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Is Burt Reynolds and his legacy slowly becoming forgotten?

posted 3 years ago by TMC-4 (20160)
19 replies | jump to latest

At least in the public's mind, it seems like (at least right before his passing) he has been reduced to his post-1983 string of bombs and the trivia that he hated his hugely acclaimed role in Boogie Nights. He was basically a joke in much of the '80s and '90s (on through is stint on Evening Shade) before Boogie Nights reminded everyone how great he was.

Also, you can argue that among his starring vehicles, Smokey and the Bandit is really the only one that has any cultural significance today. Keep in mind that Deliverance and Boogie Nights weren't movies designed with Burt as the main attraction. Even The Longest Yard, may have slipped a bit in cultural recognition due to the Adam Sandler remake, which Burt Reynolds incidentally, co-starred in.

[–] FootOfDavros (8196) 2 years ago

Don't think so.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

IMDb voters are still giving the original Longest Yard a slight advantage to the remake (6.4/7.1)

I was much younger than the target audience of Smokey and the Bandit when it came out. Obviously it wasn't made for the 4 year-old crowd, but I don't know many of my peers that can't discuss the movie intelligently. It's part of our culture as well but most of the conversation doesn't really involve Burt, it's more likely to center around Jackie Gleason.

I don't even know of many people who talked about him at the time of his death. It was almost a non-story.

[–] mikethemartian (6748) 3 months ago

He was ill during part of the 80s due to a stunt that damaged his jaw. Instead of being hit with the correct prop he was hit with a real chair. He walked off the injury at first but it had a long term adverse impact on his health and apparently it took some time for the proper diagnosis.