Semi-Tough
Encyclopedia
Semi-Tough is a 1977 film directed by Michael Ritchie
and starring Burt Reynolds
, Kris Kristofferson
, Jill Clayburgh
, Lotte Lenya
, Bert Convy
, and Brian Dennehy
. The plot involves a love triangle
between the characters portrayed by Reynolds, Kristofferson and Clayburgh. Semi-Tough also includes a parody of Werner Erhard
's Erhard Seminars Training
(est), depicted in the film as an organization called "B.E.A.T." The film is based on the novel Semi-Tough, by Dan Jenkins
, and was adapted for the screen by writer Walter Bernstein
and director Michael Ritchie
. Ritchie and Bernstein added a new storyline which included a satire of the self-help
movement and new religions
.
Semi-Tough follows the story of pro-football
friends Billy Clyde Puckett, and Marvin 'Shake' Tiller, who also have a third roommate, Barbara Jane Bookman. The two men vie for her affection throughout the film, but Shake becomes self-confident
after completing a self awareness course called "B.E.A.T." Bert Convy
plays the role of Friedrich Bismark, the leader of B.E.A.T. Barbara Jane enrolls in B.E.A.T. training in order to "get it" and be closer to Shake, but does not have a good experience in the training. Billy Clyde takes the training surreptitiously with Barbara Jane, and fakes "getting it" in order to impress her. He later intervenes when she is about to marry Shake, and they admit their feelings for each other.
The film received mixed reception. Reviewers praised its parodies of the est training, Werner Erhard, and other new age
movements such as Rolfing
. Other reviews criticized the script and direction of the film, noting that some of director Ritchie's previous films had more of a personal tone. Still other reviews lamented the film's departure from the novel Semi-Tough, which dealt more with football and less with the new age movement.
(born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training
(est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training
, and was part of the Human Potential Movement
. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a dramatic change in their self-perception.
est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic
and narcissistic
tendencies. Proponents asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives. By 1977 over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates
repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings. In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education
in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.
buddies who play for a team owned by Big Ed Bookman called the "Miami Bucks". Bookman's daughter Barbara Jane Bookman 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 Kristofferson's character, who has become more self-confident after taking self-improvement training from seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. Friedrich Bismark's training program is called Bismark Earthwalk Action Training, or B.E.A.T. After Shake completes his B.E.A.T. 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 with Shake, 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 missed a football pass since completing B.E.A.T. Billy Clyde Puckett also has feelings for Barbara Jane Bookman, and enrolls in B.E.A.T. in order to understand what she is going through. While participating in the training, Billy Clyde is shown coping with the seminar rules forbidding going to the bathroom during the training. 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 Friedrich Bismark and gives him some advice on how he can avoid capital gains tax
in his business. Billy Clyde Puckett 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 Puckett reveal their feelings for each other.
, and the screenplay was written by Walter Bernstein
. Bernstein and director Michael Ritchie
embellished upon Jenkins' original work, and added parodies of self-help
groups, new religions
, and the Human potential movement
. Ritchie was partially influenced by Adam Smith's book, Powers of Mind. Though the screenplay was adapted from his original work, Dan Jenkins wrote that Semi-Tough "wasn't a horrible movie in my opinion". Jenkins later commented that the film adaptation of his book Baja Oklahoma was: "a lot more faithful to the novel than Semi-Tough ever was".
attended one of Werner Erhard
's est training
sessions in order to prepare for his role as B.E.A.T. seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. Pro football
stars were hired to give realism to the film, including John Matuszak
, Paul Hornung
, Joe Kapp
, and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. The football scenes were shot at the Miami Orange Bowl
.
. A form of Rolfing
is also parodied in the film by Lotte Lenya
, whose character Clara Pelf is seen as a spoof of "a Rolf like masseuse". Big Ed Bookman is seen crawling around on all fours practicing something called "creep therapy" or "movagenics". Movagenics is seen in the film as a way for an individual to find their "lost center of consciousness". Big Ed Bookman is also shown proselytizing for "Movagenics", a fictional group in the film which TIME Magazine referred to in its review as both a cult
and a new faith
.
