Amidst this cast of “colorful” characters, how couldn't Bandit seem like the wittiest and most free-spirited person around? He’s the only one in the film allowed to be. And Carrie is just too uptight (given the CB handle “Frog” because she’s so jumpy), a typical stereotype of the time suggesting that she is sexually frigid, in flight from the marital bed (a problem that will be resolved in her pseudo-marriage to Bandit at the end). Cledus is a redneck whose most loving relationships are his big rig and bloodhound. His son is in a state of arrested development, a grown man who still uses the word “daddy” and needs help with his zipper. Smokey isn’t just an authority figure, he’s a permanently frustrated pressure cooker, liable to boil over with rage at any moment. The characters who surround Bandit also function to disguise the cracks in his rebel credentials. He destroys Smokey’s cruiser (a symbol of authoritarianism if there ever was one) and soundly beats him, but then undermines it at the end of the film by cluing the cop in to his location so the chase can go on. His disregard for authority is limited to breaking speed rules and state laws about food and beverage transportation. However, digging a little deeper, it’s clear that he couldn’t be further from the counter-culture ideals embodied by Easy Rider’s protagonists.īandit’s mission isn’t one of self-discovery (or even discovery of America), but rather a quest to rake in a cool $80,000 from the Burdettes. Bandit is also a wanderer who exists in his car, wears loose shirts and a cowboy hat, and is no follower of rules. At the end of the 60s, Easy Rider had established the look of a modern-day seeker/outsider: he lived on his motorbike and in the open spaces of America, wore a combination of hippy shirts and ironic headgear ( Dennis Hopper’s cowboy hat, Peter Fonda’s Captain America helmet), and obeyed no authority.
Throughout Smokey and the Bandit, Reynold’s character is framed as an anti-establishment figure via the iconography of the time.
Troopers exist to be outrun or outsmarted (usually with the help of accomplices on the CB radio) and Smokey’s cruiser gets slowly demolished. Along the way, Bandit breaks speed limits as he races to multiple state lines, cracks wise at every opportunity, and displays “easy charm,” which in this context involves laughing loudly and hitting on women. Justice ( Jackie Gleason), whose son Carrie was supposed to wed. Hitting the road with truck-driver friend, Cledus "Snowman" Snow ( Jerry Reed), Bandit soon picks up a runaway bride, Carrie ( Sally Field), and incurs the wrath of “Smokey Bear,” Sheriff Buford T.
The film follows the antics of Bandit as he takes a bet from “Big Enos” and “Little Enos” Burdette ( Pat McCormick and Paul Williams) to transport a truckload of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta in just 28 hours. The solution? Create entertainment that looked contemporary in terms of the anti-establishment vibe of cooler films, but which suited the hypermasculine style of certain stars and slyly pandered to traditional values. Hollywood consequently had a problem placing tough guy stars like Reynolds who were never going to fit into stories like Marathon Man or Three Days of the Condorwhich required the male lead to show emotional vulnerability. RELATED: The 20 Best Car Movies of All Time
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