Semi-Tough
Tags: satire

Plot synopsis:
Wide receiver Marvin "Shake" Tiller and running back Billy Clyde Puckett are football buddies who play for a Miami pro team owned by Big Ed Bookman (Preston). Bookman's daughter Barbara Jane is roommates with both men, and the film depicts a subtle love triangle relationship between Barbara Jane and her two friends. She initially has romantic feelings for Shake, who has become more self-confident after taking self-improvement training from seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. The program is called Bismark Earthwalk Action Training, or B.E.A.T. After Shake completes his course, he and Barbara Jane sleep together and start a relationship. Barbara Jane is not a follower of B.E.A.T., and Shake is warned by his leader Bismark that "mixed marriages don't work."
Barbara Jane is determined to make it work, so she attends B.E.A.T. in an effort to "get it." At the end of the training session, she is worn out from Bismark's "sadistic abuse, pious drivel and sheer double talk." Barbara Jane also feels guilty that she did not "get it." Shake is insistent that the training has had proven results for him, noting that he has not dropped a football pass since completing B.E.A.T. Billy Clyde also has feelings for Barbara Jane and enrolls in B.E.A.T. in order to understand what she is going through. In the training, Billy Clyde is shown coping with the seminar rules forbidding going to the bathroom. For a time Puckett pretends he underwent a conversion to Bismark's way of thinking. While Barbara Jane and Shake are at the altar about to be married, the minister turns to Bismark and gives him some advice on how he can avoid capital gains tax in his business. Billy Clyde ends up exposing the movement's shallow side, and rescues Barbara Jane from both B.E.A.T. and her impending marriage to Shake. After leaving the wedding together, Barbara Jane and Billy Clyde reveal their feelings for each other.

Review: "Semi-Tough" has got to be one of the best comedies of all time.
You could really identify with Kris Kristofferson, Bert Reynolds, and Jill Clayburgh as lost children of the 1960s looking for the answers to life in the 1970s.
They parody to a "T" some of the self-help and consciousness raising scams of the times.I especially loved the thinly disguised "BEAT" which closely paralleled "est" (Erhard Seminars Training, and they always wrote the acronym in lower case) which attracted many followers.
While Kris Kristofferson "got" the training, Jill Clayburgh did not.
Since they wanted to get married they were afraid of a "mixed marriage."  Fortunately Burt Reynolds also takes BEAT training and pretends to "get it" although you later learn he saw right through it from the beginning.
Burt Convy as the seminar leader bore a striking resemblance to Warner Erhard, the founder and leader of est.For your $300, the training consisted of two weekends spent in a hotel ballroom from about 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM both days.
There were no breaks even to eat or go to the bathroom (no kidding!)  The stunts in the movie paralleled the real est training, with things like lying on the floor hugging your pillow while kicking your feet in the air.
Fortunately, I found another job where I was not subject to "estual harassment."Robert Preston, the Team Owner, played his role perfectly too.
In fact, one other football player was a devotee of "pyramid power," proudly wearing a pyramid from a necklace.This movie has been on TV but not recently.
Yeah, they weren't around during those happy days of Disco, Leisure Suits, disaster movies, gas lines, est, Lifespring, Rolfing, Pyramid Power, and of course, "Happy Days."If you enjoyed "Semi-Tough," another film you'd like is "Serial.".
This film is a sort of decent stab at adapting Dan Jenkins great book, but, mainly due to language and Political Correctness, it ends up falling flat.
Since much of that had to be dropped from the film, a good bit of the books' humor is lost.
And, as with many films, there is less room for character development than in a book.
Still, with Burt Reynold and Jill Claiburgh, it has some considerable charm and humor.
Kris Kristofferson offers up a surprisingly good performance, and he's never impressed me as an actor before (nor singer either, for that matter).
Overall, not a bad film, but you'd probably like the book better - I do!.
Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristhofferson play two pro football players who are interested in the the daughter of the owner of the team.
Two men competing for the girl, and willing to make total fools of themselves in the process, until the Burt Reynolds character wises up, steps back, examines the situation objectively and then plots his strategy to gain the girl's attention.
