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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

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Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The Bad News Bears (1976) This is a classic sports comedy about an aging, down-on-his-luck ex- minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league. It stars Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. This is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. Considered crass and crude in its day, it's now received cult status. The film garnered two sequels, a television series, and a 2005 remake. It also received multiple award nominations. The remake wasn't necessary, as I believe the original still holds up, despite the critics' problem with the drinking, smoking, and profanity. This a great representation of comedy from the era.

While "Rocky" was about an athlete overcoming obstacles to pursue a dream, "The Natural" centered on an older man's comeback in professional sports, and "Jerry McGuire" told a story of transcendence between a sports agent and his fiery unpredictable client, "The Bad News Bears" focused much more on organic down-to-earth issues. Aside from films derived from real-life true stories, such as "42", "Hoosiers", and "Rudy", "The Bad News Bears" may be the most poignant fictional sports film ever produced. "The Bears" deals with prejudice, inequality, injustice, racism, and obsession, on one hand, while simultaneously searching and finding acceptance, bridge-building, and determination. Yet, the characters and setting are so real, the dialog so true-to-life, you don't realize you're being offered these larger ideas. They just emerge from the plight of the characters. Who knows whether or not the filmmakers were setting out to make a social statement, but they did which is the mark of a truly great story.The essential plot is pretty basic. A group of junior high school age baseball players are thrown together to play on a team called "The Bears". They only have one thing in common: they are, for the most part, terrible. They can't pitch, they can't bat, and they can't field. Walter Matthau, in one of his best performances since "The Odd Couple", plays Morris Buttermaker, a swimming pool cleaner who is asked by a City Councilman to coach this team of athletically challenged misfits. The Councilman had filed a lawsuit against the city because the Little League was excluding players with less ability, and the Bears team was the city's "restitution", allowing less-skilled kids a chance to play the game.What makes the film as good as it is has to do with the characters of the players as much as Matthau as Buttermaker. These kids were literally ripped right out of reality, and seem so similar to the kids I played with when I was of junior high age that it's almost scary. I can't name them all, but I offer a few of the ones which stick in my mind. In no particular oder: Toby, son of the councilman, who's probably the most vocal of the kids, Ogilvie, the most intellectual of the boys but not the best player, Amanda, their best pitcher and the only female in the league, Kelly, the trouble-maker who smokes and rides a Harley but is an amazing outfielder and hitter, Tanner, my favorite character, the shortest but craziest of the team who would give Napoleon Bonaparte a run for his money when he takes on the entire 7th grade. He defends Lupus against some bullies at one point in the film. Lupus is perhaps the worst player on the team and shows little knowledge of social decorum. At first Tanner and the others are put-off by Lupus, but at one point the team appreciates him.At first, there seems little hope for this group of unskilled oddballs when they're slaughtered during their first game. However, as the film progresses we learn more about the characters and how they start to pull for one another. Several of the Bears are either dismissed or harassed at various moments in the story, and the teammates begin to learn to stick up for one another, both on and off the field. As a result they slowly begin to play better. Even Buttermaker changes during the story. At first he's not the best coach, but he starts to see things in his players the other teams around the league don't see. We also witness the obsession and over-zealousness of the parents, whose attitude becomes more about the kids winning than simply experiencing the game. In the climactic final game, Buttermaker makes a realization which is as profound as any in sports films of this type.This is just an incredible story which says much more about modern culture, particularly about young people, then it may have set out to do. The dialog seems like it was derived right out of a junior high school baseball diamond. While most child characters speak dialog which is unrelated to their age and experience, the script of the Bad News Bears must have come from the mouths of babes, literally. I imagine the screenwriters must have spent time at actual Little League games and written down the dialog. The ending is one of the best in all of sports films, and it is not only completely believable but it fits with the rhetoric of the entire film. An absolute breath of fresh air, especially if you're tired of those fictional sports films where you can guess the outcome.

I remember watching the Bad News Bears as a teenager close to when it first came out, and thinking that yeah, this was a fun movie that kind of reminded me of real life. The movie was famous at the time, and I never remembered it being anything more than a fun entertainment. When I watched it again a few days ago (perhaps the first time in 30 years), I was really startled. This movie was not just funny but impressive, capturing something of the truth about the way adults and kids really interact with each other in our society. The kids are gritty--they swear, they fight, they are insolent and belligerent, they are cruel (sound familiar?). The adults are hyper-competitive, drunken, prone to selfish projection, lazy and insensitive (sound familiar again?). The movie becomes much more than a feel-good underdog story (although it would inspire many such imitations) but rather becomes a desperate struggle for dignity among all the participants in a situation that is full of snares. This is a really good movie, not particularly for kids to view.

If any of the kids in "The Bad News Bears" were your child, or if you had any acquaintance with a youth sports coach even remotely like Morris Buttermaker, you'd be outraged and embarrassed. At the same time, the film delivers a message that all involved with youth sports probably couldn't hear enough of. In other words, do as "Bad News Bears" implies, not as it says or does and take the foul language and poor behavior at comedic face value only.Walter Matthau stars as Buttermaker, an drunken former minor leaguer who coaches a little league team because his job as a pool cleaner isn't exactly lucrative. His job is to coach the Bears, a group of untalented misfits, most of whom have attitude problems. Basically from Buttermaker and the other adults involved in the league all the way down to the rebel kid, Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), who tears up the field with his motorcycle, not a character has respect for another. Kids talk back to adults, adults yell at kids -- it's an ugly scene. How "Bears" redeems itself is something of a feat.You can't deny "Bears" its heart. Every lesson there is to be learned from youth sports finds its way into this film. At the very beginning the Bears give up 20 runs in the first and forfeit. Quitting and adopting a counter attitude is present from then on. Then there's the balance between winning and playing the game, something many parents and coaches still lose sight of even today. Despite filling its cast with rotten blonde kids and insensitive adults, "Bears" sneaks this in naturally. The film nearly gets dramatic at times considering the extent to which the disrespect does become a serious part of the story.So on one hand, you have a little blonde kid saying "Great, we have a team full of (insert racial slurs here) and now a girl!" and then you have examples of good sportsmanship winning out. It's tough to call "Bears" a family film or a kids film for that reason, but then again, some kids would really benefit from the values. Most of all parents of kids in youth sports need to see this movie as it really speaks at them.As a comedy, a good chunk of that nastiness earns a good deal of laughs, especially when it involves the innocence of kids rather than the awfulness of the adults. If blurring the line between acceptable behavior in films and comedy is fine by you, "Bears" is as good a sports comedy as any. ~Steven CVisit my site at http://moviemusereviews.blogspot.com