On a whim I decided to re-watch the 1981 classic film, The Cannonball Run (TCR) for the first time in decades. Although I remembered very little of it, I also recalled it being one of my favorite movies from my youth. A sad part of growing up is watching movies you loved as a kid and realizing that they just don’t pass the test of time. That would not be the case here, as the movie was every bit as funny and awseome as I remember it! If you’ve never seen TCR or it’s been so long that you don’t remember it go and watch it now, It’s free to “rent” on Netflix DVD, or you can pay a few bucks through various streaming services. If you’re not sure which ones it’s on, if you have a Roku you can use it’s Search feature to find where it’s available. One last note before I dive in – the movie is nearly 40 years old, so if you haven’t seen it yet don’t get mad at me over any spoilers.
Burt Reynolds was the prototypical 70s man’s man (Yes, TCR was released in ’81, but the 1st 2-3 years of any decade are mostly a product of the previous one) that could never exist today. He could play the tough guy roles easily, such as in Deliverance (the movie that made Ned Beatty famous for reasons he wished didn’t), Sharkey’s Machine, and The Longest Yard, among others. He also had a great comedic side as seen in his iconic role in Smokey and the Bandit, which also features Jackie Gleason in hos most memorable since Ralph Kramden as the unforgettable Sheriff Beauford T. Justice. I’ve also watched Smokey fairly recently as well, and while most people (including me) will argue that Smokey is the better movie, for pure fun it’s tough to top TCR. The Cannonball Run is an actual unsanctioned race that has been going on for years, and was naturally popularized when this movie was released. In TCR the race starts in hotel that appears to be either in NY or NJ, and ends in LA.
The movie opens with a car chase that runs through the credits, and we meet Reynolds and Dom DeLouise. The two play off each other brilliantly through the entire movie, and in the first few scenes where we see them they’re trying to figure out the best vehicle to drive for the next race. At one point they’re in a small prop plane that Reynolds is flying. He empies a can of Bud, throws it over his shoulder and nonchalantly points out that they’re out of beer. So they simply land the plane in the middle of the street in a small town, obliviously carrying on their conversation as terrified residents scurry out of the way, DeLouise zips into a store to grab a six pack, and just like that they take off again. For starters, imagine trying to make a scene like this today – drinking and flying, landing in a town so casually? As the story sends them to the hotel where the Cannonballers are staying and having their launch gathering, we get introduced to a few of the other more colorful teams. I won’t run down all of them, but here are a few notables:
A young Jackie Chan and his scientest partner are the Japanese team driving an advanced, completely computerized car. Of course, they play up a few sterotypes to form
Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis are a pair of redneck stock car racers, keeping plenty of Budweiser stocked up for the drive while playing up humor around Mel Tillis’ real life stuttering problem (And yes, unlike Biden’s “stutter”, Tillis’ is real)
Two hotties in spandex outfits drive a Lambroghini and avoid speeding tickets by flirting with the officers who pull them over. Of course, when it finally fails it’s because they get pulled over by a lady cop who’s hotter than them
Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin pose as priests to avoid tickets while driving a red Ferrari.
Roger Moore basically plays himself and makes a total mockery of his James Bond character throughout the movie
And if Burt Reynolds was the King of the 70s, Farah Fawcett was the Queen. Of course, she is in this film as a somewhat flighty nature lover.
At the hotel, in addition to Fawcett, we are also introduced to a minor antagonist, a prudish scold from Washington DC named Arthur J Foyt. Yes, AJ Foyt. At a talk where praise is given for restricting electric toothbrush use during peak hours and a ban on colored toilet paper, Foyt goes on to point out that the ultimate enemy of the planet is… the automobile.
Again, I’m not going to summarize the entire movie. The race goes generally how you would expect, and the laughs continue as the race is told through the chapters of the various drivers. Since getting the DVD in the mail a few days ago this movie has been playing on the TV to the extent that Little Bob usually does with whatever his favorite show is at the moment. He’s just old enough to enjoy the slapstick humor that the Cannonballers pull off, and thankfully the suggestive scenes are just rated PG enough to gloss over. And for those of you who remember the movie, he has not been in the room for Jackie Chan’s VCR of “Behind the Green Door” scene.
