Date Posted:22:01:05 05/16/05 Mon Author:Dog of War Subject: Bad News Bears
You know, I just watched Bad News Bears tonight on HBO, and I have to admit, I love that movie. I've always been a sucker for cliche sports movies where a ragtag team of losers come together and prove they have the heart and determination to be champiosn (even shitty examples of this genre, like Mighty Ducks, tug at my heartstrings), and Bad News Bears may very well be the defining example of this type of film.
A remake of the original is coming out later this year, directed by Richard Linklater (who has done School of Rock and Slacker), and with Billy Bob Thornton in the role originated by Walter Matthau. While I like Linklater and Thornton, I have to say that after seeing the original again, there's no possible way the new one can be as edgy as the original.
It might seem strange to describe a kids' sports movie as edgy, but damn if BNB doesn't fit the bill. There's profanity, racial slurs, beer swilling, smoking...and that's just the kids. Perhaps the most famous example of a line that no studio could get away with in a kids' film nowadays is the scene where Matthau introduces Amanda, the team's new pitcher, to the rest of the guys. One of the kids responds by screaming in frustration "Jews, spics, niggers...and now a GIRL?!"
While that may be the most extreme example of just how un-PC the film is, it certainly isn't the only one. I can't imagine the response of the PTC if the original film's ending, in which their coach celebrates the finale of their big game by passing out bottles of beer to the whole team ("I have to give em beer! You don't pay me enough to afford champagne!").
While curiosity alone will probably be enough to get me into the theater for the new BNB, it really does sadden me that the original film has been relegated by the powers of political correctness into the realm of "Stuff You Could Never Get Away With Nowadays."
