Rascally Billy Clyde Puckett (a fine and engaging performance by Burt Reynolds) and laid-back Marvin "Shake" Tiller (a supremely amiable portrayal by Kris Kristofferson) are a couple of professional football players who are involved in an offbeat (and platonic!) menage a trois relationship with the sassy Barbara Jane Bookman (splendidly played with spunky aplomb by Jill Clayburgh). Complications ensue when Shake decides to marry Barbara Jane and Billy Clyde realizes he truly loves her. Director Michael Ritchie, adapting a sharp and biting script by Walter Bernstein and Ring Lardner, Jr., pokes wickedly spot-on fun at silly 70's self-help programs and the quintessential all-American emphasis on winning while showing a genuine warmth and affection for his three endearingly flaky main characters. Reynold, Kristofferson, and Clayburgh all do sterling work in their roles, with excellent support from Robert Preston as irascible, eccentric good ol' boy owner Big Ed Bookman, Bert Convy as smarmy, pretentious self-help guru Friedrich Bismark, Roger E. Mosley as the hip Puddin Patterson, Sr., Brian Dennehy as the rowdy T.J. Lambert, and Carl Weathers as fearsome rival team captain Dreamer Tatum. The dialogue is often snappy and profane; the banter between the three leads in particular is quite funny and delightful. Comic highlights include Shake doing a deodorant TV commercial, Billy Clyde visiting a brutal physical therapist (Lotte Lenya in an inspired cameo), a protracted forty-eight hour self-help seminar, and a climactic wedding which degenerates into a wild brawl. Charles Rosher, Jr.'s polished cinematography gives the film an attractive sunny look. Jerry Fielding's lively, tuneful score likewise does the trick. Gene Autry's country songs on the soundtrack further enhance the movie's considerable quirky charm. A nice film.
Review of Semi-Tough
