Possums

Mac Davis plays a devoted fan and the radio voice of his alma mater Nowata High School. After a very long losing streak, the school administration decides to do away with the football team. Davis starts missing the Friday night games and decides to buy up commercial time and broadcast fantasy games featuring a winning version of his beloved Possums. Finally the small Oklahoma town takes pride in their dismantled team. The real Possums are challenged by the real State Champs. The Possums lose again, but score their first actual touchdown in years.

This is a charming, down home movie. You actually feel the heart warming and emotional accomplishments of Davis' character. The action scenes truly represent high school football play.

This movie leaves you in a happy, upbeat mood. And is really fun for the family to watch.

Davis was very believable. Others in the cast: Andrew Pine, Greg Coolidge, Monica Creel and a cameo by former famed Oklahoma University and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer.

A variation on the no-hopers make good theme. When the Possums football team is disbanded because it's never won a game in its entire existence, a fan recreates it in fantasy radio commentaries until, bit by bit, the team rebuilds itself as the pride of the town and takes on local rivals in a final 'shoot-out'. You've seen it all before, but it's done with conviction and real charm.

It's too bad that a movie with a good heart and some potential for being inspirational or even important would succumb to ridiculous screen writing. Don't get me wrong, I am firmly on the side of 1.) inspirational fantasy, 2.)rebels who do things differently than the mainstream and 3.) appreciating honest effort for its own sake and not just record-of-success.

These are the themes and attributes that could have been examined and enjoyed in Possums, but instead, we see one vigilante (Will Clark) who is too short-sighted and delusional to see the gaping hole in the credibility of his actions: he has not addressed the issue of training, tactics and development of a better football team!

Without the consideration of better theory, practice and performance for the Possums, the picture becomes a joke.

Another issue I have with the movie is: How do the individuals (pseudo players) named on the weekly broadcasts feel about having their names used and reputations fictitiously and permanently altered? Clark could have been sued for using these names to promote his hardware store business.

It was painful for me to see the young men in street clothes playing an informal game at the field, emulating the fake Possums as they listened to the phony-but-well-meaning broadcast.

Screenwriter Max Burnett did a severe injustice to all involved in Possums by creating one of the most un-believable movies of all time.

Not giving up is one thing... Creating a fantasy world of delusion is quite another: Hard work and innovative thinking, instead are the answer. Application, not vacation.

This movie could have been great had it been re-written with plausibility: Interaction of the coaches, players, and community.

Clark should have been coaching the players himself, all along, being a former player. Then again, did the players even want to become better, individually, and as a team? We will never know. (I can dismiss the one quitter at the town meeting).

Three years prior to Possums, Max Burnett reportedly worked, in some capacity, on the good film, The Tuskogee Airmen. I can not find any reference to him on the IMDb page for that film. I hope he was just "additional hair" or "assistant grip".

This movie sends a message to the audience that if you do not achieve success, then retreat: Give up: Do anything but work harder. This is inexcuseable and reflects a mentality that is so blinded as to be clinical.

A football fan since childhood, weathered Mac Davis (as Wilbur "Will" Clark) excitedly calls the plays for his local high school "Possums" team, though they are perpetual losers on the gridiron. After another dismal season, the town of Nowata, Oklahoma votes to end the sport. Also a hardware store owner, Mr. Davis responds by covering "imaginary" games over the local airwaves, with the "Possums" making an astonishing comeback. Folks are thrilled by the pretend games; but, nearby challengers take them for real…

Meanwhile, Davis befriends winsome blond senior Gregory Coolidge (as Jake Malloy); he hires him to work in the hardware store, which is being threatened by one of those corporate chains. Claiming to be seventeen, Mr. Coolidge develops a father/son relationship with Davis. Coolidge's dad left after divorcing his mom, and Davis is somewhat estranged from his own son, Jay Underwood (as John Clark). Davis makes Coolidge the football hero of his radio show. Nobody lets reality stand in their way.

**** Possums (6/13/98) Max Burnett ~ Mac Davis, Greg Coolidge, Cynthia Sikes, Andrew Prine

"Possums" is formulaic, yet fantastic. An almost excessively cute film with a predictable ending, you'll like it nonetheless.

The "name" actors -- like Mac Davis, Andrew Prine, and Cynthia Sikes -- offer their usual, professional performances, but with that added enthusiasm which comes from really enjoying the story being told. Veterans like Clive Revill and Dennis Burkley are expertly cast in more minor roles. Also of note are a number of locals, folks like then-Nowata, Okla., newspaper publisher Ken Murnan and Coffeyville, Kan., musician Rodney Lay (formerly of Roy Clark's band) who took roles and gave credible performances. (I lived near the real-life town of Nowata, Okla., where this flick was shot.)

But most important here is the story -- a twist on the typical "local boy makes good" tale. The Nowata Possums don't exactly make "good," but in a town desperate for any sign of life from its high school football team, the boys make "good enough" for now, and finally offer Nowata a ray of hope for the future.

Heartwarming fun for the whole family, it deserves a whole lot more exposure than it has received.