DALE HAWES

   Hal Needham was an extremely influential person in movie history from the 1950s throughout the late 1990s. He was mainly known as a stuntman, but not just any stuntman, he was the greatest. He became the highest paid stuntman in Hollywood, elevating the art of stuntman to a craft by revolutionizing the practice. Throughout his work with car stunts he invented The Air Ram, Air Bag, The Car Cannon Turnover and The Shotmans Camera Car which would make stunts more spectacular and yet safer. He did stunts for; Have Gun Will Travel, Rawhide, Wild Wild West, Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, Little Big Man, The French Connection, Blazing Saddles, Chinatown and The Longest Yard, to name a few. He suffered for his art as well, having broken 56 bones including his back, which was broke two times, plus he punctured his lung and knocked some teeth out of his head. Not only did he work as a stuntman, he was a stunt coordinator, a second unit director and even an actor. But in the late 1970s he would create a new genre of movies that would take stunt driving and Burt Reynolds to new levels of stardom. The genera was, The Southern Horsepower Comedy!

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   It all started when he was working on a movie with Burt Reynolds in Georgia called, “Gator”. Hal’s buddy in the movie's transportation department packed Coors Beer among some luggage for Hal and company to enjoy. One day he busted a cleaning lady steeling the Coors Beer from his motel room. He asked her why she kept taking cheap beer and she informed him, "Sir, you can't get Coors Beer east of the Mississippi River because that's bootlegging". There actually was a law in some southern states prohibiting Coors Beer because of the way it wasn’t pasteurized and had to stay refrigerated constantly. This want of Coors Beer gave him an idea for a film. He sat down and wrote, "Bandit".

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   He had a friendship with Jerry Reed who agreed to play the title role. He figured he could make a little one million dollar B movie and with Jerry onboard it should make a profit.

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   He was also good friends with Burt Reynolds. Burt actually let Hal stay with him at his house during Hal’s divorce and Hal ended up staying 12 years. One day Hal asked Burt to look over his “Bandit” script and give his thoughts. Burt hated the script claiming, this is the worst script he ever read. But then he said if Hal directs it and he can get the money he’d play The Bandit. This was unexpected. Burt Reynolds was already a considerable star at this point so with Burt on board the script was sold easily. Hal had to call Jerry Reed and inform him that he was no longer playing the bandit but was now playing The Snowman. Burt convinced Sally Field to come onboard even though she hated the script claiming, there's no script here. Burt told her they could improvise their way through it. Sally didn’t come from that school of preforming and wasn’t excited to do it, but she ultimately agreed.

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   Hal sent the script to Jackie Gleason who proclaimed, what in the world makes you think I would do this movie. Hal said, Sir, I wrote it and I’m going to direct it and I got this great part in it and I think you’re going to be hilarious.  Somehow that convinced Jackie to do it. Hal would later claim all of the Sheriff’s best lines were Mr. Gleason’s ad lids.

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   It seems everyone agreed because they all thought the project would be a lot of fun. The production would be released as, “Smokey and The Bandit” in 1977 and despite a limited release it at first, it would soon explode into a box office smash hit and an American classic. It was a limited release because no Hollywood executive thought anyone north of the Mason Dixon line would get the movie. As usual, the executives were wrong. Not only did the movie make a lot of money, Trans Am sales exploded, as well as the sale of C-B radios. The success of this film would allow Hal to make a whole line of Burt Reynolds, redneck car stunt movies including; The Cannonball Run 1 & 2 (1981-1984), Stroker Ace (1983), Hooper (1978) and the 2nd and 3rd Smokey and the Bandits (1980-1983). Hal’s movies were the first to show bloopers and outtakes during the closing credits. And he also made breaking the forth wall acceptable. (Breaking the 4th wall is when an character steps out of a scene, looks towards camera and directly addresses the audience.) Believe it or not, Alfred Hitchcock stated, Smokey and the Bandit was his all time favorite movie. This is all quite a wild ride for a redneck from Tennessee who loved Coors.

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   Hal Needham died in 2013.

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   Brad Pit's stuntman character in the movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) is loosely based on Hal Needham.

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- D. Hawes