Let’s Make Some Noise, vintage movie style: celebrating the films of yesterday and the day before
By: Kevin Vickery
Welcome once again to the latest feature of my column where I will dive into feature films from 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago. In case you’ve missed previous editions, I’ll remind you that each month I’ll choose a common theme and then highlight and discuss movies of those specific years.
This concept occurred to me when I recently had to swallow my pride realizing that 1996 was 30 years ago and that of course means that my beloved 1980s (particularly 1986) were 40 years in the past. I won’t mention how long ago that makes 1976 but you get the idea.
Thinking back upon all of the great music, fashion trends, cars, and especially movies from those good old days and how things have changed within pop-culture over my lifetime, I decided to add this segment as a reoccurring feature for this year. So, we’ll see how it goes and if my boss (that’s you, the readers) enjoy it, then I’ll keep it going.
So, let’s get this party started by rolling back the calander50 years to feature this classic from 1976.
“The Bad News Bears”: 1976 Rated PG
This 50 year old, classic American sports-comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster stars Walter Matthau as alcoholic, ex-baseball pitcher Morris Buttermaker who becomes a coach for a youth baseball team known as the Bears. The film’s cast also includes Tatum O’Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten, Ben Piazza, Jackie Earle Haley, and Alfred W. Lutter in supporting roles.
The plot centers around Morris Buttermaker, (Matthau) an alcoholic pool cleaner and former minor-league baseball pitcher, who accepts a secretive cash payment from a lawyer to coach the Bears, his son’s youth baseball league expansion team. The team consists of mostly unskilled players, formed as a settlement to a lawsuit brought against the league for excluding these players from other teams. Shunned by the more competitive teams, their parents and coaches, the Bears are considered outsiders and the least talented team in the Southern California league.
At first Buttermaker makes little effort to help the boys improve and forfeits the opening game after the Bears allow 26 runs without recording an out. This prompts Coach Buttermaker to begin taking his job more seriously so in addition to teaching basics to the team, he also recruits sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlitzer, (Tatum O’Neal) the 11-year-old daughter of Buttermaker’s former girlfriend and skilled pitcher who Buttermaker trained when she was younger, and the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, motorcycle riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) who is also the best athlete in the area but has been excluded from playing in the past due to his juvenile delinquency.
With Amanda and Kelly on board, the team gains confidence and they begin to win. Eventually, the Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees and as the game progresses, tensions rise between the teams and their coaches, as both engage in ruthless behavior toward each other.
Eventually after an altercation between the opposing coach and his star pitcher son (Brandon Cruz), as well as a dust up between teams occurring when the Bears scuffle with the Yankees in defense of Amanda after she is pushed, Buttermaker realizes that too much emphasis is being placed on winning, and puts in his bench-warmers to allow everyone to play. The Bears lose in the end, but despite Buttermaker’s move, they nearly win the game.
After the trophy award ceremony, Buttermaker gives the team beer, which they spray on each other in a celebration as if they had won, telling the Yankees “Where they can put their championship trophy”.
Overall “The Bad News Bears” received generally positive reviews with Kevin Thomas of the “Los Angeles Times”declaring it, “Bright, pugnacious and utterly realistic as most children seem to be today, these kids are drawn with much accuracy and are played beautifully.”
It was followed by two sequels, “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training” in 1977 and “The Bad News Bears Go to Japan” in 1978, along with a short-lived 1979–80 CBS television series, and a 2005 remake starring Billy Bob Thornton in Matthau’s original role.
The remake received less favorable reviews and scored poorly at the box office with Don R. Lewis of “Film Threat” saying that “It has “a few laughs but that it just trudges on, going through the motions of the original with no spark” adding that it “suffers from the unbearable, crushing weight of political correctness”.
I agree with the sentiment of both of these reviews and would add that as a Billy Bob Thornton fan, the remake is still worth watching as he approaches the role as sort of a combination of his ugly drunk in “Bad Santa”and his football coach in “Friday Night Lights” but if you really want the cringe-worthy moments that would never fly today, then give the original 1976 version a re-watch.
You can stream, “The Bad News Bears” for free on plutotvor there are rental and purchase options available on Amazon Prime Video.
“1986 Mets: A Year to Remember”: Rated G
This hour-long, 40-year-old documentary released on VHS tells the true story of the New York Mets record breaking season from 1986. The story of that team and that particular season is one of baseball legend prompting other longer and more detailed documentaries that recount that season like “Once Upon a Time in Queens” a four part ESPN “30 for 30” documentary series from 2021 which offers a deeper dive into the team’s success.
While I am a MLB fan (Cincinnati Reds, tried-and-true), I am not nearly as familiar with the Mets team, their successes or their failures as my good friend, and author Dave Bagdade who literally wrote a book about them, so I got his thoughts on the topic.
I started by asking how as a Chicago native, he got interested in the Mets and he explained, “Before I became a Mets fan, I developed an interest in a specific Mets team. – That was the 1962 Mets, widely regarded as the worst baseball team of the 20th century. – It was the Mets’ first season, and the team was set up in a way that they couldn’t possibly be competitive, comprised of has-beens and never-weres.”
He continued, “I discovered the team when I was a boy, and I became fascinated with a team that lost three-fourths of its games but did so in unprecedented ways. – As an adult, I wanted to learn more about the team and discovered there wasn’t a comprehensive book devoted to just the Original Mets, so I wrote one: “A Year in Mudville: The Full Story of Casey Stengel and the Original Mets.”
