![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI’ve written elsewhere about the film Smokey & The Bandit, and the observation that, while it’s basically an excuse for car stunts, it’s also something of a snapshot of modern Southern culture circa the mid-late 70s (albeit one that Photoshops out all the guns, churches and pro wrestling).
But this BoingBoing article by Maggie Koerth-Baker reminded me that it’s also something else: a commentary on the state of the American beer industry.
Young people watching the film today might not get why Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed would have to drive all the way to Texas for a beer run. The clue is in the specific beer they were getting: Coors.
I remember people in Nashville making a big deal about this, because at the time, Coors was in fact unavailable east of the Mississippi due to federal liquor laws and state tax regulations. One reason this was a big deal was that Coors had a rep for being a damn good beer because it didn’t use preservatives or stabilizers.
The BoingBoing article digs deeper, looking at the state of the US brewing industry at the time, and how home brewing eventually caught on as a response to the mass-produced swill that passed for beer at the time – the exception being Coors.
Which then, says Koerth-Baker, begs the question:
See? And you thought SATB was just a dumb, funny car-chase movie.
Okay. It was, really. But it IS true that when I moved to Colorado circa 1987, I drank a lot of Coors primarily because of that film.
East bound and down,
This is dF
But this BoingBoing article by Maggie Koerth-Baker reminded me that it’s also something else: a commentary on the state of the American beer industry.
Young people watching the film today might not get why Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed would have to drive all the way to Texas for a beer run. The clue is in the specific beer they were getting: Coors.
I remember people in Nashville making a big deal about this, because at the time, Coors was in fact unavailable east of the Mississippi due to federal liquor laws and state tax regulations. One reason this was a big deal was that Coors had a rep for being a damn good beer because it didn’t use preservatives or stabilizers.
The BoingBoing article digs deeper, looking at the state of the US brewing industry at the time, and how home brewing eventually caught on as a response to the mass-produced swill that passed for beer at the time – the exception being Coors.
Which then, says Koerth-Baker, begs the question:
How many of those Makers were inspired to brew something amazing when they discovered that "not terrible" was a possibility? After all, Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most popular movies of 1977. After that, it was no secret that beer could be at least slightly better. Within three years, brewery consolidation had ground to a halt and begun to reverse. Today, there are more than 1400 breweries in the United States.
See? And you thought SATB was just a dumb, funny car-chase movie.
Okay. It was, really. But it IS true that when I moved to Colorado circa 1987, I drank a lot of Coors primarily because of that film.
East bound and down,
This is dF
