Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson in a football player buddy movie. Both of them are in love with the same woman.
The film takes a real dump on self-improvement cults.
Reynolds Hooper (1978) made fun of pompous British filmakers and Semi-Tough also takes a dig at the pompous people in the publishing industry (jocks of the mind) though the main target is the self-improvement racket.
It also tells the truth about male-female relationships. Men have to tell some lies and act a bit to get the woman. Macho football player Reynolds joins a self-improvement cult to win the woman.
Reynolds is his usual towering, macho and unpretentious self as a football player into Gene Autry movies. Kristofferson holds his own. Jill Clayburg is really cute and lends some sophistication to the proceedings.
This is the kind of movie Marlon Brando and posh Hollywood liberals might have hated.
It is not very woke when it comes to treatment of women. There is a scene where Brian Dennehy tries to throw a woman off a building during a party. Kristofferson talks him out of it and everyone goes back to partying like nothing happened. Early in the film, Reynolds enjoys the view of an airhostess behind.
The directorial flourishes are nothing to write home about except cuts to audience reactions during the football match.
It is not fantastic or anything. But there is something alluring about these Reynolds movies. They are a departure from the pensive and world weary movies that the gatekeepers have promoted to the rest of the world. These films have made a revival thanks to the internet and Bill Burr promoting Reynolds on Joe Rogan. Of course, they cannot be compared to the best of Coppola, Scorsese, Cimino and De Palma. But films like Semi-Tough shows that there was another America far from the gritty streets, devastated war veterans, disillusioned idealistic youngsters, conspiratorial spooks and the lowlife gangsters. This was the mainstream in the 70s. Semi-Tough made $38 million on a budget of $7 million. While I would not go out of my way to promote many of Reynolds films, they are definitely interesting for people obsessed with American cinema of the 70s and 80s. It is American machismo without being apologetic in anyway. And I believe that is the real truth about machismo - pretentious but great artists apologize for their machismo through their art, but not in real life.
(7/10)
The film takes a real dump on self-improvement cults.
Reynolds Hooper (1978) made fun of pompous British filmakers and Semi-Tough also takes a dig at the pompous people in the publishing industry (jocks of the mind) though the main target is the self-improvement racket.
It also tells the truth about male-female relationships. Men have to tell some lies and act a bit to get the woman. Macho football player Reynolds joins a self-improvement cult to win the woman.
Reynolds is his usual towering, macho and unpretentious self as a football player into Gene Autry movies. Kristofferson holds his own. Jill Clayburg is really cute and lends some sophistication to the proceedings.
This is the kind of movie Marlon Brando and posh Hollywood liberals might have hated.
It is not very woke when it comes to treatment of women. There is a scene where Brian Dennehy tries to throw a woman off a building during a party. Kristofferson talks him out of it and everyone goes back to partying like nothing happened. Early in the film, Reynolds enjoys the view of an airhostess behind.
The directorial flourishes are nothing to write home about except cuts to audience reactions during the football match.
It is not fantastic or anything. But there is something alluring about these Reynolds movies. They are a departure from the pensive and world weary movies that the gatekeepers have promoted to the rest of the world. These films have made a revival thanks to the internet and Bill Burr promoting Reynolds on Joe Rogan. Of course, they cannot be compared to the best of Coppola, Scorsese, Cimino and De Palma. But films like Semi-Tough shows that there was another America far from the gritty streets, devastated war veterans, disillusioned idealistic youngsters, conspiratorial spooks and the lowlife gangsters. This was the mainstream in the 70s. Semi-Tough made $38 million on a budget of $7 million. While I would not go out of my way to promote many of Reynolds films, they are definitely interesting for people obsessed with American cinema of the 70s and 80s. It is American machismo without being apologetic in anyway. And I believe that is the real truth about machismo - pretentious but great artists apologize for their machismo through their art, but not in real life.
(7/10)