The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

It's 1938. Pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) and catcher Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) are in the Negro League. Charlie Snow (Richard Pryor) schemes to get into the major leagues as a Cuban. They are tired of being mistreated by their owners and go on a barnstorming tour of the mid-west. The tour becomes a rival to the existing Negro League. When the black owners conspire to stop them, they play white folks.

It's a fun slice of baseball history that isn't done much in pale Hollywood. The story is pretty thin until they get to forty five minutes. Adding an overt racial component really amps up the drama. The evil owners start doing stuff. The story is a little messy like the team itself, but there is good compelling material.

They just don't make `em like this anymore. James Earl Jones, Billy Dewilliams, Richard Prior and Stan Shaw play their parts to perfection. The music is excellent, capturing the flavor of the times. There are some huge belly-laughs and the plot keeps one interested throughout. Great sports movie.

I love this movie! Bet I've seen it 15 times and its always fun and a chance to see some great stars in unusual roles. Billie Dee Wiliams as Bingo Long is a great inspiration for "sticktuitiveness"; James Earl Jones appears here in a totally new light - who knew he could be a comedian as well as one of our best serious actors. What to say about Richard Pryor in all his multiple guises here? Just terrific! The supporting cast is strong - no weak links!

I grew up in a segregated South so I really get what this movie is all about. Its replicates a piece of history not covered in the social studies books. The costuming and musical score is worth it even if you decide you don't like to movie.

Highly entertaining film about a renegade black baseball team that breaks through barriers in 1939, when black ball players where shunned out of white controlled leagues. Williams stands out as their razzle-dazzle leader. The almost black cast that also features Jones, Pryor and Tony Burton are superb.

This film got great reviews when it came out, but I had to go to a African-American neighborhood theater to see it. That was only where it was being shown. It was not marketed for a general (prodominently white) audience. I believe that it has been overlooked since for the same reason: it is believed to be a movie about African-Americans which can be appreciated only by African-Americans.

This is far from the case. It is a movie about individuals trying to do the work they love while being frustrated by irrational human attitudes and biases. It is a movie about adapting to the perception that your world is changing and the change will be good for others, but not be good for you. It is as good a movie ever made about finding your goals and persisting in reaching them, even as the value of the goal recedes before you.

And it is hilarious. It is done with sly humor as well as laugh-out-loud wild humor.