It's not the greatest movie, and it's definitely not a sports movie, but it's worth watching, has funny moments, and shows what a guy is willing to do to get a woman..
Advertised as a sexy comedy about pro-football players and their women, this Michael Ritchie film, based on the book by Dan Jenkins, instead takes aim at fads and other eccentricities of the 1970s, using the sports world as a backdrop.
It wasn't the big commercial hit some were predicting, though it garnered good notices for Burt Reynolds, doing another of his amiable walk-throughs.
Jill Clayburgh, just prior to her breakthrough in "An Unmarried Woman", plays the daughter of the football team's owner, and her rapport with Reynolds is surprisingly instantaneous.
There are some funny potshots at the EST craze, with Bert Convy well-cast as a self-help guru, but the romantic comedy at the heart of the piece never quite takes off.
Jenkins's novel is one of the funniest books ever written, and THE funniest sports novel.
The movie is a total trashing of Jenkins's work.
It retains only the title, the names of a few of the characters, none of the book's plot, and none of its humor.
Billy Clyde's diary of the week leading to the Super Bowl, with all its hilarity, has been replaced by a silly look at self-improvement fads and crazes and Gene Autry music.
Reynolds and Kristofferson are not believable as professional football players, although Kris would have been a great Elroy Blunt, had that important character been retained from the book.
Jenkins informed the director that in the book, the scale went the other way, with a "1" being the top vote.
If you'd read the book and then went to see the movie, you probably ran screaming from the theater, vowing revenge on the @$$hole writers, director and producers who ruined one of the funniest sports books ever written.
It sure wasn't the author of "Semi-Tough", sportswriter Dan Jenkins.
I understand the compromises that must often be made when bringing a book to the screen, I understand that cuts and character deletions are necessary to squeeze a good-sized novel into a 2-hour (or so) movie) - but why rewrite the whole damn thing?
Do yourself a favor - instead of trying to track down a copy of this movie on DVD (it's out there), get a copy of the book (it's been recently re-released in trade paperback format) and laugh yourself silly - then track down copies of "Life Its Ownself" and "Rude Behavior" (they're both a bit harder to come by - for reasons I can't fathom), the 2 follow-ons to "Semi-Tough", and laugh some more.Then - go find copies of every book by Dan Jenkins that you can lay your hands on and read them all: "Baja Oklahoma", "You Gotta Play Hurt", "Dead Solid Perfect" (the "Semi-Tough" of golf, featuring Kenny Lee Puckett, another Fort Worth native.
This book also had an unfortunately mediocre movie made out of it - but with the minor thrill of seeing the luscious Corinne Bohrer (who usually plays squeaky-clean suburban mommies) as the lascivious and uninhibited Janie Ruth Rimmer (Kenny Lee's 3rd ex-wife-to-be), walking full-front naked down the hallway in a British hotel to fill the ice bucket - the shocked middle-aged couple who spot her are author Dan Jenkins and his wife, June, in a quick cameo appearance).More of Jenkins' books that are must-reads: "The Money-Whipped, Steer-Job, Three-Jack Give-up Artist" ('nother golf book, with another - different - Texas golfer) and its follow-up, "Slim and None".
Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson team up to play a pair of amiable pro-football players in Semi-Tough a good natured comedy about these two and the owner'd daughter.
Sounds like you should be waiting for punchline and in a sense the whole film is one.Jill Clayburgh is the owner's daughter, the owner being Robert Preston who is a flamboyant Texas millionaire and owner of the Dallas football team which for copyright reasons is never referred to as the Cowboys.Having grown up with the team Clayburgh is on a first name basis with all the players and they treat her with due deference.
She'd like a little more going with either Reynolds or Kristofferson, but can't make her mind up which one.
It's almost like Crosby/Hope/Lamour without any songs.Some nice performances will be found from masseuse Lotte Lenya, fake motivational speaker Bert Convy, and also the best from Brian Dennehy as a defensive end who's really abusing the steroids.
It's from Dennehy that we get some potentially serious moments in an easy going film.Fans of the leads should appreciate Semi-Tough..
