I was recently travelling with a group and one of my colleagues spotted a Black Trans Am and proclaimed it as the Smokey and the Bandit car. A movie that was certainly not highbrow nor culturally significant. But that film epitomized that free-wheelin’ spirit that the 1970s always celebrated.
The number two movie of 1977, starring movie idol Burt Reynolds as ‘Bandit’, Smokey and the Bandit was a simple story of a good ol’ boy who is approached to be the decoy to allow a rich family to secretly transport beer across state lines for a private party. Meanwhile he picks up a passenger, a fleeing bride-not-to-be played by Sally Field, who was to marry the son of a Texas sheriff, the ‘Smokey’ of the title.
Who doesn’t love a good car chase across the highways of the US? Ironically, Jackie Gleason, who plays the sheriff aka scorned father-in-law-to-be, modelled his character on Burt Reynolds’ description of his father, a Georgia sheriff.
And the third star of the movie was the black Pontiac T-top Trans-Am with gold eagle. It was the sportscar of the day, the way people eye the Porsche or Ferrarri, the late ’70s worshipped the Trans Am with its race car design. Two T-top Trans-Ams and two Pontiac LeMans were donated by Pontiac for filming , and five cars were destroyed during the filming because of the numerous stunts, adding to movie’s allure with its bridge-jumping and wild driving.
Sales of the car increased by 30 per cent in one year due to the influence of the movie. Reynolds later revealed that if the movie became a hit, Pontiac has promised him a T-top Trans-Am. He waited for several months and when he never received the car, he contacted Pontiac to discover the executive who made the promise had retired, and his successor didn’t want to honour the deal.
I didn’t see this movie when it released, although I knew all about it. Every boy I knew talked about the movie, the car, and how cool it was to see someone outrun the cops in that car. For young boys, young guys, and all men, the fantasy of being in a great car, with a cute girl and outrunning the law was enough of a story line for their needs.
This movie spawned many movie and television sequels, with Reynolds appearing in Smokey and the Bandit II as well as a similar film Cannonball Run. But the first movie still holds its own as the development of the southern boy with charm and sass, who always evades the silly police, gets the girl and definitely has the car.
W POPAGANDA 