The secrets behind the cars and stunts in 'The Italian Job'. Wanting to promote the aesthetically modified 1977 model, but lacking cars owing to delays in production start-up, GM modified four 1976 Trans Ams with '77 spec bodywork and decals for the film. The scene where Sheriff Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing . Jackie Gleasons Buford T. Justice character is a supposedly an amalgamation of a few characters, including the real Buford T. Justicethere is obviously the Dodge safety sheriff from the 1970s ads, Burt Reynolds father was chief of police of Jupiter Florida, and a friend of his fathers, a Florida Highway Patrol officer was actually the REAL Buford T. Justice. Seven: (Three with Burt Reynolds and Crew, and Four without) Smokey and the Bandit - 1977 Smokey and the Bandit II - 1980 Smokey and the Bandit III . As a kid that T/A, the General Lee, and KITT were largely responsible for defining my taste in cars and that carries through to today. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The redesign was originally planned for 1980, but 1978 and 1979 became record years for GM's division, so the new model was pushed back. Even when the 2nd gen was already coasting on fumes, and defanged, and after the reasonably shitty Smokey and the Bandit sequel, Pontiac managed to pump out 107,000 Trans Ams in 1980 and 70,000 for the 2nd gen Trans Ams swan song in 1981. Ive always loved this movie. Mr. Reynolds elevated the dreck that he appeared in to a higher level, that is, enjoyable. The directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham, the film follows Bo "Bandit" Darville (Reynolds) and Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Reed), two bootleggers attempting to illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta. Today, Smokey and the Bandit remains one of the most popular car action films ever made, and the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am will forever be wed to the movie. Did I mention how much I enjoy reading all the back stories and niggly details I can only get here ? Both sequels used another Trans Am, not a Cadillac Eldorado, as seen below. Originally, the film was going to be a B-movie played only in the Southern United States. The 403 Olds T/A was a dog, stock, but with some easily obtained parts, could be turned into a very nice low 13 second tire melter. Actually, there were 2 future Dukes stars in the movie: Ben Jones (Cooter) was in an early scene helping Big Enos find Bandit. Gotta love that guy! Just do a search for Crown Victorias on your local CL. Although 1977 models also featured 6.6-liter engines, they were rated at only 200 horses. Jackie Gleason ad libbed a lot of his lines too. Below is probably another DeKalb County cop car. Except that shes not sagging. [30] Upon meeting Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton told him that the South considers the film to be less cinema and more documentary. S&TB was filmed primarily off Route 400 in Georgia. But while the cars shown in the movie look like 1977-model-year Trans Ams, they were actually 1976 models. The sticker read "T/A 6.6," which was a reminder of the engine's 6.6-liter displacement. "Smokey and the Bandit Pursuit Pack" is formatted as a box set that in presented in full color in widescreen. In the original script, Carrie was called Kate while Big Enos and Little Enos were called Kyle and Dickey.
14 Little-Known Facts About The Smokey And The Bandit Trans-Am - HotCars The film was followed by two sequels: Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983). That's because the Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit didn't sound like a Trans Am. During this time, the Firebird also surpassed sales figures of the Chevrolet Camaro. Well, at least that's what you saw in the movie. Trigger had a big impact on my taste in cars with the Trans Ams of the late 70s being my favorite. The 1977 model wasn't out yet when filming began, so General Motors provided 1976 cars with front clips from the soon-to-be-released 1977 update. I also own a 1:18 scale version of the Bandit Trans Am. At the drive-in of all places. I enjoyed the hell out of my 1976 Dart Pursuit. A guy we knew drove his half-ton pickup from western WA to his reserve 2-week stint in his home state in California. A 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix with a Buick Electra behind it. How did any bra manufacturers survive the 70s? I prefer Buford T. Justices 1980 Pontiac Bonneville and his 1983 Pontiac Bonneville in Smokey and The Bandit III. The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. Its weird how it works. He gave Needham a preview of the song and, getting no reaction, offered to rewrite it. Round and dumpy, just like the Colonnade LeMans! A group of Trans Am owners and fans of the movie take part in an annual road trip from Texarkana to Jonesboro, recreating the route taken by the characters in the film. There was a true concern (for some minuscule reason) about it going east of the Mississippi River. Cause theyre thirsty in Atlanta Two cars were reportedly badly damaged in early stunts in the film, while a third car was completely destroyed during the famous bridge jump scene. As a feature-length car chase, the car was as much of a star as Burt Reynolds, and the film gave birth to the cult of the Trans Am.
