With one of the main titular characters missing, the plot of the film revolves instead around Sheriff Buford T. Justice ("Smokey"), with the presence of the Bandit merely being suggested through him being impersonated by Cledus ("Snowman").
The film received negative reviews and was a box office bomb.
Plot
Big and Little Enos Burdette offer retiring Sheriff Buford T. Justice a wager, betting $250,000 against his badge on his ability to transport a large stuffed fish from Miami to Austin, Texas. Buford rejects the wager and retires, but after realizing retirement is not all it is cracked up to be he reconsiders and accepts the Burdettes' wager. Buford picks up the fish and starts driving with his son, Junior.
Big and Little Enos set many traps, but after Buford dodges all of them, they decide to hire Bo "Bandit" Darville to intercept him. However, he was due to being too hard to manage. So instead, they hire Cledus Snow from retiring as the Snowman, to become the new Bandit. Cledus parks his semi truck at his house, and leaving Fred with Freida for his company. Cledus sets off by driving one of the Bandit's Pontiac Trans Am cars.
Cledus picks up Dusty Trails, who quits her job at a used car dealership at the town's Autorama. Cledus catches up with Buford, and steals the fish with Dusty's help. Buford pursues Cledus, with another local officer who attempts to take charge of the situation. Both police cars are disabled in the chase.
Buford catches up after Cledus and Dusty make their stop at the Gator Kicks Longneck Saloon to eat. The chase then creates mass chaos in a local town. Cledus escapes when an 18-wheeler blocks the alleyway where he sped through. While trying to get the truck out, Buford's car is towed, but he reverses the car and escapes. The tow truck driver chases him, while Junior is spinning on the hook. As Buford keeps on going with the chase, he makes the tow truck ram the cars and tipped over, as Junior falls down and got scared as he quickly climbed up to the tree as the other car crashed into a pile-up.
Buford chases Cledus in the Mississippi Fairgrounds. Buford's car is thrown up on two side wheels by an incline, but he continues the pursuit while driving on two wheels.
That night, Cledus and Dusty stop at a hotel called the Come On Inn, where people are involved in an orgy. Buford sees the Trans Am parked there and searches for the fish, which he finds. Buford also thinks he finds Cledus in the sauna, but it turns out to be a muscular woman named Tina who bonds with him.
The next day, one of Buford's tires is blown by the "Enos Devil Darts". Cledus retakes the fish. Buford pursues on the remaining two tires, first through a herd of cattle, then through parked boats, then a nudist camp, then through a field where the Enoses set off explosions, one of which destroys the car except the engine, seat, and lights, the latter of which Junior is holding above his head.
Cledus intends to surrender the fish (while Junior bravely gets it back, carefully) and takes first place, while Buford takes second place, and the Burdettes take third place as they arrived at the Burdettes'. As Buford collects his money from Little Enos, he sees Cledus. Thinking he is dealing with the real Bandit, he resists as the Bandit (imagined as Burt Reynolds) attempts to talk him out of arresting him before Junior reminds him of his retirement. Buford and the Bandit both separately come to the same conclusion that they need one other in order for their lives to have meaning, and Buford gives Bandit a five-minute head start and, with Tina joining him, takes off after him on yet another chase, again leaving Junior behind to run after him, dropping all the money on the way.
Cast
Jackie Gleason as Montague County Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas
Jerry Reed as Cledus "The Snowman" Snow / "The Bandit"
The film was originally entitled Smokey IS the Bandit, and did not include Jerry Reed in the cast. Contemporary newspapers refer to original plans to feature Gleason as both "Smokey" and "the Bandit",[3] and Reed's name does not appear in early promotional materials or newspaper accounts during the film's production. According to some accounts, Jackie Gleason was to play two roles: Sheriff Buford T. Justice and a different "Bandit". The original version was shot from October 1982 to January 1983. Reportedly test audiences reacted poorly, finding Gleason's two roles confusing, so the studio opted to do re-shoots in April 1983.[4] The Bandit scenes were re-shot with Jerry Reed playing the role. Other accounts indicate that the title was more literal: that Gleason was to play only Sheriff Justice, but the character would also fill the role of "the Bandit", by taking the Enos family's challenge (as Reynolds' character had done in the previous two films).[5] In a teaser trailer for the film (billed as Smokey IS the Bandit), Gleason appears in character as Justice, explaining to the audience that to defeat the Bandit he would adopt the attributes of his prey, "becoming [my] own worst enemy". A publicity still of Gleason apparently shows him in costume as the Bandit.[6]
Soundtrack
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 received negative reviews by critics and the film was generally regarded as the weakest of the three Bandit films in terms of both storyline and revenue.[7][8] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 17% based on reviews from six critics.[7]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review: "The already skimpy running time of Smokey and the Bandit, Part 3 is padded by an opening montage of earlier Smokey scenes, including shots of Burt Reynolds lounging in a zebra-print hammock. He is grinning, as well he might, because he has been able to sit out Part 3 altogether. What has he missed? An interminable car chase punctuated by dumb stunts and even dumber dialogue, plus the well-worth-missing sight of Paul Williams in a dress".[8]Variety magazine staff wrote: "The sense of fun in that original is missing and the countless smashups and near-misses are orchestrated randomly".[9]
Despite the enormous financial success of the original film (grossing over $300 million on a budget of less than $5 million), coupled with respectable (though significantly lower) numbers generated by the sequel, the third installment was both a critical and box office flop, grossing only $7 million against the film's $9 million production budget.[1][2]
References
^ abSpy (Nov 1988). "The Unstoppables". Spy: The New York Monthly. New York, New York: Sussex Publishers, LLC: 92. ISSN0890-1759. Archived from the original on 2023-08-17. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
