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June 1, 2007
Thirty years after its release, Smokey and the Bandit remains the most popular car movie ever. Here's why, according to Edmunds.com
You hear it before you see it, the roar of its 400-cubic-inch V8 echoing off the wood-covered corrugated steel walls of the truck's trailer. And then it's revealed. The blackest car you've ever seen. It's just 10 minutes and 53 seconds into Smokey and the Bandit, when Burt Reynolds drives that black Trans Am out of the truck and into the sunlight. A powerslide and the car's first smoky burnout are less than two minutes away.
This month Smokey and the Bandit turns 30. It was on May 19, 1977 that the film premiered at New York City's Radio City Music Hall and injected 6.6 liters into America's vernacular. By July, everybody wanted a Screaming Chicken decal on their hoods.
Smokey and the Bandit is so much a part of popular culture, it's hard to believe it's a 30-year-old movie. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason and even Jerry Reed all made movies that film critics would consider "better," but it's Smokey for which they'll always be remembered. Because Smokey and the Bandit is the most popular and important car movie of all time, and there's virtually no chance it's going to lose that distinction in the next 30 years.
Posted by 
at 9:44 AM to Popular culture
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