Smokey and the Bandit: Behind-the-Scenes Details With - MotorTrend I certainly hope the guy hired to drive that 74 Ford Torino wagon was paid well for his work. Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox would bring several cases after playing on the West Coast, by stashing them in the equipment trunks on the team's plane. The cars were wrecked on purpose to create the illusion of a high-speed chase. Tragically, every Trans Am used in filming was destroyed. The value of their stock rose a startling 70 percent after the films release, and to show their appreciation to Reynolds, the president said they would give the actor a new car each and every year. [14] The Trans Ams were actually 1976-model cars with 1977 front ends (from 1970 to 1976, both the Firebird/Trans Am and Chevrolet Camaro have two round headlights and in 1977, the Firebird/Trans Am was changed to four rectangular headlights, and the Camaro remained unchanged). The Bandit takes the bet on the risky and unprecedented task, and recruits his partner Cledus "Snowman" Snow to drive the truck, while Bandit drives a black Pontiac Trans Am bought in advance from the Burdettes as a "blocker" to divert attention away from the truck and its illegal cargo. News . In my area, nearly every one listed is an ex cop car. In addition to the four Trans Ams, Needham also received two Pontiac LeMans models to serve as patrol cars in the movie. Just like the exaggeration sales went up 700%. No, the T/A was selling fine before the movie, and the black/gold package dates to 1976, a full year before the movie was out in summer 77. I've heard . The film's theme song, "East Bound and Down", was written virtually overnight by Reed. I fondly remember lots and lots of terrible B grade movies @ the drive in in the early to mid 1970s all featuring cars racing , smashing and so on . Along the way they tussle with tough as nails Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), pick up a runaway bride nicknamed Frog (Sally Field), and have all kinds of awesome times on the highway. Burt Reynolds recently revealed the ridiculous number of Pontiac Trans Ams they went through filming 1977s Smokey and the Bandit. My drivers ed driving range car was an ex-patrol colonnade Pontiac LeMans Enforcer. And then they made the biggest mistake of their lives and went to national distribution. Ask him to choose between a BMW M4 and an Audi RS5, and hell gladly trade both for a beat-up Cuda. how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2. I will confess that by the time this movie was out, I was a Mopar guy. Lets take a look at some more cars found in the movie. That is why there are not any left. Coors wasnt pasteurized. Smokey & The Bandit is the greatest movie of the 20th Century! Reynolds and Field began dating during the filming.[13]. Needham served as the driver for the stunt (in place of Reynolds), while Lada St. Edmund was in the same car (in place of Field). While the Snowman drives the truck carrying the beer, the Bandit drives a Pontiac Trans Am to distract law enforcement (called blocking) and keep the attention off the Snowman. and the Dixie Dance Kings, and Burts car was a 57 [56?] [29] Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the film was one of his favorites. Nice article Jason I was a fan of this movie when it came out I look back now and think, wow, did I really think this was entertainment?????? The Kenworth even achieves a trifecta of sorts, as it gave the first dent to Sheriff Justices LeMans. It outsold its Chevrolet Camaro counterpart for the first time. [12] The area around Helen, Georgia, was used for some locations. From what I have read the artist did the poster rendering from some blown up stills that he was shown from the movie, and none of them for some mysterious reason included the Trans Am, the truck, Reynolds, Gleason, Sally Field, crashing police cars, but no T/A. The soundtrack album was released in 1977 on vinyl, cassette, and 8-track through MCA Records. He is hired by Big Enos Burdette and his son Little Enos to transport a truck load of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, back to Georgia in 28 hours. Cape was far enough north that it was watered down and there was so much cross-pollination with the Illinois side you really didnt discern much difference. ARRGH! UNIVERSAL CUT THE BUDGET JUST AS PRODUCTION WAS ABOUT TO BEGIN. His expletive is obscured when a passing big rig sounds its horn. Please to note I didnt say _I_ didnt like them as I was in my 20s then (early 1970s) so I hustled my self and my Russian girlfriend right on down to the cinema every time Burt Reynolds had a new flick , I personally loved his movies even the chick flicks like The Man Who Loved Women , I just had to hear earfuls from everyone else about how awful he / those movies were.. We even bought one of those Pontiac Police Specials on auction from. Bandit attracts more police attention across Dixie as Snowman barrels on toward Atlanta with the contraband beer, but they are helped en route by many colorful characters via CB radio. It just seems wrong to see that car in any fashion without hearing that song.
