Synopsis
The Longest Yard (1974) is a Robert Aldrich sports comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, with Burt Reynolds playing Paul Crewe — a washed-up pro quarterback who lands in a Southern prison and immediately catches the warden's attention. The warden runs a semi-pro guard team and has political ambitions that depend on winning.
His offer to Crewe is blunt: organize a team of inmates, play the guards, and make sure the inmates lose. In exchange, early release. What Aldrich is really after is the power dynamics — the guards are cruel, the inmates have nothing left to prove, and Crewe is the only one who has to decide what his own dignity is worth. It's a comedy until it isn't.
Reynolds built his movie-star reputation here, and the film went on to be remade twice — which says something about how well the setup holds up. Stream The Longest Yard online on iFILM.
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