THE BAD NEWS BEARS: Blu-ray re-issue (Paramount, 1976) Paramount Home Video

Morris Buttermaker is in a bad way. Indeed, he’s a has-been, just an ex-pro-minor-league pitcher with a failed dream, suffering from a highly un-professional affliction with the bottle, and, a certain crass dispensation for the niceties. Ah, but dear ole ‘Mo’ is about to be given a real run for his money when he meets ‘the Bears’ – a ragamuffin would-be dream team of smart-mouthed, prepubescent misfits to make him sit up and take notice of the promise of youth, its bitter disillusionment, and finally, triumph against seemingly insurmountable odds and adversity. Director, Michael Ritchie’s The Bad News Bears (1976) is the sort of ‘feel good’ comedy sleeper that sneaks up on you with unabashed sentiment for taking the adult cares of life and transposing them into the mouths of babes. Indeed, no one at Paramount had faith in the picture. So, all were justly taken aback when the movie proved to be one of the top-grossing hits of the year. Box office is often a poor indicator of quality. Certain movies just seem to catch on while others, as worthy, do not. Yet, if the public are the final arbitrators of ‘good taste’, then, in The Bad News Bears’ case, they certainly knew a good thing when they saw it. And much of the movie’s success is decidedly owed Ritchie. While at Harvard, Ritchie directed several plays, with a deft perception of finding the core connection between his characters and the audience. Ultimately, this led to a job offer from ABC exec’, Robert Saudek – and his directorial debut, Downhill Racer, 1969 – so dubbed by critic, Roger Ebert as “the best sports movie without being about sports at all”, and, showcasing a killer cast, headlined by Robert Redford and Gene Hackman. It firmly established Ritchie’s yen for striking just the right chord of empathy with his viewership.

In hindsight, Ritchie's directorial career remains a curious enigma – his diversification leading some critics to suggest he lacked the true stylistic trappings of a cinema auteur, and some even to erroneously go so far as to infer he was just a Hollywood hack, churning out ‘in the moment’ pop-u-tainment without much thought for the longevity of his work.  Ironically, much of that body of evidence has endured beyond Ritchie’s time: 1972’s The Candidate, and 1985’s Fletch, just two iconic standouts. Interestingly, while The Bad News Bears spawned two sequels – 1977’s The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and 1978’s The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, to say nothing of its brief renaissance as a CBS TV series (1979–80, to star Jack Warden), and, a lackluster movie reboot in 2005, the original picture today is not held in high regard, despite its fetching unpretentiousness. Ritchie’s great gift to the movies in his all-too-brief canon is his quiet observance of flawed humanity. At its best, there is truth to Ritchie’s work – raw, unobtrusive, simply-wrought, and finely tuned to the point where it never draws undue attention to itself, and therefore, comes across with a genuine genius for storytelling. Ritchie, who left us much too soon, age-62, from prostate cancer, and, and whose early interests in picture-making stemmed from an ‘academic’ yen for critique and analysis, repeatedly illustrates in The Bad News Bears, not only that he had his fingers on the pulse of pop culture, perhaps, better than any of his contemporaries, but that he implicitly could make the audience care as much as he so obviously did for the characters who populate his movies: a quick TripTik through his commercial hits, the aforementioned, Downhill Racer, Prime Cut and The Candidate (both in 1972), Smile (1975), the sadly underrated, An Almost Perfect Affair (1979), weirdly comical – for a horror movie – Student Bodies (1981), Wildcats (1986) and, The Fantasticks (1995), indicative of the director’s ability to take chances while working, seemingly on ‘minor’ projects with major heart, plus a modicum of class to offset the sentiment and make it real/reel entertainment.

I remember The Bad News Bears fondly from my youth.  I was only 5 when I saw it. And while childhood memory is apt to be muddled by the utter lack of scope and inexperience to judge art of its artistic merits (to the point, where any movie is viewed through an overly simplified rubric on a limited scale of being ‘good’ enough to distract for an hour or two), in reviewing The Bad News Bears again some 45-years later, I was rather startled at how much of what I ‘then’ perceived as the picture’s entertainment value, has, in fact, managed to retain its overall potency and ability to charm. Point blank: this is still a very fun little movie, buoyed by the utterly frank and no-nonsense performance of its weather-beaten star, Walter Matthau as the aforementioned ‘down on his luck’ coach and curmudgeon, Morris Buttermaker, rather affectionately referred to as ‘Buttercrud’ by diminutive ball-player, Tanner Boyle (Chris Barnes). Matthau was well-compensated for the insolence heaped upon his fictional alter-ego, handsomely paid $750,000 while his Oscar-winning co-star, Tatum O'Neal earned barely $350,000, plus 8% of the net profits. Originally, Jodie Foster was to have starred opposite Matthau as the tart-talking Amanda Whurlitzer. Foster’s decision to do Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) instead, provided Tatum with yet another memorable role in her all-too brief child star’s career. And yet, even with Foster’s departure, producers were not set on O’Neal to replace her – the role, first offered to Kristy McNichol, after Sarah Jessica Parker had also tested for it. McNichol reportedly, ‘killed’ the audition and was actually told she had the part before O’Neal eclipsed her. However, as O’Neal lacked the pitching prowess of her Tom-boyish alter ego, her pitching scenes were actually shot from behind with a wigged male double.