Smokey and the Bandit | East Bound and Down - YouTube How many police cars were wrecked in Smokey and the Bandit? When Im driving the Bandit Trans Am while playing one of my many Forza Motorsport games I always put that song on. The whereabouts of the remaining Smokey and the Bandit car, the one that was used to promote the movie, remained a mystery for years. [24] With an original budget of $5.3 million (cut to $4.3 million two days before initial production),[4] the film eventually grossed $126,737,428 in North America,[25] making it the second-highest-grossing movie of 1977 (only Star Wars earned more, with $221.3 million). A Pontiac wagon from earlier in the decade. [21], Smokey and the Bandit was a sleeper hit. I think you may be confusing the movie Honky-Tonk Freeway with the filming done during I-75 construction near Sarasota. Mrs Jason wont let me sell the sumbitch. I only got one of them LOL. Anyway, on the trip east, we stopped at a grocery in Topeka, Kansas and bought 16-18 cases of Coors, all that we had room for in the car. Coors was legal in Missouri and illegal in Illinois. 1-Smokey and the Bandit-The classic, the original, and the best one by FAR. Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon character Fred Flintstone. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1975 Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit Arkansas State Police "Smokey and The Bandit" at the best online prices at eBay! He paid $550,000 for it, likely a record for any Pontiac Firebird. Great article! At one point in the movie, the Bandit wrecks a police car. But that doesnt make for an interesting movie premise. The dubbed version isnt as bad as the Remastered Blu-ray.
Rob's Car Movie Review: Smokey and the Bandit (1977) - Street Muscle 3-Smokey and the Bandit 3-A crime against humanity, not even LSD can make it watchable since you spend the whole night fighting imaginary flying cobras with Jackie Gleasons head on them. It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. The movie had an even bigger impact on the Trans Am. Some weren't that lucky and were discontinued altogether. Several other groups, such as the U.S. rock band Tonic and U.K.-based country cover band We Be Ploughin' have also covered it. Bill Justis is the first name on the credits for the soundtrack, as he composed and arranged original music throughout the film.
A movie for the people, "Smokey and the Bandit" is more - Hagerty Behind Sheriff Justices Pontiac, there is a nice looking 1965 or 1966 Ford Mustang fastback and a Toyota pickup. The scene featuring the racetrack was filmed at Lakewood Speedway at the old Lakewood Fairgrounds on Atlanta's south side. And lets not forget the Trans Am rental car Steve McQueen drove in his very last movie, The Hunter from 1980. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_301466-Ford-LTD-II-1977.html. For a little visual variety of sorts, and possibly an indicator of what car was about to be wrecked, the producers did branch out to use the 1975-era Plymouth Fury as another police car. Soon as I get home, first thing Im gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!.
Smokey And The Bandit Tribute Jump Goes About As Well As You'd Expect Please refresh the page and try again. While Sheriff Justice doesnt deal well with the pressures of high speed pursuit, as seen above, his Pontiac LeMans (CC here) withstands the most abuse of any car in this entire movie. They retained the white steering wheels until 72 or so , just the thing to preveny burned fingers in the Desert sun . It airs on cable tv all the time. 1979 was equally successful for the brand, joining 1978 to create Pontiac's best sales years ever. Now, having only three Trans Ams to wreck for a movie is minimalist, to say the least. The Trans Am was a high-performance package for the Firebird, Pontiac's take on the Chevrolet Camaro. Nah, they survived by coming up with bras with very thin cups. This gives rise to various continuity errors with Justice's patrol car, which during some chase sequences is shown with a black rear fender, which then reverts to the car's bronze color again in later scenes. [31] Smokey and the Bandit was released in the United Kingdom on August 28 and was a success there, garnering positive reviews. Many of the film's original sounds were replaced. After passing Buford's badly damaged cruiser on the roadside, Bandit gets on the CB and initially directs him to the Burdettes, but then respectfully gives his real locationright behind Buford, who continues his chase leaving Junior behind, and with more parts falling off his cruiser as he limps off after Bandit. A dastardly scoundrel? The decals were changed to 1977-style units, as evidenced by the engine size callouts on the hood scoop being in liters rather than cubic inches, as had been the case in 1976. Now then you mentionned Sheriff JW Pepper, I decided to post some Youtube clips of him. He had quite a few orders for Coors beer, and when he stopped in Weed, CA, on the way home, he went into the Safeway and asked for twenty-four cases of Coors. It was destroyed in Smokey and the Bandit II and in a flashback scene in Part 3. As the 1969 classic 'The Italian Job' turns 50 years old, TG.com caught up with David Salamone, the man who piloted the red Mini in . Yet when I think of a 70s T/A, thats the one I and Im sure millions of other folks think of. While I have read undocumented accounts of there being more than three Trans Ams, Needham stated three is all that were used. The three original films introduced two generations of the Pontiac Trans Am and the Dodge Stealth in the television movies. The Trans Am used in the movie was a 1976 model with the front end of a 1977 car. It was the second-highest-grossing movie of 1977 after Star Wars. Sure Smokey helped, but was not the sole reason T/A and F body sales went up. Director Hal Needham convinced Pontiac to feature the Pontiac Trans Am in the movie. With Reynolds' salary at $1 million, Needham was left with only $3.3 million to make the film. MN12 Thunderbirds had the same appeal to me, for similar reasons. Further, as Pontiac has deliciously obvious product placement, anyone who delights in 70s era Pontiac iron will experience visual ecstasy. [22] It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where it performed badly. One guy did a while ago a fan-made trailer of Smokey & the Bandit 4. The little packy there had Coors and even though it was horribly expensive, we thought it was the elixer of the Gods.
