That Championship Season

Where would we be without mythology? Up the creek. Cultural anthropologists have a respectable amount of information available on about four thousand independent societies, and every one of them has an organized system of myths that explains, among other things, where we came from, how we got here, and what hold us together.

This movie is a kind of case illustration of how it all works. "That championship season" -- a time in the long past when a group of now overgrown high school kids under the tutelage of a coach of limited mental means but considerable moral stature guided them to the top. Well, it wasn't simply a season, according to this film, but their Garden of Eden, their Golden Age.

The entire underpinning of the film is an allegory regarding religious mythology. It mirrors current society in that the myth has become hoary and is beginning to show many cracks. Lord knows people are staying away from mainstream churches (and other ideologies, such as Marxism) in droves. "The boys" have turned into philanderers, drunks, and shady businessmen, and their solidarity is falling apart. None of them is noble in any way. At critical moments, it is the "coach" and their faith in him that holds them together. And when, after all the arguments and recriminations and name-calling, they stare at their meaningless trophy and hold hands in an empty gymnasium, the scene must touch the stoniest heart.

The trophy, and the coach who gave it to them, don't amount to very much -- a cheap piece of metal symbolizing little, and a man now grown older who dispenses clumsy advice like -- "Boys, don't lose your poise." It isn't much but they hang onto it for the simple reason that they have nothing else. It is their little myth, and there is no replacement for it. John Ford made a similar point in "Steamboat Round the Bend," but his story was more optimistic. Will Rogers comes to manage a steamboat with an exhibit of old wax statues of mythological figures and historical persons like Napoleon. There is a distinct absence of customers because no one cares about seeing a likeness of Hercules anymore. What does Will Rogers do? He throws out the old costumes and dresses them in new, more modern, more "reform" garments. Romulus and Remus become Frank and Jesse James, and so forth. In other words, when the old myths are worn out, you create new ones that attract people. Joseph Campbell would have approved.

But these boys are shackled to the past and lack such resources. The film is well played and has many dramatic moments -- and humorous ones too. The coach expounding on a professional athlete's achievements and referring to him as "a splendid (N word)." A failed attempt to bury an elephant (!). I thought this movie was excellently done. Miller did a fine job of directing his own play and opening it up. Mitchum effortlessly plays the naive and well-intentioned Mentor. He should have received more recognition for his talents than he did, though, to be sure, he walked through some parts and chose others badly. "That Championship Season" isn't shown on TV very often. Too bad. It ought to be seen.

It took about a decade for Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning play That Championship Season to finally make it to the big screen. But even with Miller himself writing an introductory prologue for the screen it never quite loses its stage origins.

I have to say that Miller tried though, he was clearly influenced by the film adaption of Long Day's Journey Into Night where the Tyrone house almost becomes a character unto itself. But the coach's house in this film does not quite have the same grandeur.

What's reuniting Coach Robert Mitchum and his boys from the 1954 state championship basketball team is the re-election campaign of Bruce Dern one of the members. The other three of the four remaining starting five are brothers Stacy Keach and Martin Sheen and Paul Sorvino who is now one of the richest men in town. Keach is now the principal of the high school where he was a star athlete and his brother Sheen is a ne'er do well drunk.

They've all got their secrets and during the coach's efforts to get his boys working in tandem again a lot of dirty little secrets come out about all of them.

Mitchum was not the original choice for the part of the coach, the role was slated for William Holden who died before shooting could start. According to Lee Server's biography of Mitchum, Bob had real difficulty with the role because he was not particularly a sports fan, of basketball or anything else for that matter. He had a hardscrabble life as a kid and didn't do much or learn much in the way of sports. It was part he could never quite get into, especially using all the sports idioms to make a point. On stage the part was done by Charles Durning. Paul Sorvino was the only member of the original cast to repeat his role.

The original play did not have the whole business about the elephant dying and Dern's attempts to get rid of the body shown on screen. That was Miller's new writing to get more of a movie feel to his project. The film was shot entirely on location in Scranton, Pennsylvania though the bulk of it was in and around the coach's house and that could have been done anywhere.

That Championship Season is not a bad film, but considering the author himself helped with adaption it should have turned out better.

I won't carry on forever but I should say that this film is something of a well-kept secret it seems. One thing about "little gems" like this one is that if you hype them too much they become something else. If you see this movie with expectations too high then you might be disappointed, if on the other hand you watch it expecting to see one of the best low key character dramas you've probably seen in a while then you'll feel rewarded. Ultimately this is a film driven by SIX great performances (that's one for every member of the ensemble and another by the director/writer Jason Miller). What is there to say, they were all flawless and not once did the writing sink into cliché or formula. For once it was just great to watch a movie where, personally, every time I thought I knew what would happen, my expectations were defied. I'm not talking about any, now all too popular; so-called clever twists but just subtle turns in unexpected directions. In other words this is truthful cinema at its best, unexpected in the way life often really is.

To say that 'That Championship Season' is simply an allegory for faith in God is far too reductionist when discussing a film that has this much to say. Of course the film could be read this way but I feel religious or political undertones are the in-essentials of this story. What is essential is the recognition of a little of ourselves in these characters that have been drawn so well, bitterness, regret, self-pity, greed, lust, bigotry but also love, sacrifice, forgiveness are all here in all characters and in more or less equal measure and depending on your point of view they have nothing to do with religion. In short no one in this movie seems constructed, they simply live and breath the way we all try to, the lesson if any is simply to admit to some or all of those qualities in ourselves and to try and live a little better.

That CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON examines the effects of strong emotions based on long standing friendships and winning teamwork on four former high school teammates and their coach, now middle aged men. This film shows the winning out of long standing bonding among five guys (for 25 years), now middle aged, over practicality and common sense. i.e. the guys backing Sitkowski (Bruce Dern) for re-election, even though he is probably washed up. This movie shows how old friendships and fond memories of the past can triumph over the stressful realities of the present. Down yuppyism, up corny, melodramatic memories and buddyism! I think this movie is great for the human spirit! Its also a dark comedy and, therefore, should be taken lightly. No political correctness here! Its like Woodstock lasting for 25 years. I, a hopeless romantic, give this movie a 10. The impact on the five old comrads of hearing the replay of the championship game's last seven seconds is both corny and dramatic. In today's eye for an eye, cut-throat world it is doubtful if these guys would have ever remained lifelong friends.

To me the outstanding feature of this movie is the acting of Robert Mitchum, who superbly fits the role of coach to a group of men who gather to reminisce and during the course of their encounter, almost tear each other apart--verbally, physically and emotionally. The others are outstanding as well and are all great actors. However, Mitchum shows the range he has as an actor that many of his earlier roles didn't allow him.

A note of division is introduced into the proceedings that lays raw their emotions. It leads to an escalation of bitterness and recriminations. During it all, they find out about themselves and what they have become because of the brutal honesty of one another. None of them are plaster saints, far from it, they are classic alpha males, no worse or better than most of us. In the end, they probably realize that they are better for the brutal honesty that they can share with one another.