Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32675 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Collector's Edition, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Synopsis
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, galvanised 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 team mates. Aldrich brings to THE LONGEST YARD the same humour-spiked, antihero-driven feel for rousing adventure shown in THE DIRTY DOZEN and creates a film that matches gridiron favourites 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.

Customer Reviews

Still great
This movie stands up to one of Burt Reynold's best performances involving a crucial football game where all the inmates are heroes and all the guards are the villains.

Paul Crew (Reynolds) is a retired pro football player. He spends his time with wealthy women who shower all the amenities he may want in post-season life. When he refuses to please his current girlfriend, he doesn't live up to her giggolo standards, so she isn't exactly accomodating when he wants to "borrow" her luxury sports car. She sends the police, for which he sends on a chase, while guzzling a drink in the driver's seat. Once apprehended, he must enter prison, for, above all things, assaulting two officers and resisting arrest. There, he meets the warden (Albert) who gives him an offer he can't refuse: To escape beatings and other maltreatment, he must assemble an inmate football team that will give the guard team a run for its money. The motives aren't clear at first, but Albert plays well his patronizing swindler role.

What makes 'The Longest Yard' so effective is the comraderie. We get big lugs who are just big babies and a team that has colour and heart. Like 'Cool Hand Luke,' this prison film has us rooting for some pretty underhanded people, but the villainy of the status quo presented has us cheering for the bad guys. With some excellent plot development as well as fine football scenes, 'The Longest Yard' is still a winner.