DVD Review: Semi-Tough (1977)

Kino Lorber has released a rather inaccessible Burt Reynolds movie that has become somewhat obscure due to the rise of political correctness. There is something oddly comforting about the absolute freedom this film has, even with the realization that a portion of its content will offend some viewers. Not having that same freedom, this review can't be too specific as to some of the dialog in "Semi-Tough." But the gist of the movie can be explained pretty well.

"Semi-Tough" is a quintessential jock comedy centering on two football players played by Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. The film opens with players in the locker room celebrating a post-game win, "rasslin'" each other in the showers, and pulling practical jokes with noisy enthusiasm. Burt and Kris seem above it all, appear to be the leaders, on the field and socially. They have a bond with the team owner's daughter (Jill Clayburgh), a three-way friendship that claims to be platonic. Robert Preston chews the scenery with gusto as the team owner, who complains about his daughter living with two of his players, because "y'all ain't havin' sex! That's goddamn unnatural."

Throughout the film there is a rampant political incorrectness that seemed like silly shenanigans in 1977 but appears different when approached from the current era's perspective. When Kristofferson is lying in a bed doing a TV commercial, Burt jumps in and the two of them pull in the pretty clapper girl and start wrestling and tickling her while she giggles merrily and is completely ok with it. This would be a negative moment in a movie of the MeToo era, but in this movie, it is just more of the same shenanigans. It's really makes "Semi-Tough" a sort of cultural artifact.

Roger Mosley plays one of the key players on the football team and is obviously good friends with both Burt and Kris. Still, Burt says the N word within the first ten minutes of the movie. It isn't in a bigoted sense, he simply tells a publisher that "we don't really love football, we just like taking showers with....." It got a laugh in 1977. It just lays there now. There is also a scene with Mosley at a party in Santa suit who does not want to be bothered while eating ribs.

Bert Convy plays a self-help guru who calls his followers "assholes." Richard Masur is the team's publicist who has to cover up everything they do wrong. Brian Dennehy is a big, bruising football player who doesn't quite know how to conduct himself (he holds a girl by her feet and dangles her over the edge of a roof). Mary Jo Catlett is a heavyset, frumpy stereotype who Burt beds in desperation, the scene playing as if he is doing her a favor. Carl Weathers is a delightfully cocky rival player. Authenticity is added by the appearance of real life football players John Matuszak, Paul Hornung, Joe Kapp, and Ed "Too Tall" Jones.

Burt had established himself well in the football movie "The Longest Yard" a couple years earlier, and was gradually establishing himself as a good-ol'-boy icon that helped define the decade. This would be solidified with "Smokey and the Bandit" released this same year. Kristofferson had been in Barbra Streisand's ill-fated version of "A Star is Born" but was mostly noted as a singer-songwriter. Jill Clayburgh had just done "Silver Streak" and moved into a bravura performance in "An Unmarried Woman" after this project.

Watching an older film like this is somewhat saddening when realizing Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Brian Dennehy and Bert Convy are all gone now (Kristofferson, Mosley, and Catlett are still with us). But it is also revealing, reminding us of the edgy freedoms that 70s movies enjoyed. Being sexist, anti-intellectual, and free with racial epithets was part of a jock mentality that was accepted, with some derision, as the sort of character this element represented. It plays here as comedy from an era that has long since passed us by. And it is a truly fascinating film to see again in the 21st century. Special points for making Burt's character a massive Gene Autry fan.

Semi-Tough was written by Walter Bernstein, based on the novel by Dan Jenkins. It was directed by Michael Ritchie.

The blu ray is available here: Semi-Tough