The life of legendary screen idol Burt Reynolds was full of historic highs and devastating lows. Throughout the ‘70s, he was one of the biggest box office attractions with classics such as Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance, and The Longest Yard. But with age came a series of costly flops and failed marriages. Near the end of his life, Reynolds delivered his most vulnerable performance closest to his real-world circumstances in Adam Rifkin’s The Last Movie Star.
Premiering just a year before the actor’s passing at age 82, The Last Movie Star plays as an enduring tribute to and sober examination of a once popular icon. Much like Richard Pryor’s 1986 semi-biopic Jo Jo Dancer: Your Life is Calling, Reynolds’ Vic Edwards is a fictional avatar to his true life as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in history. The key difference, however, is the film’s portrayal of an aging star looking back at his life regrets within the context of a comedic road movie.
What Is 'The Last Movie Star' About?
Many of the clips and set designs of Reynolds’ past movies and photographs are featured throughout The Last Movie Star to illustrate the promising career he had. Those elements contrast with Reynolds’ aging Vic, who spends his days popping pills and watching football games from his Knoxville alma mater. Upon the passing of his beloved pup, Vic finds himself fully alone when his only industry pal Sonny (Chevy Chase) convinces him to accept a lifetime achievement award at an “International National” film festival in Nashville.
Realizing he’s been duped by the selling point of living legends like Clint Eastwood attending this film festival in the past, Vic arrives in town with low-class accommodations for a bootstrap-run event programmed by fanboy Doug (Clark Duke) and his friend Shane (Ellar Coltrane). Though the festival celebrates his past films, Vic insults the audience while intoxicated and passes out in his motel room. Rather than return to Hollywood, however, Vic talks about Doug’s sister Lil (Ariel Winter) as his driver to take him home to Knoxville for a different kind of retrospective.
As a character, Vic is a gateway for Reynolds to channel his honest feelings about the career he had. Early on at the festival, he’s asked a stunt-related question by Shane, to which he responds with contempt for the way the industry can make a star, but forces them to break their bodies on screen long enough until there’s no use left for them. Though it portrays the Vic character as a bitter has-been, The Last Movie Star celebrates Reynolds's career not only by referencing his early college football career but also through recreations of scenes from Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit with the present-day actor digitally composited to interact with his famous characters. Such interactions, however, pay less for laughs and more for Vic’s self-therapy in warning his young, carefree self that the good times do not last.
Burt Reynolds Is at His Most Vulnerable in ‘The Last Movie Star'
In his personal life, Reynolds has been in highly public relationships with the likes of Sally Field and Loni Anderson, which ended in humiliating fashion. The Last Movie Star allows Reynolds to reflect on the love he lost, as Vic had it easy with the ladies physically, but never emotionally. His one true love was his first wife from Knoxville named Claudia (Kathleen Nolan), who was the only woman who truly knew him before the fame. Additionally, he becomes an unlikely friend and mentor to Lil as she deals with the emotional trauma of her relationship with her bad boy beau Bjorn (Juston Street). Much like Vic warning his young self to avoid his mistakes, he sees enough of his young self in Vic to know Lil is going down the wrong path by staying with him.
The most gut-wrenching scene for Reynolds out of any film he ever made happens in The Last Movie Star. As Vic lies motionless in the bathroom of a five-star Knoxville suite, he reveals the true reason for taking the Nashville trip: Mortality. Ironically, as Reynolds’ final starring role, he reflects on the friends and loved ones who passed on as he feels death knocking at his door. For all the fame he achieved, true love could never be attained.
For a star whose best years were far behind him, The Last Movie Star proved that at the near end of his life, Reynolds had enough acting strength and courage to play the heartstrings of fans who idolized him for decades. Even as his frail state was a stark contrast to the powerful heroes he played, he was still quick with The Tonight Show zingers, had a spark in the eyes of beautiful women, and, most of all, had fun all at the same time.
The Last Movie Star is rent on-demand on Prime Video in the U.S.
The Last Movie Star
Release Date March 30, 2018
Runtime 104 minutes
Director Adam Rifkin
Producers Neil Mandt, Janie Boisclair, Micki Purcell, Michael Mandt, Paul Lloyd, Erik Kritzer, Bob Kaminski, Michael Camello, Brett Thomason, Orian Williams, Gordon Whitener, Jared Hoffman, Beni Tadd Atoori, Charlie Anderson, Brian Cavallaro, Bobbi Sue Luther
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Ariel Winter
Lil McDougal
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English (US) ·