There's a reason that's funny.
Remember the Titans is not about the white person who cared, and it's not about the white person who came around, at least not in a blatant or overt way. The kids on the football team are all victims of the systemic racism of the community. In Titans, being white doesn't mean that you hate so much as it means you are told to. Being black doesn't mean you hate so much as it means you are told you should never count on anything from those who aren't part of your community.
That's what I get from this scene where the team leaders are forced to confront what they don't like about each other, and even once they realize it isn't about race, they still have a long way to go and it will require them to look inward in order to become a team. Right when Gary tells Julius "I think you're nothing", we are primed to believe this is the sermon moment when...surprise, that's not where this is headed:
These two aren't done working out their issues after this scene, but their race has nothing to do with it from this point on. The two form a formidable bond that makes them inseparable, which makes the team inseparable (mostly). Only then, can the coaches get past their own territorial turf wars about who is in control of what, and only then can parents envision themselves rooting for something besides the failure of coach Boone. It's good because racism is so easy to use as an excuse for explaining a problem, when that really can be masking something else that never gets addressed due to the racial tension on the surface.
What ultimately took it off the list, is that Titans has the deck stacked against it here within the editorial halls of the Big Empty because it is based on a true story. We here do not like it when true stories get bastardized to deliver Hallmark moments. As stated in the introductory post, making shit up will earn you a nice healthy deduction. The true story has many elements that are present in this film, much to its credit. But they inserted fiction in places where it just wasn't necessary, not even for expediency or convenience. Boo! Don't do that. But otherwise, wonderful movie, and that's why it's here!
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And so now, finally, our Big Empty Best Sports Movie Award (™) winner.
Why watch a sports movie? For me, it's simple. We Americans sure do enjoy us a good game of sportsball on the television set! In Ohio in the fall, we have Saturday church when the Buckeyes take the field. I've watched all of my favorite teams go through good seasons, bad seasons, and dream seasons. Whether I'm talking about the UCONN Huskies defeating Duke for their first NCAA title, the numerous NY Yankee World Series championships, the Chicago Cubs incredible comeback World Series victory in 2016, or either of the Buckeye's championship runs that I've seen in 2002 and 2014, the feeling is a high that cannot be described. So why is it that nobody knows how to make a movie about the sportsball that can at least hint at what it feels like to be a true fan in that moment of crowning achievement? One movie did. One. Which brings me to:
1. Major League (1989)
Rags to riches is as cliche as you can get with sports movies. And, like Slap Shot, this one could also land in the comedy category. So what makes Major League special as a sports movie? A key theme for the winners in this series will be attention to detail. This isn't the best overall movie in this category, but it gets the number 1 slot because it does something so hard to duplicate (apparently) that the writers and most of the cast couldn't even come close to recreating the magic when they did a sequel 5 years later. Major League II is awful. Maybe if part 1 wasn't so special, it would be considered good, I don't know. I doubt it though. In fact, I'm pretty sure it sucked. Yep, it did. Everyone learned the wrong lesson from the success of the first. Somebody decided that the funny antics of the characters were what people wanted, so they took that, exaggerated their eccentricities and brought them all back like a funhouse mirror image of their former selves and had them participate in a circus act. So disappointing, but I digress.
Major League touches on three elements that make it so outstanding. The first is the way anonymous fans are interwoven into montages as the story progresses, some of them multiple times. These unknown supporting characters are relateable, and we feel like we could know them and would have a conversation with them. Unfortunately, good videos are not available to demonstrate this, but you'll know what I mean when you see hard hat wearing workers, and pedestrians walking through downtown.
At the midway point, the tone of the movie shifts from an adult version of the Bad News Bears to a story about a team that one of the anonymous fans describes as "not too f&#@in' bad!" At this point the second element emerges which is the way we the viewer start to become one of those anonymous fans. We have several key moments where we are no longer a fly on the locker room wall, and begin viewing the team the way we would see them live in person, or on ESPN highlights, or in a bar while cheering them on with our friends. We start to become a part of a community of fans. Here's a sample of what I'm getting at:
When we do get to listen in on the players, the conversations are what we think those conversations would look and sound like when we watch games on TV or from the stands. The attention to detail is very lifelike, from watching starting pitcher Eddie Harris (Chelcie Ross) warm up in the bullpen to watching his late reliever Ricky 'Wild Thing' Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) take the mound, the realism of an actual game and the mood of the crowd even during downtime is palpable, and the pacing is accurate. We won't get right into the moment we're waiting for Vaughn to deliver, we'll have to give him a little time to throw a few warm up pitches only adding to the anticipation of a make or break moment. The real deal is the same thing.
The real star of the show is the city that gets to host a winning team, specifically when that city is Cleveland, Ohio which knows all too well what getting a monkey off of its back feels like. This movie is sports perfection, and a hell of a lot of fun too! I was a Yankee fan living in the east coast when I first saw it, and I cheered like crazy for the Cleveland Indians to beat them during this movie. Also, the fact that I had to do it quietly so I didn't get thrown out of a movie theater made it feel that much more intense.
So come on movie makers! The blueprint is out there. Don't just copy it, understand the why and do better. I played seeing eye dog to your blindness here but you have to make an effort. Make me feel like I'm watching my favorite team do something special and that I'm right there while it happens. And most importantly, respect the intelligence of fans. They know what believable sports moments look like better than anyone else. Leave the gimmicks to some other genre or to whatever category you would put "sports movies" like The Mighty Ducks in.
Check back soon as I'll do my best to tackle the drama genre next!
1 comment:
RIGHT ON!! Another great post. You really know how to capture a movie and make reading about it ALMOST as enjoyable as the movie itself! With a lot of laughs along the way. BIG FAN.
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