prominent, and something you heed in the movie, and at the same time the over the top satire merges with this movie perfectly. Even watching a movie like this as compared to other comedies that raise marginally controversial issues like racism, such as Police Academy, Police Academy sort of makes a comedy out of racism and sexism, and to a lesser degree a movie like Caddyshack, but this movie puts the comedy and the controversial issues together, not making them one, but two completely different facets of the movie. Normally when you have a movie that is as intense as this it is hard to have such satirical elements in a movie and be a good movie, but this movie combines the two elements so effortlessly.

This is definitely an underdog movie, in that the prisoners are supposed to lose, they are a bunch of cons that rarely if ever played football, and have no chance going up against a semi-professional team. The characters, too numerous to name make this movie that much better. The movie also is a prison movie, and is successful at that, this is one of those movies, everything just clicked right, and the result is near perfection. One reason to watch this movie is Eddie Albert, as the ever smiling and smugly pleasant prison warden who is the mastermind of the entire affair, he is just perfect here, so meticulously uttering every word to the point that he looks like he is in pain, and he is perfect in the role. James Hampton also has an excellent part as Reynolds' sidekick in prison. This is just an all around great movie excellent in so many different ways.

I watch a movie like this, and I wonder why there are so few movies like this today, movies so offbeat but funny, movies that actually have decent acting, movies that are this interesting, instead of typical silly fare you would get like a dumb teen movie or a dumb action movie. This movie is priceless in a way. When I first heard of the movie I didn't think it would be that good, but when I watched it I realized why it was Oscar nominated and so well thought of. I don't know why it clicked, but it did, and the result is a film definitely worth seeing, and one of the best of the 1970s.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
I gotta be a football hero!, 17 marzo 2004

Author: Joseph Riesenbeck (eazyguy62) da United States

If one were to look at a Burt Reynolds film resume from over the years, he would have to look long and hard to find many gems. In comparison to some of his films such as Smokey And The Bandit II, Cannonball Run, and Stroker Ace for example, The Longest Yard is not only a gem, it's the Hope Diamond.

Reynolds plays down on his luck, ex-NFL quarterback Paul Crewe. Seems he was kicked out of football for shaving points in the game, and is now relegated to servicing his rich girl friend. One afternoon, when the girlfriend makes the mistake of interrupting his football viewing, Crewe steals her Maserati and drives it into the nearby bay. After a quick car chase and a funny scene when Crewe is arrested in a bar, he is sent off to prison. As it turns out it is just not any ordinary prison. It seems Warden Hazen (Eddie Albert)hires the guards on their ability to play football. It also seems Hazen has arranged for Crewe to be sent to his particular prison so that Crewe can organize a football team of the inmates, quarterback them, and play a game against the guards. A totally preposterous plot it is, but that's part of what makes this film so enjoyable.

The Longest Yard works so well is not because the acting is Academy Award stuff, it's because Producer Albert Ruddy and Director Robert Aldrich seemed to have found the perfect cast for the roles they inhabit. Having played football in college, Reynolds fits the role of quarterback Crewe perfectly. Eddie Albert as sleazy Warden Hazen, will make you forget about that thing he did called Green Acres.

James Hampton, who has floundered around in Hollywood as a character actor, has his best role ever as Caretaker. Crewe makes Caretaker his manager because it seems he has a knack for obtaining certain contraband that would otherwise be out of Crewe's clutches. Some of the items he acquires are not only funny, but there's also a certain service Crewe has to perform to get some of them. I'll not tell you what it is but leave it to you to see the film.

Michael Conrad, who plays aging ex-football player Nate Scarboro, also joins in the fun when he agrees to help coach Crewe's team on the slim chance that the inmates might pull an upset. Let's just say some of his coaching ideas are unique, as our many of the coaching ideas in this film. That's OK because it only serves to add to the fun.

Harry Caesar as Granville, the first black player to join the team, shows there are more than enough reasons for him to play football. It takes Granville being humiliated by the guards trying to discourage him from playing before the other black inmates join in the fun. In the scene where the guards are demeaning him, he doesn't get rattled, yet we can sense his rage beneath the surface. There's also Pop(John Steadman)who has been lingering in prison for a few extra years because he once punched a certain guard who became a Warden. He becomes the team's trainer, and has one brief but memorable moment with Crewe during the football game.

What most people remember about The Longest Yard is the big game, but everything leading up to it is just as enjoyable. There is the favor that Crewe has to do for the Warden's secretary (Bernadette Peters with the strangest hair do I've ever seen). The scenes where Crewe is recruiting the inmates are classic, especially when he interviews a couple of inmates named Samson(Richard Kiel), Shokner (Robert Tessier) and Indian (Sonny Sixkiller). When the team begins practicing, how they go from being really really bad to fairly decent is as entertaining as the rest of the film.

As for the football game itself, it is undoubtedly one of the most hilarious sporting events of any kind to be put on the big screen. Aldrich takes each moment of the game and makes it count. If you have never seen the film, it'll have you rolling on the floor. If you have seen it as I have many times, just thinking about it will bring a smile of recollection to your face. You'll see things in this game you'll never get the chance to witness on Monday night football.

If there are any missteps in this film, they are minor. One is a detestable slimy inmate named Unger (Charles Tyner) is introduced into the story when it is not necessary. He is here only as a plot device to do two things, the first is to carry out a despicable act, and the second is because of Unger, Crewe is forced into a bad decision late in the film. It would have been easily to find a way to do this without introducing Unger into an otherwise enjoyable film.

Despite that, there is no doubt that you'll enjoy The Longest Yard, even if you don't like football. Aldrich, Ruddy, and Reynolds have scored a touchdown and a two point conversion. When you score like that you get my coaching grade, and for The Longest Yard it's an A-.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Legacy, 8 febbraio 2007

Author: sTUpiFY308

Seeing as this year this movie will have it's 33rd birthday, it has had a great legacy. I saw the remake with Adam Sandler, and that made me want to see this version. I didn't expect to like this, as I've had pretty bad encounters with movies made from 1980 or earlier.

But...I did like this. For a movie that's 33 years old, it's long and has a touching story. Burt Reynolds was great as the hero.

It is long. I'm not calling it a bad thing, though. This story is really too great to only be told in 90 minutes. Over 2 hours is a long time for someone with no attention span, but I can stay for a long time.

If you can stay in your seat for 120 minutes and like these movies, rent or (I strongly suggest to) buy The Longest Yard. It has a great legacy, and it isn't about to die yet!

---

---

Page 1 of 6:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Recensione Amazon.com	Voti
Premi	Newsgroup reviews	External reviews
Plot keywords	Dettagli principali	Your user comments
Your vote history