The Bad News Bears (1976)

Nice effects though.

Good movie but grossly overrated

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Bad News Bears stars Walter Matthau and a young Tatum O'Neal in a film about an aging former baseball player and the team of misfits he is financially coerced into coach little league baseball. Michael Ritchie directs a sports movie that takes a different approach than the all too common paint by numbers avenue sports movies usually travel. Bad News Bears, a 1976 feature, is a fun deviation from the usual sports movie, not even requiring the audience to be sports fans in order to enjoy the film. Considering the cast is largely made up of a collection of minors, Bad News Bears shines as a fun movie able to be enjoyed by all. Former baseball player and current pool cleaner, Walter Matthau (Morris Buttermaker) who spends his time greeting the bottom of every beer can and cigarette butt he can, is roped into coaching a little league team made up of the misfits no other team would take. Roy Turner (Vic Morrow) even agrees to pay Buttermaker for his troubles of coaching the team, a responsibility he takes flippantly when he sees how poorly the team performs. Drinking beer and smoking in the dugout while he lets the kids run the show, Buttermaker is clearly only in the coaching gig for the money. As the story develops, and he secretly begins to care for the children on his team, he begins to take a more active coaching role, still with the beer in hand and wants to make sure the team does well. Buttermaker has a secret weapon up his sleeve when he recruits his ex- girlfriend's daughter, Amanda Whurlitzer (Tatum O'Neal) a feisty sporty 12-year old. The team also gets a huge bump when the local punk, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) turns out to have an incredible natural talent for baseball. With more weapons in the dugout, and a confidence in themselves and each other growing with every game, the Bears begin to win games and have fun doing it. Somehow the misfit team makes it all the way to the championship game, proving that all you need is direction and a chance to prove yourself. The Bad News Bears is a brilliant ensemble piece. Typically in such a film, actors will deal with each other for screen time presence. In this film, made up mostly of children, that problem doesn't present itself, and it is to the audience's benefit. The character development in this film is unlike any I've seen in awhile. Not just the character of Morris Buttermaker is expanded, but each of the children's characters as well, to one extent or another, another aspect that is often lacking in ensemble films. I enjoyed learning through this film that Walter Matthau is much more than a grumpy man, as sadly, those are the only film roles I've seen of his. His acting is subtle, yet commanding, a trait that is missing from many modern day actors and was fun to see again. Of the many good features of this film, the best was that it was an unpredictable sports film. After watching a month's worth of sports films and learning that one is almost always the same as the next, The Bad News Bears was a fun departure from such boring predictable sports movies. What's also unique about this film is that it is packed with a message, yet avoids coming off preachy and overly moralistic. A fun movie all around, The Bad News Bears is a sports movie fit for athletic audiences and couch potatoes alike.The best takeaway from this film, for me, is seeing Walter Matthau in a role I have never seen him in before. He always came off a little muted and one-dimensional before; I am happy that misconception was dispelled with The Bad News Bears. It is rare to see such standout acting performances from such a young cast, but The Bad News Bears is a prime example of such a film. If you are going to seek out this great film, I would recommend going with the original (actually, in almost every scenario) and taking in some great Walter Matthau, along with some other big names in early roles and taking in 1976's The Bad News Bears.

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.

Most of the best-loved movies centered on sports are about the sport as an icon. They are tributes to the sport; love stories about something we idealize. "The Bad News Bears" is one of a handful of movies that evoke what it was like to play a sport. It may be the best of such movies, although I would place it in a tie with the brilliant "Personal Best."For any one who played an organized sport when they were young, "...Bears" should ring true. We didn't just know these kids, we were these kids. Trying to balance a developing sense of pride with the gratification that comes from being an appreciated part of a group. Trying to learn how to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. And trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with the adults who were supposed to be guiding us.For most of us, we figured it out. We may not have realized it, but we did. For some, "The Bad News Bears" may have been an important part of that. Anyone who hasn't had a moment like Tanner's when he realizes that he may not like Timmy, but Timmy is "TEAM!" probably never played a team sport. And I especially liked the way the film took advantage of the (at the time, new) inclusion of girls on Little League teams. I had aged out of Little League by then but "The Bad News Bears" reminded me that I had often wondered when I was playing LL if there weren't girls who could stay on the field with us boys. (As an aside does anybody remember the "Silver Bullets?" I firmly believe there are women capable of playing MLB caliber baseball, especially at 2B or SS.)As "film," "The Bad News Bears" is a great piece of work. Watched today, almost 40 years after its release, it seems classic, undated. The script has moments of brilliance (the aforementioned scene where Tanner discovers he's a team player and Tatum O'Neal's line about "up there" are favorites), the cinematography preserves the reality of suburban Little League settings, the direction is crisp but unobtrusive and the story is so well-crafted that it stings like an 11 year-old's fastball to the ribs. And the acting, especially among the players seems less like performance than candid documentary. These kids look, talk and act like pre-adolescents. They are old enough to be hearing "act your age" from the adults around them but present without affectation the confusion that is inherent from hearing themselves answer "But...I'm 11!" This more than anything else is what makes "...Bears" such a realistic film about playing a sport. These youngsters are being taught to compete, taught to win, but what they are doing is trying to have fun. It is confusing.

Rewarding for both adults and children, this funny and astute movie revels in poking the ribs of Little League Baseball whilst casting a cautionary eye of the obsession some have with winning. An on form Walter Matthau stars as Morris Buttermaker, a now washed up ex minor league player who, prompted by a financial carrot, becomes manager of a multi-racial team of Little League misfits. It's originally a rough road as Buttermaker is more concerned with drinking beer, while the kids themselves don't know which end of the bat to hold. But things start to pick up when Morris enlists his talented daughter Manda (Tatum O'Neal) to pitch for them. Not only that but the town rebel, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earl Hayley), with points to prove, has also been prompted to join.Directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster (yes, Burt's son), The Bad News Bears never sinks to being a preachy fable. It also delightfully doesn't resort to type for its finale. Making this a very clever and aware film from a genre of film so often troubled by safe playing and a too frothy approach. It would spawn two so so sequels in the next two years, inspire an imitation, get a TV series make over and was remade in 2005 with Billy Bob Thornton taking on the role of Buttermaker. 7.5/10