If Hollywood lore is to be believed, and who am I to dispute it, when Clint Eastwood made
Every Which Way But Loose, his buddy Burt Reynolds thought that Clint was stepping on his toes. Comedy, after all, was Burt’s bread and butter with a pair of
Smokey and the Bandit films,
The Cannonball Run, and
Hooper already in the can. Burt told Clint that if
Every Which Way was a hit that he’d try and one up Eastwood with his own “Dirty Harry” type character.
Every Which Way was a success, and it lead Clint to do a sequel,
Any Which Way You Can, before Burt could get his hard boiled cop going. In 1981, Burt finally brought his vision to life. Setting his cop tale,
Sharky’s Machine, in Atlanta, Ga., near his real hometown of Waycross, Reynolds crafted a tale that was part “Dirty Harry”, but it’s hard to think that Eastwood’s character would ever be as introspective or sensitive as Burt’s Tom Sharky. So come with me to the land of many Peachtree Streets, where Southern charm meets up with big city sleaze, where one cop can make a difference, that is, if he has the right machine.
