Sharky's Machine 1981

Burt Reynolds was one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 70s and the early 80s and and next to Deliverance Sharky's Machine may be his best performance as an actor and director.  I always thought that this flick was a rejected Dirty Harry screenplay, Clint had put the character to bed in 1977 until his resurrection in 1984, but this was based on a novel of the same name.  The story goes that since Clint ( Every Which Way But Loose) was treading onto Burt's territory of comedy (Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run) that Burt was going to take Dirty Harry to Atlanta.  Burt turned in a fantastic film.

Sharky is an Atlanta cop that is demoted to vice squad after a botched homicide bust and catches onto a case when busting some ladies of the night.  It seems the mob is running a high end prostitute ring and when one of them wants out it it leads to her murder.  Or does it?  Sharky assembles his "Machine" to help the girl and bring down the operation.

Burt assembles a good cast with Charles Durnning, Brian Keith, Bernie Casey, and the great psycho killer Henry Silva in this great cop action movie.  Burt does his finest directing job here and that of course means fantastic stunts as well.

Warner Brothers has produced an awful DVD of this, it is in Full Screen, Full Screen I tell you.  This movie is in desperate need of a proper wide screen, anamorphic release.  Bring it on Warner's!