THE BAD NEWS BEARS (1976)
50TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
If you were casting a role based on athletic actor Burt Lancaster, one of the last people you’d think would be grizzled, overweight Water Matthau. When Bill Lancaster wrote a comedy inspired by the years his father coached the son’s little league team, he created a hit. For the film, the coach was changed from a movie star trying to drive his son to success to a failed minor-league ball player desperately in need of money. And the younger Lancaster, a survivor of childhood polio that left him with a limp, transformed his character into a female pitcher (Tatum O’Neal) fighting for recognition. Directed by Michael Ritchie, an expert at casting a jaundiced eye on American institutions like sports, politics, and beauty pageants, the film became a big hit and won Lancaster a Writers Guild Award. The film would inspire two sequels, a short-lived TV series, and a remake directed by Richard Linklater, but none of them hit quite as well as the original, which marks its 50th anniversary.
DISCUSSION WILL BE AFTER THE FILM
d. Michael Ritchie, 102m, DCP
DCP courtesy of Paramount Pictures.