Video/DVD Review: The Bad News Bears
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this more has some profanity and
some very bad behavior (kids smoke, gamble, and ride
motorcycles). During the end celebration, the coach gives beer
to the 11-year-olds. One character is an alcoholic. The parents
push their kids to win at all costs, and the kids are often
bratty and mean.
Families can talk about sportsmanship and about the pressure
that kids who play sports often feel. They might also want to
discuss the questionable behavior that goes on here (the
smoking, drinking, name-calling, etc.)
In BAD NEWS BEARS, ex-minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) spikes his beer with liquor before taking a check to manage a little league baseball team. An assortment of misfits, the Bears share one thing: they're all terrible players. At first, Buttermaker cares little for them. But after the boys get humiliated, he recruits secret weapon number one. More interested in ballet than baseball, Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), throws a knee-buckling curve. With Amanda pitching, and the others improving, the Bears gain respectability. When eleven-year-old, Harley-riding Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley) joins, the Bears become contenders. In the finals they play the Yankees, whose manager (Vic Morrow) mercilessly drives his players. Caught up in the competition, Buttermaker mistreats his team, until he realizes that they're only children playing a game. In the end, though the Bears lose, they regain their pride as Buttermaker tastes redemption.
A Rocky-style sports movie packed with thrills, The Bad News Bears maintains a level of intelligence that its knock offs, like The Mighty Ducks, can't approach. It's thrilling, funny, and, at times, a poignant baseball film. It also reflects the taboo-testing 1970's. Though edgy, particularly when adults push their kids to win at all costs, is a winner with a tremendous amount of heart. This movie never condescends as it unblinkingly portrays the not always wholesome world of little league baseball. It's a world where children often brutalize the less skilled while parents insensitively encourage this cutthroat attitude. This theme of adults relentlessly pushing their offspring to succeed, usually more for themselves, is far too recognizable.
Besides this cold dose of reality, the movie also offers a steady supply of laughter. Much of it comes from the colorful collection of characters on the team. Not surprisingly, even more humor emanates from master curmudgeon Walter Matthau and his lively interplay with Tatum O'Neal. O'Neal creates an emotionally rich character who hides her need for a father behind a veneer of precocious independence.
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