Screenwriter, Bill Lancaster – whose credits would number only 3 (this movie, its ’78 sequel, and John Carpenter’s brilliant 1982 reboot of The Thing) based the character of Morris Buttermaker on his own father, movie legend – Burt Lancaster. Indeed, the strained relations between Morris and Amanda in The Bad News Bears owes not only its aegis, but much of its truth to this real-life father/son friction.  In hindsight, the part of Amanda is tailor-made for O’Neal, whose Oscar-winning performance in 1973’s Paper Moon also featured her in a love/hate relationship with a father figure (played by real-life dad, Ryan O’Neal). Lancaster, transparently to channel his own conflicted childhood into this absorbing screen reconstitution, and, who obviously possessed the talent to make it stick, tragically lacked the good health to see it through, dying unexpectedly of a heart attack – age, 49, in 1997.  Family nepotism on the set of The Bad News Bears was to rear its head again when Walter Matthau suggested a small part for his own son, Charles, playing a nondescript ball player for the Bears’ rival team. Interestingly, Walter Matthau (who would later be directed by Charles in 2 movies, The Grass Harp and The Marriage Fool, both in 1995) was not the producers’ first choice for the role that so completely fit him like a well-worn and leathery baseball mitt. No, Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty were the first picks – each, turning down the picture, citing previous commitments on other projects. Evidently, the working alliance between Matthau and director, Ritchie clicked – the two reuniting for 1983’s The Survivors, and, 1988’s The Couch Trip. The rest of the cast here is culled from fresh faces, some marginally familiar to audiences, like Brandon Cruz – as bully, Joey Turner, having marked his first ‘star’ turn in TV’s The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969). The Bad News Bears also prominently features veteran actor, Vic Morrow as wily ‘win at all costs’ Coach Roy Turner (in real life, actress, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s father). Matthau and Morrow had previously worked together on the Elvis Presley musical, King Creole (1958). Tragically, Morrow would enter Hollywood lore by way of an infamous SFX helicopter accident that decapitated him and his two under-aged Chinese co-stars on the set of 1983’s The Twilight Zone: The Movie.

There are several reasons why The Bad News Bears endures as a masterful and touching homage to America’s favorite pastime. For kick starters, the tone struck by Lancaster and Ritchie just seems unaffected by the usual clichés Hollywood likes to afflict upon sports’ movies – the schmaltz of that proverbial – and predictable - ‘underdog’s victory’ offset by these tart-mouthed scrappers and the belligerent nature of their even more jaded adults. Even more miraculous - the movie’s rampant crudity never seems gratuitous. Moreover, its crackling comedy treats both the agony and the ecstasy of competition with an unvarnished and occasionally wounding sting of battle scars. Despite Matthau’s presence, the focus of the picture is on the kids, as it should be - not, clean-cut, cutesy tykes straight out of Central Casting, or even the ‘too-too mature for their own good’ pint-sized know-it-alls who behave with more worldly class than their adult counterparts. No, these are just kids – real kids – impenitently adolescent. Archetypes click because they are drawn from the school yard of life – smack-talking Tanner Boyle, offset by pocket-protector geek, Alfred Oglivie (Alfred W. Lutter) and the insufferable chunk, Mike Engleberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro) – all of them, outclassed down to the lowest common denominator by booger-binging, Timmy Lupus (Quinn Smith) and the proverbial tough-guy who could definitely put his talent where his mouth is - Joey Turner (Brandon Cruz). And towering above the rest is Amanda Whurlitzer and Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley); the latter, a Harley-driving juvey who is in it just to piss off Turner.

If the kids are a motley crew, then the authority figures in charge of them are culled from the worst examples of everything that can go wrong in the adult world. Take city councilman, Bob Whitewood (Ben Piazza), whose class action lawsuit against the North Valley League’s ‘standards’ is less predicated on getting his own son, Toby (David Stambagh) into their prestigious roster and more about boasting rights.  Or haughty and exclusive League official, Cleveland (Joyce Van Patton) who drones on and on about people like Whitewood ruining the country. Or coach Turner – a real pontificating poop, not above belting his own kid for disobeying his rules of engagement. The parents who populate the stands seem more in it for the edification of their own vanity than to actually see their offspring succeed. The one empathetic adult is Matthau’s Morris, often too drunk to notice the particular absurdities of each individual player, but who also knows much too well where a quitter’s mentality in youth can lead in adult life. “This quitting thing…it's a hard habit to break once you start!”