Smokey and the Bandit | 4K Ultra HD | The Bandit Takes a 28 Hour Trip Check out the entire video below. I was a junior high school age kid when this film came out. Its amazing, you should watch it. We also learn that every launched satellite will eventually fall back to Earth, such as this 1972 Plymouth Satellite (CC here). Smokey & The Bandit Police Cars. I drive a conversion van. At the time, Reynolds was the top box office star in the world. Burt Reynolds himself drove the car on stage to the song "East Bound and Down" and signed it. Starring Bob Hope, that comedic star of the screen, and the lovely Jane Russell boy what a pair! I never forgot that one. As if GM owes them something.
Another one is, Theres no way youre from my loins.. I actually remember the construction of that segment of I-75, as it stopped around Tampa prior to that time. And Burt may be from GA originally, but he calls Florida home, which is another reason I heard the movie was filmed here. By the end of June, it had played in major Southern markets, including Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, and Oklahoma City, grossing $11.9 million. [34] In 2015 a Florida-based automobile customization company built 77 Trans Ams modeled after the car that Reynolds drove in the film. The gag with the overpass being blown up was actually a bridge built for the movie on the unfinished highway, and AFAIK, the truck driver who jumps the void ended up breaking his back in the stunt. [40] Major portions of the audio background have been modified with different engine sounds or tire squeals from the original film.
how many cars were destroyed in smokey and the bandit 2 - onlytows.com.au Smokey and the Bandit was the second highest-grossing domestic film of 1977 in the United States. The cars were originally ordered by a car rental agency in Phoenix, who refused to accept the . I started cruising through EBay and the next thing I knew I won the auction for a clean 400/4 speed/T-Top 78 Trans Am. These two 1967 Ford Galaxies (CC here), soon to be redecorated by a Kenworth road tractor, do not. Got Greyhound cutout decals on the rear side windows. Not that Id kick either front end style out of the garage for dripping oil, as long as they dont have the 403 in them anyway. One of our favorite movies. And Coors itself limited its distribution to west of the Mississippi. I thought at the time that it was a newer version of White Lightning (also with Burt Reynolds) and that Smokey would be forgotten just as soon. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most iconic movies of the 1970s. How many cars destroyed Blues Brothers 2000? Jason, Using the words nuance, subtlety, complexity and intellect to describe this movie, is, as they say, trs amusant! Here is the LeMans; Gleason literally drives the wheels off: As an aside, heres a curious bit of trivia.
The secrets behind the cars and stunts in 'The Italian Job' - Top Gear [15] All four of the cars were badly damaged during production,[16] one of which was all but destroyed during the jump over the dismantled Mulberry bridge. (Still). 2-Smokey and the Bandit II-Pretty bad, still has some funny campy crap, the Dom DeLuise Italian Dr. bit is ok, Gleason is still pretty funny, the Turbo T/A is pretty weak, but still cool to see. Additionally, he can give you several reasons why theres still no replacement for displacement. While it is doubtful Pontiac sold very many LeMans police packages, if one views this show as realistic, it would seem nearly every county and highway patrol in five states purchased one of Pontiacs heavy duty offerings. According to director Hal Needham in the DVD documentary, Pontiac gave them three Trans-Ams and two LeMans (Sheriff Justice's patrol car) for the film. Learn how your comment data is processed. The MASSIVE year over year sales gains came from somewhere. Watching TV and Movies you would think that sales dropped to nil. I did help a friend rebuild a late 60s 400 to replace the anemic 301 in his 79, Trans Am. [5] Reynolds revealed in his autobiography that Needham had written the first draft script on legal pads. But would the black and gold T/As be as desirable today without the movie? An effort to recreate a jump from Smokey and the Bandit doesn't go perfectly when the car takes a rough course off the ramp. Other sources in East Texas (from whence Sheriff Justice hails) are familiar with the popular regional delicacy known as the Diablo Sandwich. But 1978 returned sales of 93,351 examples, a jump of around 25,000 cars. In fact, after Smokey and the Bandit became a box office hit, Pontiac saw a marked increase in their stock prices. We stopped in that same Safeway later on the way back home from southern Cal, and they had a huge display of cases of Coors out on the floor near the checkstands.
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