The film includes a parody of the Werner Erhard
and Erhard Seminars Training
, with B.E.A.T. as a stand-in for est. In American Film Now, Friedrich Bismark is simply described as "the Werner Erhard character". The Grove Book of Hollywood describes Bert Convy as a "Werner Erhard-lookalike", in his portrayal of Friedrich Bismark. Barbara Jane Bookman's guilty feelings for not "getting it" after completing her B.E.A.T. seminar are seen as a reference to: "how creeds like est put nonbelievers on the defensive". The book also notes that: "The film captures the peculiar mixture of spirituality and pragmatism that surrounded est", and also describes the minister's capital gains tax advice to Friedrich Bismark at Shake's wedding as "sardonic". A 1977 review in TIME Magazine refers to Friedrich Bismark's B.E.A.T. as "an est-like movement", and notes: "the Ritchie-Bernstein version of an est seminar is done with marvelous malice". Psychiatry and the Cinema characterizes the film as a "devastating parody" of the est training.
After Semi-Toughs release in 1977, Bert Convy was contacted by a number of est followers, as well as by Werner Erhard. After Convy appeared on The Tonight Show
and discussed his experiences attending Erhard Seminars Training
in preparation for his role as Friedrich Bismark, he received a letter from Erhard stating: "it would be great for us to get together". Of the est seminar itself, Convy recalled that when another attendee complained of a headache during the course, the group leader told him to "experience it", and when another attendee wet his pants, he was told to "experience the warmth". In a scene from the film, a woman exclaims to Friedrich Bismark in the middle of a seminar: "I peed in my pants and it felt good." During actual filming on Semi-Tough, Convy received a late-night phone call from actress Valerie Harper
, known in Hollywood as a devoted student of Werner Erhard. She related to Convy that Erhard was "pleased" with the role, and she wished him success in the film. Convy suspected that her real reason for calling was to subtly pressure him to go easy on his parody of Erhard in the film. Harper is mentioned by name in the completed film.
playing Burt Reynolds' original role, with co-star David Hasselhoff
. The film has since been released in both VHS
and DVD
formats.
in the "Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium" category, for his adaptation of Dan Jenkins' novel.
The press caught on to the satire of Erhard in the film, and gave these sections of the film positive reviews. The Wall Street Journal
criticized the film, save for its satirical nature: "The movie isn't much - an erratic ramble - But it has some pleasant moments, and a delicious send-up of the self-improvement guru Werner Erhard." The Charlotte Observer
praised Bert Convy's portrayal of the self-help guru Frederick Bismark, and called Convy: ".. a hilariously smug consciousness-raiser with a more than passing resemblance to EST's Werner Erhard". Magill's Survey of Cinema described the film as a chiding of American
"religious fads and philosophies", and The Grove Book of Hollywood called it a "cheeky film" that poked fun at the "est" craze and other human potential fads. TIME Magazine called the film one of 1977's best comedies, and also noted that it was: "without a doubt the year's most socially useful film".
The film did not receive a positive review in Variety
, where the reviewer commented: "Semi-Tough begins as a bawdy and lively romantic comedy about slap happy pro football players, then slows down to a too-inside putdown of contemporary self-help programs." Variety noted that stars Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson and Jill Clayburgh were "excellent" within the "zigzag" script and poor direction they were given. Michael Costello of Allmovie also criticized the script, and wrote: "While much of this is quite predictable, a number of the jokes score, Burt Reynolds works his charm overtime, and Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson are effective as comic foils." In American Film Now, author James Monaco commented on director Michael Ritchie's directing style in Semi-Tough, stating that in the film Ritchie was "speaking in a professional voice". Monaco noted that Ritchie's prior films evoked a more personal tone, and had more of a sense of wonder than Semi-Tough.
Chapman's In Search of Stupidity characterized the film as: "Possibly one of the best movies ever made by Burt Reynolds", and described the film's parody of est as accurate and amusing. Leonard Maltin
criticized parts of the script, stating that Reynolds' charm filled in for the film's other deficiencies. Hunsberger criticized Ritchie's screenplay adaptation in his work The Quintessential Dictionary, complaining that the game of football should have supported the film as a plot device, but was instead left to the side in favor of other stories.
Michael Ritchie (film director)
Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director.Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie...
and starring Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
, Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
, Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh was an American actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles in An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over.-Personal life:...
, Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
, Bert Convy
Bert Convy
Bernard Whalen "Bert" Convy was an Emmy Award winning American actor, singer, game show host and panelist known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw.-Early life:...
, and Brian Dennehy
Brian Dennehy
Brian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...