If you know who Elroy Blunt was, don't watch this movie.
The whole thing is a shame, because this was by far the funniest book I ever read.
Then I heard that Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson and Jill Clayburgh were the stars and thought "oh-oh."  Still, I went to see the movie -- just awful.
While I respect the "favorable" reviews given by some above, it's obvious that they didn't read the book.
I'd invite them to do so, then watch the movie again and see how they'd rate it again..
I loved the book, but failed to heed warnings to steer clear of the film.
Reynolds, as Billy Clyde Puckett, gives his usual smirking performance, while Kristoffersen devil-may-care mien of his character, split end 'Shake' Tiller, and Dennehy adequate captures the man-child, T.J. Lambert.
However, the script does little justice to Clayburgh's character, Barbara Jane, who was the best developed and most interesting character in Jenkins' novel..
This obviously big-budget studio comedy has more in commonwith discursive satires like "Smile" or "Nashville" than other studiocomedies of the period, although it is far more well-made and plottythan either "Nashville" or "Smile": I think it's the best of both worldssatire and spontaneity wrapped up in a comfy old-fashioned romanticcomedy.
So there's no opportunity for a commentary track unless Reynolds, Kristofferson and Clayburgh decide to get together to do it, which would be an excellent idea.
Jill Clayburgh's best work is arguable, but for someone who got her start in soaps in th 60s and whose movies include Portnoy's Complaint, Gable and Lombard and Hanna K., Semi-Tough has to be a highlight.
His performance as the football team owner is priceless.
True, it's not a great movie, but for those of us who were there or who'd like to know about the excesses of the 70s, this movie is very hard to beat for laughs and a sometimes painful look at the way we were..
I know that's bold talk but currently "Semi-Tough" is my favorite Burt Reynolds movie.
That said, "Semi-Tough" is a wildly funny movie with a surprisingly sweet love story.
"Semi-Tough" covers so much ground it's hard to call it a "football" movie.
Director Michael Ritchie was known for comedies but made one of the best sports movies of the 1970s, Downhill Racer about a selfish, self obsessed Olympic skier played by Robert Redford.Semi-Tough is a satirical light romantic comedy.
Billy Clyde (Burt Reynolds) and Shake Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) are football stars who are both involved in a relationship with Barbara Jane (Jill Clayburgh) the daughter of their team owner.Inspired by a self help guru Friedrich Bismark (Bert Convy) it is Shaker who gets engaged to Barbara Jane which makes Billy Clyde realise that he also loves her.This is an engaging look at two egocentric men, the influence of lifestyle gurus.
There is a scene where an argument between two rival football players ends up being a discussion between rival self help courses.Ritchie brings an almost anarchic style to the film yet has a cutting edge on the lifestyles of the rich and famous sports stars.There is a famous scene where Billy Clyde gets involved in a 48 hours intensive find yourself seminar run by Bismark in a locked hotel room.
Participants cannot leave even to go to the toilet but Billy Clyde has attached a device where he could relieve himself.Burt Reynolds gives an engaging fun performance.
Not even Burt Reynolds can save the script of this forgettable drivel.
I lost all respect for the author of the book, Dan Jenkins, for allowing this thing to be made.
The book BTW is hilarious, and has no resemblance to the film.
Want to watch a football movie try the Longest Yard or North Dallas Forty.
Lively satire that demolishes pro football and self improvement ads.
The film also features Carl Weathers, Brian Dennehy and Robert Preston..
I didn't think this movie was good at all.
Some parts were funny like when he smiled almost evily but other than that, not that good.
Very much of its time  and not only because it focuses on a number of dippy US 70s fads like est (beat here)  when viewed today Semi-Tough is something of an oddity.
Early on, a minor character enquires of Reynold's amiable football-playing jock something about why he plays and his answer (something to do with black men and showers that would probably be enough to get my IMDb account deleted were I to repeat it verbatim) was actually quite shocking.
It was certainly the only time my interest was piqued.Apparently the film is based (loosely) on a laugh-a-page novel.
