The Longest Yard

Name: The Longest Yard
Genre: Drama, Sport, Comedy, Crime
Released: August 30, 1974
Duration: 121 min
Rating: 61
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Charles Tyner, Ed Lauter, Eddie Albert, Harry Caesar

1974

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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6.7

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6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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The Longest Yard

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: August 30, 1974 | R

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Charles Tyner, Ed Lauter, Eddie Albert, Harry Caesar, James Hampton, Jim Nicholson, John Steadman, Michael Conrad, Mike Henry

Summary: A sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.

Director: Robert Aldrich

Genre(s): Drama, Sport, Comedy, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 121 min

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Critic Reviews

Staff (Not Credited)

The Longest Yard is an outstanding action drama, combining the brutish excitement of football competition with the brutalities of contemporary prison life. Burt Reynolds asserts his genuine star power, here as a former football pro forced to field a team under blackmail of warden Eddie Albert. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

Deftly employing split-screen and slow-motion techniques, Aldrich makes the most of Tracy Keenan Wynn's incisive script, aided by fine cinematography and tight Oscar-nominated editing. Read full review

Rob LeDonne

This Burt Reynolds offering is a look at both prison life and the sport, and offers two hallmarks of classic 70's cinema: gritty, no holds barred action – and Reynolds' chest hair. Read full review

Pauline Kael

For all its bone-crunching collisions, it's almost irresistibly good-natured and funny.

Richard Schickel

What saves it, aside from good performances by Burt Reynolds and a thundering herd of supporting grotesques, is, of all things, a tough, tiny nut of valid social criticism. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The themes are dignity and compromise, freedom and betrayal; if it all gets bogged down occasionally in its macho-violence trip, it's nevertheless very exciting, very witty, and elevated above its action-movie status by Aldrich's deliberate references to Nixon in Albert's characterisation of the warden. Read full review

Nora Sayre

Though The Yard is a terrible picture, I'll admit to having unwillingly enjoyed some of the football practice and parts of the final game —even though it's much too long. Read full review

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