Films

the_longest_yard_poster1974

The Longest Yard is a 1974

The Longest Yard is a 1974 American comedy sports-drama film about inmates at a prison who play American football against their guards. Burt Reynolds portrayed Paul “Wrecking” Crewe in the original, and the coach Nate Scarborough in the 2005 remake. The 1974 original was also the basis for the 2001 movie Mean Machine (a shortened version of the title used for the original’s UK release), starring Vinnie Jones as Danny Meehan, based on the character of Paul Crewe, and featuring association football instead of American football. Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke appeared in the 1974 version as did the country legend George Jones.

Plot

The protagonist is Paul “Wrecking” Crewe (Burt Reynolds), former star pro football quarterback living with his wealthy girlfriend (Anitra Ford) in Palm Beach, Florida. After a fight with her, he gets drunk and “steals” her expensive Citroën SM automobile. He is surprised when a fleet of police cars follow him. Briefly evading them, he exits the vehicle and sends it off a dock into the bay. He is caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Crewe has difficulty getting along with the guards as well as with his fellow inmates. The convicts despise him because he was dismissed from the National Football League for point shaving. As his only friend, an inmate nicknamed Caretaker (James Hampton) put it, “Most of these boys have nothin’, never had anything to start with. But you, you had it all. You could have robbed banks, sold dope or stole your grandma’s pension checks and none of us would have minded. But shaving points off of a football game, man, that’s un-American!” (a similar line in the 2005 remake is spoken by the same character, this time played by Chris Rock). Moreover, the sadistic, power-hungry warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert), a football fanatic who manages a semi-pro team made up of the prison’s guards (most of whom are big and fast enough to play professional football), wants Crewe to help coach the team. Responding to pressure from the guard’s leader and coach, Captain Wilhelm Knauer (Ed Lauter), Crewe refuses. He is harassed by the guards and given backbreaking work as punishment. Crewe relents and agrees to form a prisoner team to play the guards’ team in an exhibition “tune-up” game. Crewe finds that most of the inmates have no football experience, and he has no idea if they have enough talent to take on the guards. Adding to Crewe’s problems, the black inmates refuse to play for they “no longer play ball for the Honkie’s amusement,” and like the other inmates are distrustful of Crewe’s point shaving history.

Crewe eventually builds trust amongst key members of the prison community. Promising them that they can inflict excessive injuries on their opponents, he manages to form a team capable of playing the guards. The team includes the most dangerous and violent prisoners. Among the most impressive are Samson (Richard Kiel), a seven foot tall former professional weightlifter, and Connie Shokner (Robert Tessier), a fearsome serial killer and martial arts expert. With the help of the clever Caretaker, veteran former professional player Nate Scarborough (Michael Conrad), “Granny” Granville (Harry Caesar), long-term prisoner Pop (John Steadman) — who remains in prison far past his original sentence for having struck Warden Hazen when the warden was just a rookie guard — and the warden’s amorous secretary (Bernadette Peters), Crewe molds the prisoners into a smoothly working football team which comes to be named the “Mean Machine”.

Before the game, a jealous homosexual arsonist named Unger (Charles Tyner) schemes to kill Crewe by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. (Unger was about to return to general population after Crewe turned him in to the warden for informing on the prisoners’ team during practices.) Caretaker is killed in the blaze in Crewe’s cell after he goes there to retrieve X-rays for Crewe, who is sitting in Caretaker’s cell with Nate.
As the game starts, the “Mean Machine” does well, and at halftime the game is close, with the guards leading, 15-13. Hazen is angry that the prisoners have gained self-respect and a sense of accomplishment, and that they are in a good position to win the game. Hazen has always believed he must rule by fear, through brutality and intimidation. He corners Crewe in the locker room and berates him for trying to actually win the game. He tells Crewe that he has Unger in custody and that Unger will testify that Crewe was an accessory to Caretaker’s murder, keeping Crewe in his prison until he’s “old and gray,” unless Crewe loses the game to the guards by at least 21 points. Crewe reluctantly and angrily agrees, but obtains a promise from Hazen that if he cooperates and throws the game as ordered, the prisoners will not be harmed. However, Hazen immediately breaks this promise, telling Captain Knauer to order his players to “inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as humanly possible” as soon as they are ahead by 21 points. Crewe quickly makes several deliberate mistakes putting the “Mean Machine” down by more than three touchdowns, 35-13, then takes himself out of the game. With the prisoners demoralized, the guards as ordered take out their anger on the prisoners, causing several injuries.

At this point, a stunned Crewe asks Pop if it had been worth it — trading the opportunity to strike the warden in exchange for a life sentence. Pop states that, for himself at least, it was worth it, and Crewe goes back into the game with a renewed sense of purpose. At first, the prisoners are angry with Crewe and provide him with no protection or cooperation. He quickly convinces them of his change of mind, and with the help of two quick touchdowns followed by a drop kick field goal, soon gets the “Mean Machine” back into the game. Nate, despite his bad knee, goes into the game to score one of the touchdowns, and, after doing so, is immediately cut down at the knees by guard Bogdanski (Ray Nitschke), crippling him. However, by this time the prisoners have rallied and their spirit cannot be broken. They have also turned the tables on the guards in terms of the violence, including a clothesline from Samson that apparently breaks a guard’s neck, and Crewe deliberately and repeatedly throws the ball as hard as possible at Bogdanski’s genitals.

Driving downfield for the game-winning score, a running play up the middle is stuffed and Crewe calls the team’s final timeout with seven seconds remaining in the game and the prisoners down 35-30 with the ball on the guards’ one-yard line – the “longest yard” of the title. Crewe walks off the field to the sideline and his teammates begin to follow. Crewe gathers them together for a last moment of reflection and steeling of their resolve and purpose. “We’ve come too far together to stop now. For Granny. For Nate. For Caretaker. Let’s do it!,” and the Mean Machine offense storms back onto the field for the game’s final play. In a long slow-motion sequence, Crewe takes the final snap and bootlegs to his outside right, but sensing the defense may have it covered before he can score, he reverses direction, then builds up a full head of steam and cuts in and attempts to hurdle several defenders into the end zone. The first hit helps propel Crewe up and over the defenders and over the goal line into the end zone where they all crash down as Crewe scores the winning touchdown with no time left, the “Mean Machine” winning, 36-35.

As the prisoners and the crowd celebrate, Warden Hazen is furious. Crewe walks across the field in what appears to be an attempt to mingle with the crowd and escape. Hazen sees this and orders Knauer to shoot Crewe. Knauer calls out to Crewe several times as Hazen barks for him to shoot. At the last moment, Crewe picks up the game ball and walks back towards Hazen. Crewe then hands the ball to Hazen, telling him, “Stick this in your trophy case.”

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