The Longest Yard (1974)
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The Longest Yard is a 1974 movie 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 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 soccer instead of American football. Green Bay Packers legend Ray Nitschke appeared in the 1974 version as did the country singer George Jones.
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 Maserati automobile. He is surprised when a fleet of police cars follow him, so he escapes them and hides the car underwater, but he is later caught. This leads to an 18 month sentence in prison.
Crewe 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. 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 quote is used in the 2005 remake). 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 a team of inmates; 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. A scuffle with the guards ups his sentence to 3-5 years.
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 in that 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 Crewe's problems, the black inmates at first refuse to play for they "no longer play ball for the Honkie's amusement" and like the other inmates are skeptical of Crewe's point shaving history. Crewe eventually builds trust amongst the cons, and all of them, including the black inmates, eventually come out to support Crewe and his cause by playing against the guards. 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 in 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 (Bernadette Peters), 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 Caretaker by setting off an incendiary device in his cell. (Unger believed he would become Crewe's assistant with Caretaker gone.) Caretaker 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, Captain 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.
Crewe quickly makes several deliberate mistakes putting the "Mean Machine" down by three touchdowns, then purposely 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 turns to Pop to ask him 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 aid. However, he quickly wins them back and, with the help of a quick touchdown and a drop kick, soon gets the "Mean Machine" back into the game. Nate, despite his bad knee, goes into the game to score a touchdown, and, after doing so, is immediately cut down at the knees by a guard, crippling him. However, by this time the prisoners have rallied and their spirit cannot be broken.
With seconds to go and the prisoners down by five points, the ball is in the prisoners' possession on the guards' one-yard line, the "longest yard" of the title.
In a long slow-motion sequence, Crewe bootlegs to the outside but reverses directions. Finally he cuts in and attempts to hurdle several players into the end-zone. The first hit sends Crewe up and over the line into the end zone as he and several guards crash into the end zone for the touchdown. After the celebrations, Crewe looks like he wants to escape. The warden sees this and orders Capt. Knauer to shoot Crewe. Knauer calls out to Crewe several times as the warden barks for him to shoot him. Finally, Crewe picks up the game ball and walks back towards Warden Hazen. Crewe then hands the ball to the warden, telling him, "Stick this in your trophy case."