. The plot involves a love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
between the characters portrayed by Reynolds, Kristofferson and Clayburgh. Semi-Tough also includes a parody of Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
's Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
(est), depicted in the film as an organization called "B.E.A.T." The film is based on the novel Semi-Tough, by Dan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins is an American author and sportswriter, most notably for Sports Illustrated.Jenkins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended R .L. Paschal High School and Texas Christian University , where he played on the varsity golf team...
, and was adapted for the screen by writer Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein is an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.-Early life:...
and director Michael Ritchie
Michael Ritchie (film director)
Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director.Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie...
. Ritchie and Bernstein added a new storyline which included a satire of the self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
movement and new religions
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
.
Semi-Tough follows the story of pro-football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
friends Billy Clyde Puckett, and Marvin 'Shake' Tiller, who also have a third roommate, Barbara Jane Bookman. The two men vie for her affection throughout the film, but Shake becomes self-confident
Self-confidence
The socio-psychological concept of self-confidence relates to self-assuredness in one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc., sometimes manifested excessively.Being confident in yourself is infectious if you present yourself well, others will want to follow in your foot steps towards...
after completing a self awareness course called "B.E.A.T." Bert Convy
Bert Convy
Bernard Whalen "Bert" Convy was an Emmy Award winning American actor, singer, game show host and panelist known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw.-Early life:...
plays the role of Friedrich Bismark, the leader of B.E.A.T. Barbara Jane enrolls in B.E.A.T. training in order to "get it" and be closer to Shake, but does not have a good experience in the training. Billy Clyde takes the training surreptitiously with Barbara Jane, and fakes "getting it" in order to impress her. He later intervenes when she is about to marry Shake, and they admit their feelings for each other.
The film received mixed reception. Reviewers praised its parodies of the est training, Werner Erhard, and other new age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movements such as Rolfing
Rolfing
Rolfing is a therapy system created by The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration and is a system whereby the alleged manipulation of the fasciae by specific methods is theorized to yield therapeutic benefit....
. Other reviews criticized the script and direction of the film, noting that some of director Ritchie's previous films had more of a personal tone. Still other reviews lamented the film's departure from the novel Semi-Tough, which dealt more with football and less with the new age movement.
Background
Werner ErhardWerner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
(born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
(est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training
Large Group Awareness Training
Large-group awareness training refers to activities usually offered by groups linked with the human potential movement which claim to increase self-awareness and bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives...
, and was part of the Human Potential Movement
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes, and were promised a dramatic change in their self-perception.
est was controversial: critics characterized the training methods as brainwashing, and suggested that the program had fascistic
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and narcissistic
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
tendencies. Proponents asserted that it had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives. By 1977 over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as...
repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings. In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education
Landmark Education
Landmark Education LLC is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide....
in 1991, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.
Plot
The film portrays friends Marvin 'Shake' Tiller and Billy Clyde Puckett as two footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
buddies who play for a team owned by Big Ed Bookman called the "Miami Bucks". Bookman's daughter Barbara Jane Bookman roommates with both men, and the film depicts a subtle love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
relationship between Barbara Jane and her two friends. She initially has romantic feelings for Kristofferson's character, who has become more self-confident after taking self-improvement training from seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. Friedrich Bismark's training program is called Bismark Earthwalk Action Training, or B.E.A.T. After Shake completes his B.E.A.T. 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 with Shake, 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 missed a football pass since completing B.E.A.T. Billy Clyde Puckett also has feelings for Barbara Jane Bookman, and enrolls in B.E.A.T. in order to understand what she is going through. While participating in the training, Billy Clyde is shown coping with the seminar rules forbidding going to the bathroom during the training. 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 Friedrich Bismark and gives him some advice on how he can avoid capital gains tax
Capital gains tax
A capital gains tax is a tax charged on capital gains, the profit realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a lower price. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property...
in his business. Billy Clyde Puckett 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 Puckett reveal their feelings for each other.
Adaptation
Semi-Tough is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Dan JenkinsDan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins is an American author and sportswriter, most notably for Sports Illustrated.Jenkins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended R .L. Paschal High School and Texas Christian University , where he played on the varsity golf team...
, and the screenplay was written by Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein is an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.-Early life:...
