There have been numerous movies with car chase scenes over the decades mainly because they livened up the theater experience and became the sole point of interest in the car guy flicks.
Car chase flicks like ‘Bullitt’ and ‘Vanishing Point’ may have become legendary movies for car guys, but they both had deadly consequences.
The grim fact is most car chase movies were long on horsepower and short on laughs.
However, the horsepower-to-laugh ratio did a 180 when ‘Smokey and the Bandit‘ hit the big screens in 1977. The comedy car chase movie starred studly Burt Reynolds, comely Sally Field, portly Jackie Gleason, and a stylish 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that looked and acted fast in the famous flick.
Appearances were deceiving because the Trans Am was a victim of heavy-handed federal automotive legislation that murdered its performance by 1977. In fact, its neutered 400 cubic-inch engine barely churned out 200 horsepower in factory form. Nevertheless, the magic of Hollywood made the TA appear to go much faster than its off-screen reality.
The net result was a seriously underpowered pony car was able to star in a movie about fast cars. There is little doubt the ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ screenwriters were heavily influenced by the novelty hit song ‘Convoy’-a cheesy tune that ignited the CB radio craze in 1976. Bear in mind the Seventies was a decade stricken with pet rock fads and disco music, so a movie dedicated to CB chatter and a long car chase was well within the cards for the ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ screenwriters.
The big difference was the movie’s writers wanted to play the car chase for laughs and avoid the sobering effects of a fiery fatal crash involving the Bandit.
The Firebird Trans Am was a big star in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, and so were Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jackie Gleason for that matter, but one does not have a car chase movie without a chase car.
The paper-thin plot of ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ had Burt Reynolds using the car as a distraction for a big rig hauling contraband beer and driven by his good ole buddy Jerry Reed, a novelty country music singer who was on the top of his career during the 1970s.
Jackie Gleason played the sheriff pursuing Reynold and he drove a 1977 Pontiac LeMans four-door sedan trimmed out as a cop car. It was clear Pontiac was a sponsor in the movie, given the two major car stars were Ponchos, because real police forces rarely used Pontiacs.
There was also a large supporting cast of Plymouth Fury and Dodge Polara police cars used in ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, mainly because the Mopars were a mainstay of many police services during that era and undoubtedly retired vehicles provided a cheap prop in a movie were many cars bit the dust.
The body count included 4 Trans Ams, 2 LeMans, along with several Mopars sacrificed during the stunt scenes.
For the record, Burt Reynolds did not participate in risky driving stunts and instead left that task to his good buddy, legendary Hollywood stuntman 1977 Pontiac LeMans four-door sedan.
Many cars were harmed during the making of ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, but the net result was a significant bump in Trans Am sales after its theatrical release.
The good news is the movie and the Trans Am both had happy endings, a rarity for vintage car chase flicks.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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