Madison

I was waiting to see this movie since I heard about it, in Madison. I was a bit disappointed at how hokey it is, but at lease I can enjoy the scenery. You sure get to know the 421 bridge *G* and I loved seeing those riverfront scenes because I've been there many times.

I am in Madison on the first week of April most years, for a hot pepper festival at the Thomas Family Winery. I love these old Ohio River towns.

In the lodge at Clifty Falls State Park (on the west edge of town), they have another Miss Madison on display, a much smaller boat, I think from the 1940s or 1950s, with a Crosley engine.

Oh, one other thing - when the father and son go into the cavern, that's an unfinished railroad tunnel in the Clifty park, you can walk through it. Bring a lantern, you'll look funny walking the trail with it in the daytime, but it will be handy in the tunnel...

This turned out to be a "sleeper," a good film that few people have heard of, I suspect, outside of Madison, Indiana. Being in an area that used to host hydroplane races, it intrigued me. I also usually enjoy movies that star Jim Caviezel.

Mainly, this was a nice film with a feel-good David vs. Goliath story based on a real-life occurrence back in 1971. It involves the sport of hydroplane racing, meaning extremely fast boats raced in different bodies of water around the USA. A town nearby where I live used to have these, but I haven't heard of them in decades.

Anyway, this story takes place in a small Indiana town that was on the skids by 1970 but plants closing all the time and people moving elsewhere. The hopes of its boat, "Miss Madison" also seem to be about lost until, as fate would have it, the town is awarded the opportunity to host the "Gold Cup," the biggest event of the sport.

A string of failures, followed by new disasters, include the death of the pilot, near-death of another one and the boat being just about totaled in the process. How the town - led by former racer "Jim McCormick" (Caviezel) - can raise the money to resurrect the town, the boat and the driver himself, are all shown here. McCormick not only has to pull off several miracles but also try to win the support of his wife and son, who have had their fill of disappointments with this sport.

The film winds up being a sports movie and a drama about a family, a team of workers and an entire small town trying to pull together and beat tremendous odds. I have to use two clichés here: it's a heartwarming story and, yes, it's a good family movie. You don't have to worry about offensive material. It reminds me, in spots, of a made-for-TV movie. It kind of plays old-fashioned corny but in a way that makes you glad you watched it.

This is, to my knowledge, the only feature film ever to be made about professional boat racing. And it tells what is probably the most compelling story the sport has ever produced: how the little river town of Madison, Indiana, came to host the 1971 APBA Gold Cup race (the sport's equivalent of the Indy 500) and how driver Jim McCormick struggled to lead Madison's community-owned racing boat, the Miss Madison, into the race.

As a sports movie, "Madison" feels fairly similar to the Disney baseball movie, "The Rookie", which came out a few years ago. It places the sports story squarely within the context of family life, and its fundamental message is that of the value of community--especially small-town communities like Madison. (Hoosier rocker John "Small Town" Mellencamp even provides the narration for the movie.) Since this is a story about small-town underdogs taking on the big city favorites, it resembles other Indiana sports movies in many ways--"Breaking Away", "Rudy", "Hoosiers", etc. Its storyline is not really unique in that respect. But the movie is reasonably well done, and it really pulls you into the excitement of boat racing in the final sequence, through some really nice cinematography.

I guess I can't help but feel like there was a missed opportunity here, though. It is unlikely that there will ever be another movie made about professional boat racing, so it would have been nice if "Madison" could have taught us more about what makes the people who are involved in the sport tick. There is one interesting comment made towards the end of the film about how "only someone who's raced boats can understand why so many men have given their lives for the sport." There was a lot behind that statement, I think--especially when made in reference to a sport which has such a notoriously dangerous reputation as boat racing. I just wish I could have come away from this movie with an even better understanding of where it came from.

Besides that...this is a nice little movie, and a fine tribute to Jim McCormick and the people of Madison. Go ahead and take your kids to it, and don't forget to stick around for the final credits...

I just saw this film at Sundance 2001.

A feel good movie that's honest. The treatment is respectful and moving. The acting is very good, production value is very good. Good casting. It really captures the essence of the struggles of life along the Ohio in the middle of the 20th Century.

I look forward to seeing it again during the theatrical release.

Not yet, anyway. Motto: keep the smaller venues in play. Unapolegeticaly old fashioned and drenched heavily in the spray of cinematic clichés, this time capsule of a family drama clicks on all cylinders. I, however, might be a wee bit biased. I think I saw the Gold Cup Hydroplane Race depicted here on "Wide World of Sports," back in 1971. I was eight. It's one thing to recall the first moon landing, and another thing, entirely, to recall a long ago boat race in Indiana. I must be nuts. But it does create an odd, nostalgic feeling for me. The young boy, played by the kid from the new Star Wars films, emotes excitement well, but is lacking in conveying sorrow or remorse. He does, however, have a nifty Schwin bike: high handle bars, banana seat, and a sweet gear shift. Watching him peddle that two-wheeler through Madison, the Grass Roots blasting on the soundtrack, stirs memories from anyone who was around that boy's age, back then. Like me. The underdog "Miss Madison" team from the small, backwater village of Madison, a location the racing circuit wishes would gracefully fade away, somehow pulls it all together to compete in the big race. Along the watery way, the team suffers through a lack of funds for repairs, blown engines and the death of a skilled driver. It's all quite routine--but, ultimately, well done. The movie had the misfortune of spending four years on the studio's misfit shelf. Fitting. It's better than that. So crank up the air conditioner full blast and enjoy the final blow out.