Imagine trying to make this movie today. While drinking and driving is nothing to sneeze at, you’d never see it joked about to the extent that it was in TCR. You had some racial humor, Jamie Farr playing up wealthy Arab sterotypes, cool dudes, hot women, and everyone having fun driving fast across the country. Of course, in today’s version AJ Foyt would be the hero of the movie, and probably be an LGBQWERTY-Islamic nonwhite character. At a stop near St. Loius we meet a sheriff whose re-election banner hanging across traffic reads, “Re-Elect Sean ‘Kill a Commie’ O’Scanlon: Guns and Guts to keep us safe from Hippie nuts” – His character arc would probably end with rioters destroying his town, and O’Scanlon being sent to a re-education camp where he eventuallay redeems himself by resigning and coming out as Trans. And that would not be as in a black Trans-Am.
After watching the movie again for the first time in ages, as much as I enjoyed it it also left me kind of sad. The movie, and more importantly the attitude, is mostly gone from America today. When did we stop being fun? When did having fun by acting crude and stupid morph to where so much of America’s definition of “fun” is ruining everyone else’s good time? We Gen-Xers have been incredibly lucky. I can’t remember where I read this, but we grew up in a time when permissiveness came into fashion, but we were still grounded in the Judeo-Christian morals that we were raised with. I’m no Bible Thumper (more on this term in an upcoming post), but hot damn todays kids and a few of the generations between mine & theirs could really have used a moral compass instead of Helicopter Parents.
I hate to end a post on such a cool movie on a down note. While TCR’s America is gone, I like to think that in some form we can recapture this America again. It might take a split like something out of a Kurt Schlicter novel, but The Radical Left will never completely destroy America’s desire to live free and enjoy life.
And yes, I know that this tweet has nothing to do with TCR, but it does call back an era when Hollywood was creative and fun
Ron Howard is hosting a “Happy Days” reunion/Democratic fundraiser! This won’t include Scott Baio who supports Trump! John Stamos tweeted that he should take Baio’s spot at this event, which prompted Baio to tweet “Shouldn’t you be taking care of Aunt Becky?” back to Stamos! 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/wCSMbx0u3D
— Shawnasaurus Rex (@ShawnG927) October 20, 2020
Ron Howard is hosting a “Happy Days” reunion/Democratic fundraiser! This won’t include Scott Baio who supports Trump! John Stamos tweeted that he should take Baio’s spot at this event, which prompted Baio to tweet “Shouldn’t you be taking care of Aunt Becky?” back to Stamos! 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/wCSMbx0u3D
— Shawnasaurus Rex (@ShawnG927) October 20, 2020
Follow Brother Bob on Twitter and Facebook Also Gab and MeWe.
Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog
18 replies on “The Cannonball Run Shows how much we’ve Lost as Americans”
Seconded Bro Bob, heartily seconded. TCR is a fave of mine too. If you’ve not seen it, do yourself a favour, get some snacks and your favourite tipple and have an hour and half of genuine fun.
It’s amazing how a film that was made without concious political thought can be so very, very sound.
Sister Babe is starting to get annoyed at how ofter the movie has been on our TV since the DVD arrived. It might be time to send it back soon =8^)
Although when one of the neighbor kids was over yesterday morning I enjoyed explaining some nuances like how people cussed a lot more in the 70s. And drinking beer while flying a prop plane was not frowned upon
Two things:
gumball rally was a fun movie, but a little darker i think.
I also recall Death Race 2000 from the same era, I think. Dark but funny.
Just added Death Race 2000 to the Netflix queue! I remember the Jason Statham remake from a few years ago being pretty unremarkable
Brother Bob and R.S.A.E., here is one for you. My goodness I hope you guys have seen this film, or if you have not, EVEN Better! It’s called “The Last Chase” starring Lee Majors and Burgess Merideth. Majors is a retired race car driver living miserably somewhere in the eastern US, who had to bury his Can-Am race car under 2 feet of cement slab in his garage. Why, well in the future (probably 2000 I’m sure), the national safety commission mandated that everyone must use public transportation because “The Oil has Run Out”…. From the IMDB storyline: Agents of the new government must stop this man at any cost to destroy the symbology he represents, and the instability that such a desire for personal autonomy could mean to the society. An old Korean War veteran and his F-86 Sabre jet are called into service to chase down this dangerous man, and end his flouting of the will of the state.
