A Season on the Brink

This film clearly is not the greatest one in the history of the world, but it does have one real thing going for it. Brian Dennehy's performance as the General (AKA Bob Knight) is probably the greatest portrayal we will ever see of the character. True, he does not look or sound exactly like Bob Knight, but who else does? Dennehy had a very challenging role in this picture, and while the representation is not exact (he said himself that one can't act exactly like Bob Knight without getting a headache), I can't imagine anyone doing better.

I think that Bob Knight is a character who is best explored in documentary form, and that approach would have worked just fine as a film. As it is, however, we're left with a TV movie that is just slightly above average.

6/10

I can't believe ESPN took so much time to promote this film, for it to turn out the way it did. Every time I turned on ESPN, there was a commercial or an on-screen ad for this movie, and it never lived up to its hype. It seemed like nothing more than an excuse to say the f-word on TV. Watching the edited version on ESPN-2 was even more ridiculous, if not hilarious, with some of Knight/Dennehy's "multiple-expletive" phrases being nothing but quick bleeps. (What was supposed to be the f-word three times in succession, was done as bleep-bleep-bleep). If I were Brian Dennehy, I would not include this on his resume.

ESPN attempts to give us a look at the inside wheeling and dealings of the charismatic coach Bobby Knight(Brian Dennehy)whipping an Indiana Hoosier team into shape to compete in the 1985-86 basketball season. Knight is the vocal point of the project and there are some good scenes where real game footage is used. Interest is moderate and it is odd watching a candy coated, but nonetheless brash vision of the ballsy coach. Dennehy seems at ease with the role and some good performances are turned in by Al Thompson, James Lafferty, Michael James Johnson and Yorick Park as Indiana team members. Not as impressive as a three pointer, but worth a trip to the free throw line.

As you can tell from my chosen screen name (a nickname I got on the job), I had a great interest in this film and it paid off. After all the pre-film publicity and trailers, I expected a scene in which disgruntled players and whiny referees chased Coach Knight with torches to the old windmill.

Instead, and having read the book I know this, the film stayed very close to the book and made a real attempt to show both Knight in his rages and tantrums and as a mentor, friend and a loving father. This film gives no quarter to either the pro-Knight or anti-Knight fans. The casting was excellent and the film's action scenes looked like these guys at least hit the local high school gym a few hours per week to get ready.

If I have any complaint with this film, it's that they seemed to try to use basketball footage to connect random episodes from the book. There would be a very moving, intense scene, then a graphic saying something like "Indiana won seven of the next eight games". This is like making a movie about World War II beginning with Hitler's election in Germany, then showing a graphic saying "Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and then conquored France", then cutting to a scene of The Battle of the Bulge.

But other than that, this was a great film, one of the few truly great sports films.

Absorbing and highly interesting portrait of how Bobby Knight (Brian Dennehy) handled the numerous on-going dilemmas while coaching the Indiana Hoosiers during the tumultous 1985-86 season. I don't know anyone else who could handle playing "The General" besides Dennehy. Playing Bob Knight isn't exactly like playing a character from a William Shakespeare story. The atmosphere that is displayed here during any of the games, practices, or off the court isn't only real, but very bleak and unforgiving. The movie is based on a novel (of the same title) written by John Feinstein. I give the people at ESPN who decided to back the movie a lot of credit. A captivating and emotional tour-de-force.