Word: semis
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Semi-Tough falls short of the goal line. Ritchie packs his scenes with slapstick asides, including Korov the place-kicker whose only lines are in Russian; these are cruder than Altman but at times exhilaratingly funny. But Ritchie still doesn't know how to use actors--he should hope six-foot eight, 275-pound Doug Atkinson, the prototype for Jenkins' defensive end T.J. Lambert, doesn't see this movie. Ritchie's biggest mistake might have been firing Ring Lardner Jr. as the scenarist. Lardner's credits include M.A.S.H. and he probably genetically knows more about pro athletes than Ritchie. Kristofferson...
...FINE Dan Jenkins novel this movie is loosely based on, the prefix semi- attached to an adjective was a sort of redneck oi vey-- thus semi-tough meant very tough indeed. Novels rarely come to the screen with the exact story line of the printed book--Jenkins described his trials with the screenplay in a recent Sports Illustrated article--but director Michael Ritchie has loaded up the old story of two country boys (and one country girl) who come to the city and make good with New York cocktail party jokes, including a sometimes flat parody of Erhardt...
...buddy, split end Shake Tiller, and Jill Clayburgh is the girl of their dreams, Miss Barbara Jane Bookman, a Phyllis George clone who looks to have maybe been Sigma Chi Sweetheart of 1962 at Ole Miss. And before this proceeds any further, the discriminating moviegoer should know that while Semi-Tough is at times an honestly funny film, it is also maddeningly sexist...
...think, and how could a film starring Burt Reynolds be any other way? This is unfair; Reynolds saves Semi-Tough, and the fault lies not with him but with Ritchie. Sunbelt attitudes toward women are hard to define; what you tend to forget is that Scarlett O'Hara was one tough old bitch. Barbara Jane Bookman, secure in her looks and her money, might have to take a lot of grief from her stud football-playing buddies, but by God, she should give as good as she gets, and the film never captures the uneasy jocularity that is a necessary...
...kind of camp follower cum guru, but in the end he is just abrasive. In fairness to Ritchie, the great part of the movie that involves Merrick and his est-parody probably had to be inserted quickly as the NFL refused to lend much assistance to his movie. Semi-Tough the novel never contained much actual football in the first place, Semi-Tough the movie even less, because only Joe Robbie of the Miami Dolphins would cooperate with the production...