Burt Reynolds names the first good movie of his career: “I made so many bad pictures”
Every actor wants to make nothing but good movies, which isn’t always possible. Burt Reynolds had been earning a living in the industry for a decade and a half before he appeared in something that didn’t suck, a sentiment that came straight from the horse’s mouth.
That’s a fairly damning assessment of his own career, albeit not one without merit. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Reynolds became a star, and considering he made his screen debut in a 1958 episode of the anthology TV series Flight, he was nothing if not patient in biding his time for something good.
The early years of his filmography followed a similar template, and it was far from encouraging. There may have been the odd bright spot here and there, but Reynolds ploughed a fairly barren field as a bit-part player and occasional lead in a string of ultimately forgettable genre flicks.
He called the war movie Armored Command a “terrible mistake,” branded Operation CIA as “godawful,” and blasted Navajo Joe as “so awful it was only shown in prisons and aeroplanes because nobody could leave. ” Lifelong Reynolds fan Quentin Tarantino labelled 100 Rifles a “wasted opportunity,” and the star said that “nobody cared” about his western comedy Sam Whiskey.
Was Reynolds his own harshest critic, or was he really doing nothing but starring in terrible films? The evidence pointed towards the latter, and he knew it. “I’ve waited 15 years to do a really good movie,” he told The New York Times. “Most of my stuff, I don’t say how good it is, because mostly I don’t think it’s good.”
“I made so many bad pictures,” he explained. “I was never able to turn anything down. In 1959, I was supposed to be the biggest thing since canned beer. It didn’t happen. After three years, I was the fourth guy from the right who looked like Marlon [Brando]. I’ve taken everything that’s come along.”
Fortunately, cinematic salvation was waiting in the wings. The movie that changed everything and ended Reynolds’ 15-year wait for a film that wasn’t awful was, of course, Deliverance. John Boorman’s gripping revenge thriller was both his best-reviewed feature and most acclaimed performance to date, earmarking him as a star-in-waiting and setting the stage for his ascension towards the top of the A-list.
Nominated for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ at the Academy Awards, it made the kind of money and earned the type of adulation that Reynolds could have only dreamed about beforehand, salvaging his career from circling the drain and setting him on a path to becoming the biggest draw in the business, a feat he’d achieved before the end of the 1970s.
He’d been waiting a long time for something like Deliverance to come along, and he was more determined than ever not to squander the opportunities it would provide.
