Written by: Sheldon Turner
Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, James Cromwell, Nelly, William Fichtner, Burt Reynolds
Rating: [3/5]
Uniting people over a common goal can have them achieve things once thought impossible. It’s the power of human unity. You just have to find the right individuals and the goal to match it. In The Longest Yard, individuals uniting happen to be a bunch of inmates at a Texas prison, and the goal is to beat the guards that abuse them in a game of football. Not without its glaring issues, this film has all of the hallmarks that make for an entertaining sports film.
Sent to prison because of his recklessness, Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), a former NFL quarterback, gets the attention of a warden who transfers him to a prison in Texas. The warden, Rudolph Hazen (James Cromwell), demands that Crewe assemble a group of inmates into a football team to serve as a tune-up match against the guards’ football team. This forces Crewe to make friends of the other inmates and see which ones would aid in assembling a decent football team.
It’s often said, individuals who go to prison get in excellent shape given they don’t have anything to do but exercise, not indulge in life’s luxuries, and just wait for their release. Crewe presents an opportunity for some exercise but, more importantly, allows them to have the ability to inflict some sanctioned violence against the guards. An opportunity some take right away, while others need a bit more convincing. Therefore, Paul needs to go on a recruiting trip around the prison to find the best of them. It leads to some tough conversations but also plenty of comedy along the way as the team needs plenty of work.
As you can imagine, this team will not practice with the best equipment or conditions, instantly making them underdogs in comparison to the guards that have all the amenities one would imagine for a team in Texas. It leaves Paul with the reality that he’ll need to get the most athletic individuals in the prison to make up for the difference, and luckily there are many to go-around. These practices lead to plenty of comedic moments where these individuals learn how to play football and coordinate as a team. They’re a work in progress, as we see with the first snap of their practice, where they essentially all just start fighting instead of the goal of their position. Slowly but surely they improve even if the growing pains exist.
What ultimately brings this team together comes from their hatred of the guards, and that speaks to the reality that some prisoners face in this system. A place meant for rehabilitation and a separation from society can often turn into a place of torture where the inalienable rights of each human can be thrown out the window simply because they committed a crime. Now, the film does not delve into why each of these characters found themselves in prison, but that does not mean any of the Black characters deserve the racism hurled at them by the guards, which ultimately gives them the motivation to join the inmates and get their revenge on the field against these men. When the guards are this cartoonishly evil, it gives the audience no other choice than root for the inmate team. With this being a movie set in prison in the 2000s, you know there’s going to be plenty of jokes about what happens in prison. Some elements have certainly not aged well, which I do not necessarily need to point out, but much of what hits works quite well.
Operating within a sports framework, The Longest Yard allows for there to be plenty of laughs and humor at the expense of these characters, but at the end of the day, it’s a decent football movie. The way this team comes together displays the best elements of sports and how individuals who have all entered the prison system for different charges can unite on one team for their shared goal in beating the guards. Paul Crewe, our lead character, goes through his arc as he learns to better himself throughout the process. It all comes together as something that may make you wince with some of the outdated jokes but ultimately something quite entertaining as well.
