Burt Reynolds made cockiness companionable by letting us see the joke at his own expense. We rate him most when that ease serves a character, as it does in Boogie Nights, rather than excusing another undemanding vehicle.
Fi1m perspective
In Boogie Nights (1997), Burt Reynolds lets Jack Horner take his work seriously when the obvious temptation would be to play him for a joke. Horner makes pornography and wants narrative tension to matter to his audience. Reynolds allows that wish to be funny without suggesting the man is a fool. We were moved by his respect for Horner's ambition, which gives us a reason to care about something we might otherwise dismiss. This is the Reynolds we rate most: relaxed enough to let a character have his dignity.
The self-mocking swagger was useful too, and it would be a mistake to treat the comedies as an embarrassment to be explained away. After years in television, Deliverance (1972) established him as a dramatic leading man. The Longest Yard (1974) made use of his athleticism in a mixture of sport and comedy, while Smokey and the Bandit (1977) fixed the cocky Southern charmer more firmly in place. His comic timing made that confidence inviting. He could enjoy looking pleased with himself and let us enjoy finding him faintly ridiculous.
The problem was how little some of the vehicles asked him to do. He made seven films with director Hal Needham. Familiarity was part of the appeal. But the undemanding formulas of the Cannonball Run entries leave too much of the work to his charm. We need more from a Reynolds film than confirmation that Reynolds is having a good time.
Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights gives that familiar ease a useful job in a late-career supporting role. Mark Wahlberg's Eddie Adams has an openness that makes his ambition touching, and Reynolds supplies a more paternal presence without making Horner's own hopes ridiculous. The rise-and-fall story grows familiar, a limitation that the acting cannot quite remove. Yet Reynolds helps keep Anderson's crowded ensemble absorbing because he treats Horner as someone worth attending to, even when the business itself invites an easy laugh. Begin there if the car-chase charmer has made him too easy to dismiss.
Biography
Burt Reynolds was an American actor, director and producer. Born in Lansing, Michigan, he began his career in television westerns, including a recurring role in Gunsmoke during the 1960s, before moving into film.
His breakthrough came with the role of Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972). He subsequently starred in a series of commercial successes, often portraying roguish characters, in films such as The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and its sequel, Hooper (1978) and The Cannonball Run (1981). Reynolds received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Later credits included Evening Shade (1990–1994) on television, for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy, and the role of Jack Horner in Boogie Nights (1997).
