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Alyssa Meyers
Dr. Maggie Gordon Froehlich
English 15: Section 5
March 15, 2009
The Longest Yard: 1974
Many of us are familiar with the recent film “The Longest Yard” starring Adam Sandler. Fewer of
us are probably aware that the 2005 version was actually a remake of the 1974 motion picture starring
Burt Reynolds. While observing both movies, I noticed a few subtle changes from the original script. In
the 1974 version, certain things seemed to be more accepted by the American population which may
tell us a great deal about our society during the year of its original release.
The basic plot of “The Longest Yard”, both in 1974 and 2005, is based around has-been football
star, Paul Crewe. Crewe was banned from the pros after shaving points off of a game for money. When
he is nailed for drunk driving and dumping his girlfriend’s car in the river, he ends up with an eighteen
month sentence in Warden Hazen’s Citrus State Prison. Once there, Hazen threatens Crewe into
quarterbacking a football team to play against the guards’ runner-up championship team to boost their
confidence. When Crewe’s squad is all but winning the game at halftime of the big game, Warden
Hazen threatens Crewe with a longer sentence, but Crewe will not make that mistake twice. He decides
that his team’s dignity has the utmost importance. The “Mean Machine” comes back and wins the game
in spite of the Warden’s intimidation.
One of the major differences I noticed between the 1974 picture and current movies is the way
in which African Americans are treated by the prison system in the film. Not only are they expected to
do all of the dirty jobs, but they are transported to worksites on a different bus than the white prisoners
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and are frequently called vulgar names and accept it without sending a second glance back at the
guards. On his first day with the prison working crew, Paul Crewe is chained to a black person to work
with for the day. The guards consider this a type of punishment and laugh about it openly in front of the
inmates. This tells us a lot about how far equality has come since that time. Figures of authority can no
longer degrade inmates or workers of any kind the way that they did in 1974.
The main conflict in the film was a different type of racism. Prejudice in the movie does not stop
at African Americans, but proceeds to the general population of inmates. Prisoners in the film are seen
as animals. By the way the guards talk, you would think that the inmates are monsters with no
attributes that could possibly benefit society.
Throughout the movie, we become acquainted with the prisoners and begin to see that they are
“real” people with feelings and genuine personalities. The writers tell the stories inmates building
friendships with Crewe and other members of the team for a common cause- defeating the much-hated
guards who make each of their lives miserable every day, black or white. An opportunity for the
audience to sympathize with the inmates is created. The film makes us realize that everyone makes
mistakes and need not be judged by those mistakes. Here, we see that the stereotype of the animalistic
prisoner is beginning to be broken.
During the guards’ game against “Mean Machine,” the fans, which originally came to watch the
guards, begin cheering for the inmates. This was true in the movie as well as in real life. A newspaper
article from the 1974 New York Times tells a similar story about “The Eagles,” a real life prison team.
This basketball team seems to have a comparable outcome during games, often recruiting the other
teams’ fans.
The article shows the progress of breaking the stereotype of inmates in Georgia, not far from
fictional Citrus State Prison. A coach from the Georgia State prison “Eagles” basketball team stated that
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“Nobody wanted to schedule a prison team” (New York Times, 1974). When the programs were new,
opposing teams realized that there is a possibility that the prison teams might be dangerous to play and
did not want to put their own teams at risk. Safety of civilians was always a concern, so security guards
were promised to be put in place at the games.
Once their safety was guaranteed, a few teams gave the teams containing convicts a chance to
prove themselves, others began to become conscious of the fact that most of the inmates were not
much unlike themselves. These were just men trying to play a sport that they love. The fact that teams
like the Eagles were a prison team began to become irrelevant to opponents as well as referees. What
had once been very controversial began to be seen as just another game.
The idea of organized sports within the prison system which started in 1974 is widely accepted
in today’s prison facilities as well as in juvenile detention centers. Sports are seen as a type of therapy,
offering inmates something to look forward to and work towards. The opportunity to be a member of an
organized team helps to give the prisoners structure and a sense of pride. The movie showed society in
1974 that the fact that these men are prisoners does not necessarily mean that they are bad people,
only that they have done a bad thing. Team sports give them a chance to restore their dignity and by
rebuilding their pride, inmates are given the chance to begin getting the rest of their lives back in order.
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Works Cited
Kosa, Frank. “Prison baseball team gives inmates a focus beyond their cells.” 2 July 2008.
Christian Science Monitor. 5 March 2009
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0702/p20s01-ussc.html?page=1>
The Longest Yard. Robert Aldrich. Perf. Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter. 1974. DVD.
Paramount Pictures, 2009.
The Longest Yard. Peter Sagal. Perf. Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds. 2005.
DVD. Paramount Pictures, 2009.
Special to The New York Times By NEIL AMDUR. "These Players Would Love a Chance at a
Fast Break. " New York Times (1857-Current file) [New York, N.Y.] 6 Jan. 1974, 247247. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005). ProQuest.
University Park, PA. 27 Feb. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>
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