Burgess Merideth, believe it or not, is a that retired fighter pilot, enlisted by ‘the government’ to stop and kill Majors as he decided to unbury his race car and make a run across the western US to ….get to Free California where it’s legal to have old fashioned automobiles!
Have I wet your appetites’ yet??? (and please forgive me if I blew the synopsis a little, the movie was made in 1981 and I probably saw it in 1981! It’s been a while)
Thanks for the nudge to watch Cannonball Run again. It was only last week I was talking to my wife about Burt Reynolds and Smokey and the Bandit, remarking that they’d NEVER be able to make that film now…unless the Bandit was played by Obama’s Pajama Boy and he drove a golf cart….
Sadly, it looks like The Last CHase has been memory holed. It’s not even in “Unknown” purgatory of the Netflix DVD queue, while a search in Roku does not have it streaming on any services. The only option I can see is buying it for $20 on eBay
Ugh! Noooooooooo!
And if Smokey were remade today, Pajama Boy would be rushing at 55 MPH to get the Trans Am to a scrap yeard where it can be destroyed and stop emitting CO2
My wife and I watched Smokey and the Bandit in June or so. We laughed our butts off. But yea, no way they remake that now. Though Sally Field’s character was actually a very empowered woman and they certainly make LEO look like idiots. Maybe the woke crowd would actually like it.
get to Free California where it’s legal to have old fashioned automobiles!
Late 80s through 99, with the exception of Jerry Brown, CA had Rep governors and was the land of the free. Sad how far left it has swung in just over a generation.
A lifelong CA resident, I wish there was a “sad” button on this page. I’ll have to settle for SAD!
I am one of the few, born in Cali in 1955, left in 1998 to escape the progressive crap. I too am sad this once wonderful state has pushed out so many like me and you my friend. What a wonderful state it was, weather, ocean, mountains and desert. Not to mention the resturants, entertainment venues such as the Greek Theater, Hollywood Bowl, Dodger Stadium and such. We were blessed at that time to be raised here…but no more. We played in strawberry fields, citrus groves and such within twenty-five miles of downtown. It is all gone. Sirens, police helicopters and graffiti, bars on the windows and people walking pit bulls. Parks we use to play in now filled with gangs and homeless sleeping under the trees and on the picnic tables. This is not a place to live anymore, especially with a family. Sigh…get out while you can!
Greg, I’m still here. Just voted for our president today by requested absentee ballot. Dropped it off at the county elections office in “the box”.
I’m lucky, possibly privileged by dumb luck of the draw of who my parents were. My Dad and Mom bought a little lot and built a home on the coast of Monterey Bay in 1959 I grew up here, and while I travelled the globe for work, I’d always come home to remind my kids that “they sell picture postcards of this place , the place where we live.” I used to say that 25 years ago. Now? Our county rolled out the red carpet for every homeless wreck and violent kook. Thieves, grown men on old “stingray” bicycles, patrol the streets from 1 to 4am, checking every home and every car for something to steal. Ring cameras catch and report so many each evening. Santa Cruz was the vanguard of weird, freaky behavior. What once used to be a “cool” town is now just a crappy seaside town overrun with homeless, and managed by proud communists for 30 years.
All the while, Facebook, Oracle and Google exec’s pay 6 million for tear down homes on the cliff, and build mansions. Their Santa Cruz experience is getting into their car in their garage, opening the driveway gate, driving 1 hour to Silicon Valley, going through the gates at Facebook, and getting out of their car to work. Reverse at 5pm.
The beaches and the ocean of Monterey bay are still beautiful. It’s the moment you turn around and head back to your house where you get that bad feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Well damn, this post took a turn toward the dark side! I’ve only been to Cali twice, last time with Sister Babe while she was pregnant with Little Bob. I’m glad I saw it when I did…
Oops. Super sorry for being a downer on an otherwise fun and happy thread. Gotta watch that…
No worries, my post ended on somewhat of a downer & besides, we’re all family here!
If I saw GR it was so long ago that I don’t remember it. I just added it to my Netflix queue, but it’s trapped in the “Unknown” purgatory. I might have to find a streaming option,
As for the tweets, I copied my text view of everything in the Word Press editor that I use over at Flopping Aces. But I feel your pain – for some reason over the last few months I’ve been having trouble getting embedded tweets to display at both FA and my Blogger site. This is why at FA I post the first tweet twice – the first is just the url, and the second & the rest are embedded code