There’s a lot to unpack here.
For those of you who may not remember, Hooper was a 1978 action-comedy starring Burt Reynolds as Sonny Hooper, the industry’s leading trick driver, whose body has seen better days. He gets roped into performing one last death-defying stunt by a young up-and-comer (played by Jan-Michael Vincent), and, as one could reasonably guess, action/hilarity ensues. The film was one of a string of collaborations between Reynolds and director Hal Needham (a former stuntman himself), and the pair’s creative partnership also yielded such dubious “classics” as Smokey and the Bandit, Stroker Ace, and, of course, the immortal The Cannonball Run. These flicks tended to be released in the summer months, thus Hooper‘s absolutely perfect tagline “It just ain’t summer without Burt.”
We encourage you to take a moment and bask in the poster’s glory: Burt’s mustache and hat, the magnificent yellow-on-blue text, the leave your brain at the door hi-jinks that the poster, and by association, the film itself promises, and so on. More than just ordinary advertising, this poster is picture proof that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
It just ain’t summer without Burt. Have truer words ever been spoken?
This article originally ran last year, we are reprinting it today as part of our remembrance of the life of Burt Reynolds.