Buford T. Justice

Sheriff Buford T. Justice is a fictional character played by Jackie Gleason in the films Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983). He is a determined, foul-mouthed Texas sheriff, from Montague County, and he chases "the Bandit" all over the Southern United States. Film reviewer Christian Toto writes that Sheriff Justice is "a volcano trapped in the body of a husky law enforcer, a man whose sense of outrage threatens to boil over in every scene."

Buford T. Justice is an archetypal (approaching cliche) southern sheriff: confrontational, profane, short-tempered, stubborn and determined. While he can be charming and professional, his pursuit of the Bandit is a deeply personal affair (compounded by the fact the Bandit absconded with his son Junior's fiancee, embarrassing the Justice family as a whole). Justice tends to take his hunt for the Bandit to the extremes and quite often this leads to the wrecking of his Squad Cars. He nonetheless remains behind the wheel of the wrecked cars and refers to them as "evidence." He shuns help from other law enforcement departments, often alienating them, so that he can personally apprehend the Bandit. Sheriff Justice is chivalrous towards women and the elderly, yet he has no problem casually roughing up suspects (especially "young punks") to make a point. Indeed, he kicks a would-be tire thief in the backside as "an attention-getter," and he knees another in the groin. When Justice does have someone in custody, he smugly draws the affair out, obviously relishing the fact he is making things as unpleasant as possible for the suspect. Justice takes any skirting of the law very personally, and says emphatically, "What we’re dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the Law!"

In the first "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Smokey and the Bandit Part II", Sheriff Justice is the primary antagonist to the Bandit (played by Burt Reynolds), while in "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3" he is the primary protagonist, as Big and Little Enos Burdette challenge him to make a run for them from Miami, Florida to their ranch on the outskirts of Austin, Texas in 24 hours, while carrying a stuffed shark (which is the logo of their "Fish & Chips" fast food franchise), for the prize of $250,000. Justice seems to have no love for Big and Little Enos, and doesn't hide it, as their hiring of the Bandit to do their runs in the past had led Buford into many humiliating predicaments while hunting the Bandit, and berates them (especially on Little Enos, attacking him for his small stature).

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