The Bad News Bears endures primarily for three reasons: first, because the rabble class who populate it are genuinely flawed and thoroughly complex, each finding some form of redemption in baseball, almost by accident. I mean – it’s not their grand plan to excel as a team or the modus operandi built into Ritchie’s direction or Lancaster’s writing. But it happens, because each of these weirdly wonderful beings are willing to try their better. The other great piece of verisimilitude here is the decision to shoot much of the movie in the San Fernando Valley – the apex of a certain kind of scaled down suburbia that effectively translates into ‘every town’ U.S.A.  Best of all, The Bad News Bears never panders to the kiddie class. The kids are kids. But the writing elevates them into the sort of anti-heroic ensemble a la those counter-culture reprobates we root for in movies like The Wild Bunch or Easy Rider (both from 1969) far removed from the hermetically sealed and Disney-fied ‘good kids’ out on a lark and a spree.  Finally, the end of this movie does not degenerate into the anticipated flourish of predictable triumph. Despite a big build-up to suggest we are heading down that all-too-familiar road toward an underdog’s victory, the Bears are instead martyred in the eleventh inning. If in life, you win some/you lose some, then, Ritchie and Lancaster prove ‘second place’ – with its ‘screw you’ attitude toward the victors - is actually the best spot to be in.

Our story begins as Morris Buttermaker gets recruited to coach ‘the Bears’ – a dead-last prospect for this out-and-out booze hound who couldn’t give two bats and a home run if his team succeeds. Indeed, the Bears are only in the league thanks to Bob Whitewood’s lawsuit – a bitter pill for both the Bears, and the other ‘better’ teams to swallow.  Buttermaker’s inherited a lemon and knows it. To improve his prospects, he recruits tart-tongued, Amanda Whurlitzer, the 11-year-old daughter of an ex-lover. Aside: there is a heart-breaking scene where Amanda tries to get Buttermaker re-interested in her mother, but to no avail. There is also some suggestion, Amanda may or may not actually be his kid. But this inference is never followed through with the proverbial ‘are you my real daddy?’ moment a lesser director might have inserted to wring a few tears. Buttermaker also gets chain-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson tough kid, Kelly Leak, a solid athlete buried under a mountain of attitude. “Jews, spics, niggers, and now a girl?” Tanner seethes, to which Amanda challenges him to grab his bat – mostly, to knock his block off. And Amanda knows her way around a deadly pitch. With her and Kelly on the batting roster, confidence blossoms among the rest of the players. Much to the chagrin of the other teams, the Bears start winning their games, poised for the championship against the top-ranked Yankees, coached by the maniacal, Roy Turner. Buttermaker is determined to make Turner eat dirt. The feeling is mutual.  But when Buttermaker witnesses Roy sock his own kid, merely to strike fear into him for the sake of winning at all costs, Buttermaker realizes some victories are not worth having. Instead, he elects to allow all of his players to have their crack at victory – even the truly bad ones. Alas, the Bears are not up to it and lose the game. But in doing so, they have proven themselves a real team – fearless, determined and in it for their fellow players. To celebrate their loss, Buttermaker gives his team beer which they spray on each other, cheering loudly. They may have lost the game – but they have definitely achieved victory of a kind.

The Bad News Bears arrives on Blu-ray states’ side via Paramount Home Video – another solid-looking transfer from ‘the mountain’ who, after decades of neglecting their back catalog, have done a remarkable ‘about face’ in more recent times, endeavoring to release many of their MIA classics for hi-def. It’s about ‘frickin’ time! The Bad News Bears ought to have been a candidate for the Paramount Presents…franchise. Alas – no. Instead, it is just a bare-bones offering, oddly enough, to follow Paramount’s farming out of the movie to Aussie distributor, ViaVision for its ‘Imprint’ label. Paramount’s own 1.78:1 1080p image sports a somewhat careworn transfer, virtually identical to the Imprint edition, with sudden, and inexplicable lapses in quality, arguably owing to the source used. If I had to guess (and with Paramount, I sometimes have to) I would say this is a print master uptick, not a new scan from elements that could definitely use some basic color balancing and clean-up. Contrast is weaker than expected, but not awful, and film grain toggles between gritty and non-existent. Outdoor scenes fare better in overall image sharpness. Like Imprint’s release, the newly minted Paramount has two audio tracks – the original 2.0 and 5.1 uptick which does a whole lot of nothing for the limited audio range of the movie.  Imprint’s release contains an audio commentary from historian/novelist/playwright and critic, Scott Harrison. Paramount’s only has an original trailer. Imprint’s disc is ‘region free’. Paramount’s is region ‘A’ locked. As quality here is virtually identical, Imprint’s steeper price tag may be something to avoid by going with Paramount’s econo-minded reissue state’s side. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

1