Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

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jaywensley2004 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.

gavin6942 Aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.Tatum O'Neal as a "reformed tomboy" is a bit odd. Not that she is bad, but her line delivery seems a bit flat. Is this intentional? And it is interesting to see Jackie Earle Haley as a kid (he is in all three "Bears" movies) now that he has reinvented himself as an adult, with such roles as Freddy Krueger or Rorschach in "Watchmen".Roger Ebert called the film "an unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society", and that can be one commentary the film is trying to make. But more importantly, this is the precursor to every kid's baseball film out there, including "The Sandlot". Who cares if it has a political message? It is just a fun film!

SnoopyStyle Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) is a drunken ex-minor leaguer. He gets hired to coach a little league team of misfits. One of the fathers had sued to get the kids into a competitive league. However after a humiliating opening loss, the father figures the team should quit and so do the kids. Buttermaker try to save the team by getting a couple of ringers, his former girlfriend's kid (Tatum O'Neal) who happens to be a little girl and a juvenile delinquent (Jackie Earle Haley).This isn't simply a good kids movie. Quite frankly, parents today wouldn't want their kids to see this. The language is rough. A parent hits his kid. The kids swear, smoke, talk sex, and drink beer. I don't know how they got PG.The kids are great. Walter Matthau is his grumpy best. Tatum O'Neal is wonderful. It works as a good underdog movie. And then the last act explodes into something wonderful. It's heartbreaking when Buttermaker rejects Amanda for simply wanting a father figure. Then it goes all out as both coaches go super competitive. It's a real indictment of the ugliness of kids' sports culminating in that slap. It's not just a simple underdog movie, but a movie about real sportsmanship. It is a great original that the 2005 remake cannot touch.

Maniac-9 The Sandlot and Bad News Bears are by far the two best movies involving kids playing baseball. You have Walter Matthau as Morris Buttermaker the beer drinking coach of the team. Tatum O'Neal plays his stepdaughter who becomes his star pitcher. Jackie Earl Haley as the bad boy Kelly Leak the motorcycle riding kid.Buttermaker makes this team of misfits into a winning team when the league didn't even want to let these kids play.The movie is most definitely primarily a comedy but there's a lot more depth to it then just that. It's about a team of kids who aren't very coordinated and a lot of them who are quite frankly afraid of the ball. At first Buttermaker doesn't put that much effort into his coaching but eventually starts to care about the kids and gets them to play better and they turn things around.