When asked how his fandom continued past that and specifically his thoughts on “1986 Mets: A Year to Remember” he added, “And then a funny thing happened. – I became a fan of the Mets beyond that first year. “1986 Mets: A Year to Remember” is a decent retelling of one of the best baseball teams I’ve ever seen, a team that seemed pre-ordained to win it all that year.”
On the team’s roster he said, “There were some truly great players on that team, including Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez and Dwight Gooden, but there were a lot of role players who stepped up and contributed when it mattered, over and over again.” Adding, “The team also generated a lot of controversy, as they truly lived the Eighties lifestyle, but they won 108 games that year, the most in Mets history, and they played two classic series in the playoffs and World Series that are still remembered as some of the most dramatic in baseball history.”
In closing, Dave said, “It’s been entertaining to be a fan of the Mets as they endured one of the worst baseball seasons ever, as well as one of the best.”
Search for “1986 Mets A Year to Remember” on YouTube to find full, high-quality uploads of the original documentary, or dust off an old VHS copy.
The Fan: 1996: Rated R
30 years ago, Director Tony Scott offered this sports-psychological thriller starring Robert De Niro as Gil Renard, a New York Giants obsessed fan and Wesley Snipes, the team’s newly signed $40 million superstar. “The Fan” is based on the 1995 fictional novel by Peter Abrahams of the same name which is a story revolving around baseball and exploring the dark side of overt dedication displayed by some of its overzealous fanatics.
Gil Renard’s life is in a downward spiral due to recently losing his job as a knife salesman and his wife placing a restraining order against him for neglecting their young son. The spiral continues through his obsession with the poor performance of his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn. Gil equates Rayburn’s struggles to a dispute with another Giant’s player, Juan Primo (Benecio Del Toro) over who will wear jersey number 11. Gil takes matters into to his own hands, killing Primo and securing the number for Rayburn.
Eventually Gil kidnaps Rayburn’s son Sean and as a demand for his return orders Rayburn to hit a home run and dedicate it to Gil. Sean is eventually found and returned safely after Gil is shot while wielding a knife on the field at Candlestick Park while posing as an umpire and interfering with the game.
“The Fan” received generally negative reviews from critics and was considered a box-office failure. Over time, the direction, and the actors’ performances have since been praised. I’m not exactly sure where they went wrong in direction as you’d think any movie with such super-star power as Di Nero and Snipes in leading rolls along with names like Benecio del Toro, John Leguizamo and Ellen Barkin would be an automatic hit.
“Rotten Tomatoes” website’s critics’ consensus states: “Tony Scott’s visceral flash proves to be an ill fit for The Fan, a queasy tale of obsession that succeeds at making audiences uncomfortable but strikes out when it comes to delivering the thrills.”
Maybe it’s that “uncomfortability” that people find off putting. I can say that Robert Di Nero does an excellent job of portraying that role as his character progresses his harassment techniques and devolves into his own insanity while Wesley Snipes captures the anger, helplessness and frustration felt by a person whose life is being sabotaged, and manipulated by a deranged and mentally ill deviant whose actions are fueled by jealousy, rage and his own inadequacies.
All in all, if you like psycho-thrillers, give “The Fan” a chance but if you’re looking for a feel-good movie about baseball fans, maybe look elsewhere.
You can find, rental and purchase options for “The Fan” on Amazon Prime Video.
The First Boys of Spring: 2016
The First Boys of Spring is a 10-year-old documentary film covering the history of Baseball spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The film features many Hot Springs historical items and references. It’s produced by Arkansas filmmaker Larry Foley, and is narrated by Hot Springs area native, actor Billy Bob Thornton. The Foley documentary began airing nationally on the MLB Network, in February 2016.
At the beginning of organized baseball soon after the Civil War, Hot Springs became a place for players to come during the spring and get themselves into playing condition before the long summer season. Bathing in the hot spring mineral water has been popularly believed for centuries to possess healing properties and was a subject of legend. It was believed that these baths cured various ailments including releasing the “alcoholic microbes” that were stored in the players systems. These hot springs along with the other activities available in the town are what drew the first players to train there 140 years ago in 1886.
All of the early teams eventually started training there at “The Birthplace of Spring Training” featuring Whittington and Magestic Parks including the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Brooklyn Robins, the St Louis Browns, my beloved Cincinnati Reds, and the Chicago White-Stockings. Players like Babe Ruth and Cy Young were regular feature in Hot Springs and The Negro League teams of the time also trained there including the Kansas City Monarchs, the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawford’s.
The Majestic Hotel was the center of activity for the players and much of the focus of this documentary is spent discussing not only the players health and fitness routines but also their nights of drinking, gambling and debauchery there.
With the growing amounts of teams and players in the league, and in favor of more modern, specialized facilities, more consistent, Spring weather and the desire for shorter travel distances, Spring Training relocated with the last team holding Spring training in Hot Springs in 1955. In the modern era training has since been held in Florida (Grapefruit League) and Arizona (Cactus League) while Hot Springs Arkansas still remains as a tourist attraction to this day.
That concludes this month’s salute to the films of yesterday and the day before. With Spring training well underway preparing the boys of Summer for America’s favorite pastime, baseball seemed like the obvious choice for this month’s theme. I hope you all get to make it out to the ballpark and cheer on your favorite team this year!
You can stream, “The First Boys of Spring” on tubi or Amazon Prime Video.
To purchase Dave Bagdade’s book, “A Year in Mudville: Revised Edition: The Full Story of Casey Stengel and the Original Mets”, it is available through Amazon and his website, ayearinmudville.com
You can learn more about the documentary, “The First Boys of Spring” by visiting the website thefirstboysofspring.weebly.com
Make Some Noise 