In Robert Aldrich's crowd-pleasing classic, Burt Reynolds stars as convict Paul Crewe, a former football player doing time in a prison controlled by two authoritarian sports fanatics, warden Hazen (Eddie Albert) and captain Knauer (Ed Lauter). When Crewe sees that the guards have a top-notch football team, he takes it upon .. Read more
| Starring | Burt Reynolds, Ed Lauter, James Hampton, Michael Conrad |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Aldrich |
| Genres | Comedy |
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In Robert Aldrich's crowd-pleasing classic, Burt Reynolds stars as convict Paul Crewe, a former football player doing time in a prison controlled by two authoritarian sports fanatics, warden Hazen (Eddie Albert) and captain Knauer (Ed Lauter). When Crewe sees that the guards have a top-notch football team, he takes it upon himself to form a squad with his fellow dispirited inmates. As the prisoners come together, galvanized by the chance to challenge the guards, they begin to experience a sense of purpose and solidarity--and Hazen doesn't like it. With the Penitentiary Bowl approaching, Hazen pressures Crewe to throw the big game. Crewe must choose between his own freedom and supporting the newfound dignity of his convict teammates.
Aldrich brings to THE LONGEST YARD the same humor-spiked, antihero-driven feel for rousing adventure shown in THE DIRTY DOZEN and creates a film that matches gridiron favorites NORTH DALLAS FORTY and SEMI-TOUGH while also comparing to classics such as ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, STALAG 17, and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION that reveal the soul-crushing aspects of life under lock and key. Like the latter films, Aldrich's darkly funny, bone-crunching drama succeeds most enduringly by showing the small, barbed, fiercely beautiful refusal of the spirit to surrender.
| Starring | Burt Reynolds, Ed Lauter, James Hampton, Michael Conrad, Harry Caesar, Mike Henry, Dino Washington, Eddie Albert |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Aldrich |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 56 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | Fremch, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 01 Jul 2002 Production year: 1974 |
| Format | DVD |
A fiercely anti-authoritarian parable mixing broad, black comedy and fast action, this portrays the conflict between... read more on Time Out
Violent, meandering comedy-drama with murderous jokes but no narrative grip.
The Longest Yard, previously titled The Mean Machine (Later rehashed by Vinnie Jones) is basically a story of a man who had everything, lost it all and then realised what he had wasnt worth keeping. Burt plays an aging American Football star who finds himself in Jail after over indulging one night and going for a spin! Inside he finds that the Warden is a football nut, and its plain sailing for him as he is asked to put together a team of inmates to play the guards championship winning team...... in the end he must choose between his freedom and supporting the newfound dignity of his convict teammates.
classic movie under a different name