Zwei ausgebuffte Profis (1977)

Zwei ausgebuffte Profis: Directed by Michael Ritchie. With Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston. A three-way friendship between two free-spirited professional football players and the owner’s daughter becomes compromised when two of them become romantically involved.

“u0026quot;Semi-Toughu0026quot; has got to be one of the best comedies of all time. The casting is perfect, and the acting is very understated. 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 u0026quot;Tu0026quot; some of the self-help and consciousness raising scams of the times.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI especially loved the thinly disguised u0026quot;BEATu0026quot; which closely paralleled u0026quot;estu0026quot; (Erhard Seminars Training, and they always wrote the acronym in lower case) which attracted many followers. I had the misfortune that year of working for a boss who was an est graduate (they called themselves u0026quot;estholesu0026quot;) and two ex-hippie co-workers. est was their life, almost like a religion to them, and they were always pressuring the other workers on the team to take est. They had their own language — e.g. u0026quot;Iu0026#39;ll take responsibility for that,u0026quot; u0026quot;We have an agreement,u0026quot; and especially u0026quot;I got it.u0026quot; (meaning I understand it). While Kris Kristofferson u0026quot;gotu0026quot; the training, Jill Clayburgh did not. Since they wanted to get married they were afraid of a u0026quot;mixed marriage.u0026quot; Fortunately Burt Reynolds also takes BEAT training and pretends to u0026quot;get itu0026quot; 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor 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. After the training you were supposedly a changed person, free of your old hang-ups. Fortunately, I found another job where I was not subject to u0026quot;estual harassment.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRobert Preston, the Team Owner, played his role perfectly too. To a background of Gene Autry records which matched his own view of the world, he tried many other psychic movements, including crawling around on the floor rather than walking. They also tried u0026quot;Pelfing,u0026quot; a thinly veiled send-up of Rolfing. In fact, one other football player was a devotee of u0026quot;pyramid power,u0026quot; proudly wearing a pyramid from a necklace.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie has been on TV but not recently. It would be fun to see it again. Interesting that the IMDB poll for this movie shows that viewers over 45 enjoyed it much more than the kids under 18. Yeah, they werenu0026#39;t around during those happy days of Disco, Leisure Suits, disaster movies, gas lines, est, Lifespring, Rolfing, Pyramid Power, and of course, u0026quot;Happy Days.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you enjoyed u0026quot;Semi-Tough,u0026quot; another film youu0026#39;d like is u0026quot;Serial.u0026quot;”