Jill Clayburgh seems to be completely out of her depth (if the word depth can be applied to a film like this) and there's something a little disturbing about hearing those Anglo-Saxon expletives issuing from her demure features.
She certainly doesn't seem the flighty type to inflame the passions of such macho characters as Reynolds and Kristofferson.Kristofferson is outshone in every department by good-ol'-boy Burt, which is a pretty damning statement when you think about it.
There just doesn't seem to be any vitality about the man, and he mostly drifts through his scenes with an expression of serene disinterest  an expression I shared with him for most of this film's running time, especially the overlong est-whitewashing sequence which appeared to be one long run-in to Reynold's mildly amusing peeing-in-a-flask gag..
Read the book or watch *anything* else.
This was "based" on a very funny book, one of the most enjoyable I have ever read.
And I usually liked Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh, and didn't mind Kris Kristofferson in a couple of other movies..
"Semi" Movie.
Essentially "Semi-Tough" sells the pain of misdirected love by chasing the emotions down with a shot of football-player toughness and religious/spiritual ineptness.
Semi tough even one-ups Shakespeare by taking using the same characters to embody these disparate virtues.In biting off this challenge, however, the movie strays from the characters and into lapses of football games and farcical "individual awareness" training.
Be it "Downhill Racer" (1969), "Bad News Bears" (1976), "Smile" (1975) or "The Candidate" (1972), all his films during this period are explicitly about competition, American institutions and individuals who put their personal goals (and/or profits) before a team, community or group (or vice versa).One of Ritchie's weakest films, "Semi Tough" is a shapeless and abrasive satire which focuses on the world of American Foodball.
Tonally, the film struggles to juggle comedy, satire and drama."Semi Tough" is criticised for being smug and abrasive, but that's understandable, considering it's populated by smug, abrasive and self-obsessed characters.
The world of professional football players (though not necessarily the sport itself) is given a ribbing in this loose adaptation of the popular book of the same name by Dan Jenkins.
Reynolds and Kristofferson are players on a fictional Miami team who share an unorthodox relationship (not to mention living arrangement) with the team owner's daughter Clayburgh.
The triangular love story plays out against the sometimes-bizarre backdrop of locker room shenanigans, commercial endorsements, road-trip sexual escapades and, most notably, the world of self-improvement guru Convy, based on a real-life entrepreneur named Werner Erhard, founder of the "est" program.
The film starts out promisingly disarming and saucy, with some startling dialogue and some skin-baring locker room shots, followed by an amusing deodorant commercial shoot and some good work by Catlett as a sexually desperate groupie and Lenya as a no-nonsense physical therapist.
Eventually, however, the film becomes mired in the not-too-involving aspects of the love story and the then-topical, now tiresome jabs at self-help.
Reynolds has appeared in a lot of junk over the years, but is woefully underrated when it comes to his ability to convey subtle emotion through his charm on the screen.
Convy, in visibly heavy makeup for some reason, has a good handle on his role (and went to a similar seminar in real life in order to prepare.) Lenya has just the one scene and is well cast in her role.
Oddly, for a film featuring the after hours exploits of a football team, there is almost no female nudity, just one brief, gratuitous topless scene during a mêlée in a church.
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).
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.
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.
The time lapse involved between reading the Dan Jenkins book and catching this picture is now closing in on about forty years for me.
My best recollection is that the book was hilarious, one of those stories that you don't stop reading until you're done.
I didn't get that much of a charge out of the flick.So calling this a football movie would be a misnomer, there's really very little game action in the story.
Jill Clayburgh was the perfect casting call for the role of Barbara Jane.
I've seen her in a few other films and she's got the tedious thing down pretty well pat.Reading some of the other reviews I see the film has it's share of adherents, but if it's a 'real' football movie you want, along with Burt Reynolds, your best bet is to head on over to 1974's "The Longest Yard" or the 2005 remake of the same name - Reynolds is in both..
OK, the movie isn't that great.
On the whole, not a movie I would sit down for entertainment.But what has got me about this film is the way Burt Reynolds character becomes; laid-back, relaxed, unjudgemental, wise and very respectable.