The Bad News Bears

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The Bad News Bears
The Bad News Bears promotional poster
Directed by	Michael Ritchie
Produced by	Stanley R. Jaffe
Written by	Bill Lancaster
Starring	Walter Matthau Tatum O'Neal Chris Barnes
Music by	Jerry Fielding
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Editing by	Richard A. Harris
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	7 April 1976 (USA)
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Followed by	The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Bad News Bears is a 1976 film directed by Michael Ritchie. It stars Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. The film was followed by two sequels, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training in 1977 and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in 1978, and a short-lived 1979 CBS television series (The Bad News Bears), none of which were able to duplicate the success of the original. Also notable was the score by Jerry Fielding, which is an adaptation of the principal themes of Carmen.

A remake of the movie, directed by Richard Linklater with Billy Bob Thornton taking the role of Morris Buttermaker, was released on July 22, 2005. See Bad News Bears.

Taglines:

The coach is waiting for his next beer. The pitcher is waiting for her first bra. The team is waiting for a miracle. Consider the possibilities.
At last, a picture of kids as they really are.
A classic comedy about growing up!

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Morris Buttermaker (Matthau), an alcoholic ex-professional baseball player, becomes the coach of a cellar-dwelling Little League team, the Bears. By recruiting a couple of unlikely prospects - an ex-girlfriend's 11-year old daughter (O'Neal), and local troublemaker Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) - he turns the team into a near-winner.

In an important sense, the film is about the adults -- the victory-obsessed Little League moms and dads who value winning above all else, including sportsmanship and enjoyment. In his 1976 review, critic Roger Ebert called the movie "an unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society." As the Bears begin to improve, coach Buttermaker gets caught up in this dynamic. Much of the film's drama is the way in which the league championship trophy, suddenly and surprisingly within reach, conflicts with his players' self-respect. The film culminates in the "big game," but most of the usual screen cliches are discarded in favor of a harrowing showdown between the favored Yankees' pitcher and his father/coach, counterintuitive strategy by both teams, and a game-winning play that isn't.

The film was notable in its time for the amount of vulgarity (including profanity and ethnic slurs) placed into the mouths of the various child-actors who played the principal roles (specifically, a memorable Tanner Boyle, played by Chris Barnes, quoted as calling his teammates en masse "a bunch of Jews, spics, niggers, pansies, and a booger-eating moron"). However, all of the questionable dialogue was used for comic effect. A true product of the mid-70s, the film includes a now-scandalous scene where an inebriated Buttermaker drives around the team, who are not wearing seatbelts, in his open-top convertible.

The Bad News Bears was filmed in and around Los Angeles, primarily in the San Fernando Valley. In the film, the Bears were sponsored by an actual company, "Chico's Bail Bonds," a touch that fit in nicely with the idea that the Bears were a ragtag group of misfit kids who could not find a more respectable sponsor.

[edit] Cast

Adults
Morris Buttermaker	Walter Matthau	Coach
Roy Turner	Vic Morrow	Coach
Cleveland	Joyce van Patten	League manager
Bob Whitewood	Ben Piazza	City councilman and lawyer who sued the Little League to allow the Bears to play, and convinced Buttermaker to coach the team.
Bad New Bears team roster
Ahmad Abdul-Rahim	Erin Blunt	A black Muslim who plays right field and adores Hank Aaron; strips off his uniform after committing errors, but convinced to return to the team by Buttermaker.
Jose Agilar	Jaime Escobedo	Miguels' older brother; doesn't speak English.
Miguel Agilar	George Gonzalez	Jose's younger brother; doesn't speak English either; so short that the strike zone is non-existent.
Tanner Boyle	Chris Barnes	Short-tempered infielder with a Napoleon complex; After suffering a horrible loss on their first game, he picks a fight with the entire seventh grade from his school (and loses).
Mike Engelberg	Gary Lee Cavagnaro	An overweight, out of shape boy who plays catcher; A great hitter, his jabs at rival pitcher Joey Turner (Brandon Cruz) ignite a rivalry.
Jimmy Feldman	Brett Marx	Has curly blond hair, and plays second base
Kelly Leak	Jackie Earle Haley	Local troublemaker who smokes and rides a dirt bike, which he uses to pick up older women; Also the best athlete in the neighborhood.
Timmy Lupus	Quinn Smith	A "booger-eating spaz;" considered to be the worst player on the team, but surprises everyone in the final game by making a key play to keep the Bears in the game.
Steve Ogilvie	Alfred W. Lutter	A bookworm who memorizes baseball statistics; doesn't play very often.
Rudi Stein	David Pollock	Nervous relief pitcher with glasses who is a terrible hitter; often asked by Coach Buttermaker to purposely get hit by pitches so he won't try to swing.
Regi Tower	Scott Firestone	Another lightly developed character; has red hair and plays first base.
Toby Whitewood	David Stambaugh	A surprisingly polite boy who often sticks up for Timmy Lupus. Son of Bob Whitewood.
Amanda Whurlitzer	Tatum O'Neal	Eleven-year-old pitcher who feels insecure about her tomboy image.