. Bernstein and director Michael Ritchie
Michael Ritchie (film director)
Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director.Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie...
embellished upon Jenkins' original work, and added parodies of self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
groups, new religions
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
, and the Human potential movement
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
. Ritchie was partially influenced by Adam Smith's book, Powers of Mind. Though the screenplay was adapted from his original work, Dan Jenkins wrote that Semi-Tough "wasn't a horrible movie in my opinion". Jenkins later commented that the film adaptation of his book Baja Oklahoma was: "a lot more faithful to the novel than Semi-Tough ever was".
Preparation
Burt Reynolds began training with Kris Kristofferson to get in shape before film production. Before work began on the film, actor Bert ConvyBert Convy
Bernard Whalen "Bert" Convy was an Emmy Award winning American actor, singer, game show host and panelist known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw.-Early life:...
attended one of Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
's est training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
sessions in order to prepare for his role as B.E.A.T. seminar leader Friedrich Bismark. Pro football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
stars were hired to give realism to the film, including John Matuszak
John Matuszak
John Daniel "Tooz" Matuszak was an American football defensive lineman in the National Football League who later became an actor. He was the first draft pick of 1973 and played most of his career with the Oakland Raiders until he retired after winning his second Super Bowl in 1981...
, Paul Hornung
Paul Hornung
Paul Vernon Hornung is a retired Hall of Fame professional football player who played for the Green Bay Packers from 1957-66...
, Joe Kapp
Joe Kapp
Joseph Robert Kapp is a former professional American and Canadian football quarterback. He is also a former college football head coach of the University of California, and a former general manager of the CFL's BC Lions. Kapp played primarily with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the CFL's BC Lions...
, and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. The football scenes were shot at the Miami Orange Bowl
Miami Orange Bowl
The Orange Bowl, formerly Burdine Stadium, was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida, west of downtown in Little Havana. Considered a landmark, it was the home stadium for the Miami Hurricanes college football team...
.
Parodies of self-improvement, new religions
Bernstein and Ritchie's modified screenplay based on Jenkins' book includes a storyline with "satiric jabs" at new religions, self-improvement and the Human potential movementHuman Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
. A form of Rolfing
Rolfing
Rolfing is a therapy system created by The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration and is a system whereby the alleged manipulation of the fasciae by specific methods is theorized to yield therapeutic benefit....
is also parodied in the film by Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
, whose character Clara Pelf is seen as a spoof of "a Rolf like masseuse". Big Ed Bookman is seen crawling around on all fours practicing something called "creep therapy" or "movagenics". Movagenics is seen in the film as a way for an individual to find their "lost center of consciousness". Big Ed Bookman is also shown proselytizing for "Movagenics", a fictional group in the film which TIME Magazine referred to in its review as both a cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
and a new faith
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
.
The film includes a parody of the Werner Erhard
Werner Erhard
Werner Hans Erhard is an author of transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations...
and Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
, with B.E.A.T. as a stand-in for est. In American Film Now, Friedrich Bismark is simply described as "the Werner Erhard character". The Grove Book of Hollywood describes Bert Convy as a "Werner Erhard-lookalike", in his portrayal of Friedrich Bismark. Barbara Jane Bookman's guilty feelings for not "getting it" after completing her B.E.A.T. seminar are seen as a reference to: "how creeds like est put nonbelievers on the defensive". The book also notes that: "The film captures the peculiar mixture of spirituality and pragmatism that surrounded est", and also describes the minister's capital gains tax advice to Friedrich Bismark at Shake's wedding as "sardonic". A 1977 review in TIME Magazine refers to Friedrich Bismark's B.E.A.T. as "an est-like movement", and notes: "the Ritchie-Bernstein version of an est seminar is done with marvelous malice". Psychiatry and the Cinema characterizes the film as a "devastating parody" of the est training.
After Semi-Toughs release in 1977, Bert Convy was contacted by a number of est followers, as well as by Werner Erhard. After Convy appeared on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
and discussed his experiences attending Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
in preparation for his role as Friedrich Bismark, he received a letter from Erhard stating: "it would be great for us to get together". Of the est seminar itself, Convy recalled that when another attendee complained of a headache during the course, the group leader told him to "experience it", and when another attendee wet his pants, he was told to "experience the warmth". In a scene from the film, a woman exclaims to Friedrich Bismark in the middle of a seminar: "I peed in my pants and it felt good." During actual filming on Semi-Tough, Convy received a late-night phone call from actress Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper
Valerie Harper is an American actress, known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television show The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for her starring roles on the sitcoms Rhoda and Valerie.-Early life and career:Harper was born at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, Rockland County,...
