Movies - The Longest Yard

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	Movies - The Longest Yard

The Longest Yard was a 1974 movie about inmates at a prison who play American football against their guards. Burt Reynolds played the hero, Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe in the original, and the coach Nate Scarboro in the 2005 remake starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Nelly.

The 1974 original was also the basis for the 2001 movie Mean Machine
, starring Vinnie Jones as Danny Meehan, based on the character of Paul Crewe, and featuring Football instead of American football. Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke appeared in the 1974 version.

Plot

The protagonist is Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Burt Reynolds), former star pro football quarterback living with his wealthy girlfriend in Palm Beach, Florida. After a fight with her, he gets drunk and steals and then wrecks her expensive Maserati car (the car in the film is a Citroen SM; Citroen owned Maserati back in the 1970s), crimes landing him in prison for a 3 - 5 year sentence. He has difficulty getting along with the guards as well as with his fellow inmates. The convicts despise him because he was caught point shaving, the reason he was dismissed from the league. As his only friend, an inmate nicknamed Caretaker (James Hampton) put it, "Most of these boys have nothin', never had anything to start with. You on the other hand, had it all and threw it away. You could have robbed banks, sold dope or stole your grandma's pension checks and none of us would have minded, but shaving points on a football game, well that's un-American!" Moreover, the sadistic, power-hungry warden Rudolph Hazen, (Eddie Albert), a football fanatic who operates a semi-pro team made up of the prison's guard force, wants Crewe to form an inmates' team, but Crewe refuses and is harassed by the guards and given backbreaking work as punishment. The guards at this prison are also very different from those at other prisons in that they are all big and fast enough to make an NFL roster.

Eventually, under pressure, Crewe relents and agrees to form a prisoner team to play the guards' team in an exhibition game. He is allowed to recruit the most dangerous and violent prisoners. Crewe finds difficulties however because several of the people inside the prison have no football experience, and he has no idea if the prisoners have enough talent to take on the guards. Adding to the difficulties, the black inmates at first refuse to play for they "no longer play ball for the Honkie's amusement" and want nothing to do with the white inmates who are playing. Many other prisoners are skeptical too mainly because they see it as an opportunity for the guards to beat on them harder and they are skeptical of Crewe for selling out his NFL teammates. However, he builds trust amongst the cons, and all of them, including the black inmates, eventually come out to support Crewe and his cause. Among the most impressive are Samson (Richard Kiel), a huge prisoner and 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 pro player Nate Scarboro (Michael Conrad), "Granny" Granville (Harry Caesar) and long term prisoner Pop (John Steadman) who remains prison far past his original sentence for having struck Warden Hazen when the warden was just a rookie guard, as well as being aided by the warden's amorous secretary, Crewe molds the otherwise violent, distrustful, rebellious men into a smoothly working football team which comes to be named the "Mean Machine".

However, before the game, a jealous homosexual arsonist named Unger (Charles Tyner) schemes to kill Crewe by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. Unfortunately, the trap is accidentally sprung on Caretaker instead, who is killed in the blaze.

As the game starts, the "Mean Machine" does well, and at halftime the game is close. However, Warden Hazen is angry the prisoners have gained a newfound sense of self-respect, teamwork and accomplishment and are in a good position to win the game. Hazen has always believed he must rule by fear, brutality and intimidation. He corners Crewe in the team locker room and says that the arsonist will testify Crewe had been an accessory to Caretaker's murder if the prisoners do not lose the game by at least 21 points. Crewe obtains a promise from Hazen that if he cooperates and throws the game as ordered, the prisoners will not be harmed. However, the conniving warden secretly breaks this promise, telling the leader of the guards' team, Capt. Will Knauer (Ed Lauter) to order his players to "inflict as much physical punishment on the prisoners as possible" as soon as they are ahead by 21 points.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Longest Yard ]

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