That Championship Season

I went back to this after 25 years. I read an article about Robert Mitchum and it reminded me of his performance in That Championship Season, which wasn't even mentioned in the article. I bought it and re discovered 5 excellent acting performances. The best performance? Stacy Keach (James Daley). He is as pathetic as any self-disappointed middle aged man could get in his grandiosity and self pity. My favorite Character is Phil Romano, played by Paul Sorvino. Rich, degenerate, and one election away from financial ruin. In one of the first scenes, when the group shows up at the emergency City Council meeting to discuss a political disappointment, his swagger walking in and walking out of the room was elegant arrogance. The writing is superb, and the backdrop in economically depressed Scranton captured the atmosphere of Rustbelt economic desperation (which nicely parallels the personal and professional desperation of each of the characters) perfectly. Worth seeing.

Based on Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Championship Season" succeeds in a department many stage adaptations often find insurmountable: the transition from boards to big screen. "Season's" die-hard critics cried foul when Miller presented his work with changes in original flow and format, forgetting how such blind loyalty to purity often trapped many good works into the category of 'too boring to watch.' Some of "Championship Season's" best moments, ironically, arrive in the first half hour when Miller went out and captured his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania at one of its most desperate times; the blue collar fabric of the community had eroded so dramatically during the 'oil glut' recession that the very face of the city was changing. As Miller's characters seem desperate to cling to their old ways, the deteriorating streets of Scranton reflect their struggle. Further criticism was levelled at the play's strong language; there's something to offend just about every race, sex and religion. Miller toned it down, slightly, again - an accurate depiction of the city's character. One need only to recite their address in Scranton for any resident to know their life's story. Italians live over there, Jews there, blacks there, the Irish over there, on and on. Scranton is an old city with an old fashioned, quiet system of segregation that may not be as unusual as we'd like to think. When the Coach talks about "as a race, can't trust 'em," remember - it isn't the playwright speaking, but rather an entire city being indicted. That said, "That Championship Season" can be an enjoyable and moving film experience - that is, for those who don't carry the baggage and prejudices of the past.

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.

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.

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.