, known in Hollywood as a devoted student of Werner Erhard. She related to Convy that Erhard was "pleased" with the role, and she wished him success in the film. Convy suspected that her real reason for calling was to subtly pressure him to go easy on his parody of Erhard in the film. Harper is mentioned by name in the completed film.
Box office and releases
The film grossed USD$22.94 million at the box office. Semi-Tough was later developed as a pilot episode for a potential television series on a similar theme, and was a candidate to be picked up in the fall of 1980. The 1980 Semi-Tough pilot episode starred Bruce McGillBruce McGill
Bruce Travis McGill is an American actor who has an extensive list of credits in film and television. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jack Dalton on the television series MacGyver and as Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day in National Lampoon's Animal House.-Early life:McGill was born in San...
playing Burt Reynolds' original role, with co-star David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...
. The film has since been released in both VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
formats.
Awards
In 1978, Walter Bernstein received a nomination for a WGA Award from the Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
in the "Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium" category, for his adaptation of Dan Jenkins' novel.
Critical reception
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
criticized the film, save for its satirical nature: "The movie isn't much - an erratic ramble - But it has some pleasant moments, and a delicious send-up of the self-improvement guru Werner Erhard." The Charlotte Observer
The Charlotte Observer
The Charlotte Observer, serving Charlotte, North Carolina and its metro area, is the largest newspaper, in terms of circulation, in North Carolina and South Carolina...
praised Bert Convy's portrayal of the self-help guru Frederick Bismark, and called Convy: ".. a hilariously smug consciousness-raiser with a more than passing resemblance to EST's Werner Erhard". Magill's Survey of Cinema described the film as a chiding of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"religious fads and philosophies", and The Grove Book of Hollywood called it a "cheeky film" that poked fun at the "est" craze and other human potential fads. TIME Magazine called the film one of 1977's best comedies, and also noted that it was: "without a doubt the year's most socially useful film".
The film did not receive a positive review in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, where the reviewer commented: "Semi-Tough begins as a bawdy and lively romantic comedy about slap happy pro football players, then slows down to a too-inside putdown of contemporary self-help programs." Variety noted that stars Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson and Jill Clayburgh were "excellent" within the "zigzag" script and poor direction they were given. Michael Costello of Allmovie also criticized the script, and wrote: "While much of this is quite predictable, a number of the jokes score, Burt Reynolds works his charm overtime, and Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson are effective as comic foils." In American Film Now, author James Monaco commented on director Michael Ritchie's directing style in Semi-Tough, stating that in the film Ritchie was "speaking in a professional voice". Monaco noted that Ritchie's prior films evoked a more personal tone, and had more of a sense of wonder than Semi-Tough.
Chapman's In Search of Stupidity characterized the film as: "Possibly one of the best movies ever made by Burt Reynolds", and described the film's parody of est as accurate and amusing. Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
criticized parts of the script, stating that Reynolds' charm filled in for the film's other deficiencies. Hunsberger criticized Ritchie's screenplay adaptation in his work The Quintessential Dictionary, complaining that the game of football should have supported the film as a plot device, but was instead left to the side in favor of other stories.
Cast
- Burt ReynoldsBurt ReynoldsBurton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
as Billy Clyde Puckett - Kris KristoffersonKris KristoffersonKristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
as Marvin 'Shake' Tiller - Jill ClayburghJill ClayburghJill Clayburgh was an American actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles in An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over.-Personal life:...
as Barbara Jane Bookman - Robert PrestonRobert Preston (actor)-Early life:Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community...
as Big Ed Bookman - Bert ConvyBert ConvyBernard Whalen "Bert" Convy was an Emmy Award winning American actor, singer, game show host and panelist known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw.-Early life:...
as Friedrich Bismark - Roger E. MosleyRoger E. MosleyRoger Earl Mosley is an American actor best known for his role as the helicopter pilot Theodore "T.C." Calvin on the long running television series, Magnum, P.I., which starred Tom Selleck as the title character.-Early life:...
as Puddin Patterson Sr. - Lotte LenyaLotte LenyaLotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
as Clara Pelf - Richard MasurRichard MasurRichard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies during his career. From 1995-1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild . Masur sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund.-Biography:Masur was born in New York City to a...
as Phillip Hooper - Carl WeathersCarl WeathersCarl Weathers is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films...
as Dreamer Tatum - Brian DennehyBrian DennehyBrian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...
as T.J. Lambert