That Championship Season (1982 film)
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| That Championship Season (1982) | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover for That Championship Season (1982) |
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| Directed by | Jason Miller |
| Produced by | Menahem Golan Yoram Globus |
| Written by | Jason Miller |
| Starring | Robert Mitchum Martin Sheen Bruce Dern Paul Sorvino Stacy Keach |
| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Cinematography | John Bailey |
| Editing by | Richard Halsey |
| Distributed by | Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Running time | 110 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
That Championship Season is Jason Miller's 1982 film version of his 1973 Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play of the same name. It stars Robert Mitchum, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach and Paul Sorvino and was filmed on location in Scranton, Pennsylvania where it is set. In 1999, Paul Sorvino directed a remake for Showtime.
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[edit] Synopsis
Set in Scranton, Pennsylvania, it has been 25 years since the 1957 Fillmore High School (fictional) basketball team won the state championship. Every year the coach and four of the victors gather to relive the glory of their shining moment. This year is different. As teenage team members together they could read each others moves on the court without fail. As middle-aged men each facing their own different mid-life crisis, with a former coach that still addresses their problems as if they are having a bad game, their loyalty to one another comes under fire. There isn't a single social issue or taboo imaginable that doesn't arise in the course of their evening together testing their friendship like nothing else ever has.
The blunt locker room-style dialogue and mature themes remove the film from what would be considered mainstream. With little marketing and an abbreviated theatre run, it was relegated to television cable outlets for a number of years.
[edit] Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Robert Mitchum | Coach Delaney |
| Martin Sheen | Tom Daley |
| Stacy Keach | James Daley |
| Bruce Dern | Mayor George Sitkowski |
| Paul Sorvino | Phil Romano |
Bruce Dern was nominated for the "Best Actor" prize at the Berlin Film Festival for his role.
[edit] Production
For a number of years Miller attempted to bring the play to the big screen before succeeding in 1982. As writer and director, Miller utilized headline talent of the time and insisted on filming the exteriors in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the story takes place. Miller was raised and educated there and his intent was to showcase the city and its people. The first quarter of the film does just that as the characters and situations unfold. locations used included Nay Aug Park (featuring a political rally using the townspeople as extras), the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad headquarters, the Martz Trailways terminal, Lackawanna Avenue, the city council chambers and more.
The score by composer Bill Conti (Rocky, The Right Stuff, For Your Eyes Only) was supplanted by the West Scranton High School Band. No soundtrack was ever released.
[edit] DVD Release
In 2004, the film was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment.
