They Don’t Make Trailers Like That Anymore: SHARKY’S MACHINE (1981) and STICK (1985)

By now you’ve heard the news that Burt Reynolds passed away today.  To those of us who are, shall we say, gracefully entering late Late Middle Age, Burt Reynolds was a Big Deal Movie Star.  Don’t get me wrong--he could act, as witnessed in films like Deliverance, but he was also one of the last Old School Stars, where he could make any movie better just be being himself.  Arguably Reynolds’ best performance is his iconic turn as The Bandit in the best redneck romance ever, Smokey and The Bandit, and there’s very little difference between Bandit (they never give him a proper name in the three feature films, and that’s the way it should be) and the man playing him.

Probably less known was Reynolds’ career as a director.  He was interested in expanding to behind the camera as early as 1966, where he helmed an episode of his TV series Hawk.  His star power allowed him to make a couple of theatrical features, including our two subjects this time out.  While he was having the most success in comedy, Reynolds was trying hard to keep his action cred high, which resulted in three of his four theatricals. 

Sharky’s Machine, one of two films presented by Burt’s short lived production company Deliverance, became a film by Reynolds when original director John Boorman bowed out.  It was based on a book by William Diehl (who was so sure Burt would be perfect, he sent the actor a copy), and was supposedly a reaction by Reynolds to Clint Eastwood’s success in Every Which Way But Loose.  I like the fact that up front, the trailer defines the title and shows us what is one of the film’s biggest draws, namely the allure of Rachel Ward.  This was only her second feature, and she actually seems to dominate the first forty seconds of the piece with as many glamour shots as Reynolds himself!  The pitch gets a little muddled after telling us Sharky’s Machine refers to the cops the titular Sharky works with, and a rhythm emerges with a dialogue bit followed with an action beat repeated over and over again.  The focus is mainly on Burt, although the film has an impressive cast--I was shocked by the sudden appearance of a shouting, firearm-weilding Henry Silva jumping into one scene.  And then it gets to The One Big Hook.

We’ve not discussed this trope before, but a lot of trailers lead up to a brief sequence that the producer hopes will be The Big Draw, the One Thing You Have To See.  In Sharky’s Machine, it’s the long fall from an Atlanta skyscraper.  It looks like a real person did this stunt, and the trailer times its reveal of the fall with an extended riff that emphasizes the coolness while easing up into the title card.  It’s certainly one of the most memorable shots in the two minutes this pitch takes.

Four years later, Reynolds played the titular character in Stick, based on the Elmore Leonard novel.  The narrative in this trailer is pretty clean, and what’s interesting is that Burt shares emphasis time during the first half minute of this ninety second pitch with stuntman Dar Robinson, who plays Moke, one of the main bad guys--and it’s a wise move, because Robinson both has a unique look (his character seems to be an albino) and a compelling presence in the few quick shots we see of him.  Then we get not one, but two Big Draws.  First, before the narrator runs down the cast (check out Charles Durning with his red wig!), we see Robinson do the beginning of another great fall stunt that takes up seven seconds of screen time.  Then, after the cast role call, we get the final twenty seconds devoted to a sequence where a tuxedoed Burt fills a brandy snifter with gasoline, splashes said gasoline on a goon...and fires up his lighter.  That last sequence is so vividly effective it took me a number of viewings to realize it was a music sting, and not the man’s screams, that play over the title card.  You can tell that while both trailers are similar, Stick’s is better paced and constructed.  Even though the film is pretty lame (the film keeps forcing Burt-style humor into Leonard’s hardcore narrative), this pitch is A plus! If I had seen this trailer in the theaters, I would have wanted to see the movie right away.

Sharky’s Machine trailer courtesy Movie Clips Classic Trailers
Stick trailer courtesy Video Detective