YOU GOTTA BELIEVE (2024)

August 29, 2024

Greetings again from the darkness. As a lifelong avid baseball fan, I recall the 1973 season when relief pitcher Tug McGraw (father of country performer and actor Tim McGraw) elevated the phrase “You Gotta Believe” to the rallying cry for his New York Mets team that year (they ultimately lost the World Series to the Oakland A’s). So, I’ll admit to a touch of skepticism when I saw this was a baseball movie. Director Ty Roberts and writer Lane Garrison previously collaborated on 12 MIGHTY ORPHANS (2020) and THE IRON ORCHARD (2018), and after watching this one, I’ll give them full credit for bringing very human stories of real people to the screen.

Based on the true story of the 2002 Fort Worth (Texas) Little League team that advanced all the way to the Little League World Series, this one has the bones of the always enjoyable youth ‘underdog’ story in the vein of THE MIGHTY DUCKS (1992) and HARDBALL (2001). The big difference here is that there is also some personal and family drama that’s not quite so uplifting … heartwarming, yes … but not uplifting. We first meet this team as they are finishing their winless season. Optimistic coach Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson) and distracted manager Jon Kelly (Greg Kinnear) both have sons on the team, but from the action we see, this team rarely practices and has a shocking lack of athleticism for a bunch of 12-year-olds.

It’s the glimpse of on-field action that makes this version of reality a bit difficult to swallow. When the league commissioner, played by Patrick Renna (from the truly classic baseball film THE SANDLOT, 1993) pleads with too-busy attorney Jon to take his team to the all-star tournament, logic tells us, it’s one and done. However, the dynamics change quickly when coach Bobby is diagnosed with melanoma and a brain tumor. The team now has something to play for, and we are to believe that with the help of Coach Mitch Belew (hard-working character actor Lew Temple, ONCE UPON A TIME … IN HOLLYWOOD, 2019), this team improves enough to win regionals and sectionals (in a montage) while qualifying for the Little League World Series.

Bobby’s two sons Robert (Michael Cash) and Peanut, and Jon’s pitching son, (the ironically named Walker (Etienne Kallici) have key supporting roles, as do Molly Parker as Jon’s wife Kathy and Sarah Gadon (COSMOPOLIS, 2012) as Bobby’s wife Patti. The team has “Bobby” embroidered on their caps as motivation, and the team’s winning ways help keep up spirits for Bobby as he goes through treatment. There is a “Rawhide” theme song sequence that adds a bit of comic relief to help offset the heaviness of cancer.

The film highlights the remarkable game the team played in Williamsport, and we get a Satchel Paige reference (or two). The downside is that by exaggerating the ineptitude of the team when we first see them, their turnaround and entire journey seem a bit hokey. Of course, no game is bigger than life, and the film ends with the expected harsh reality of the boys wearing their uniform one more time. We do get a shot of Bobby’s grown-up son reading a letter to his young son, and it concludes with clips of the actual Little League World Series – complete with players, coaches, and Bobby. Once again, a story of underdogs manages to make solid contact.

In theaters nationwide on August 30, 2024

WATCH THE TRAILER

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Posted by David Ferguson

12 MIGHTY ORPHANS (2021)

June 10, 2021

Greetings again from the darkness. Ty Roberts is a native Texan and Austin-based director committed to bringing Texas tales to the big screen. His previous film was THE IRON ORCHARD (2018) on wildcatting, and this time he tackles the 2007 Jim Dent novel, “Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites who Ruled Texas Football”. The film is inspired by the true events of a legendary Texas coach and his development of a football program at an orphanage, the Masonic Home and School in Fort Worth. Set in 1938 as the nation is still rebounding from the Great Depression and the area has earned the label, “the Dust Bowl”, the film opens at halftime of the state championship game, as the Mighty Mites limp into the locker room, battered from the first half.

The film immediately flashes back to 6 months earlier as Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) and his wife Juanita (Vinessa Shaw) arrive at the orphanage. Both are teachers and Rusty is also tasked with starting a football program from scratch. “Scratch” may be too nice of description, as the home has no field and none of the boys have ever played the sport. If that’s not enough challenge, there is also Frank Wynn (Wayne Knight), the abusive director of the orphanage who undermines Rusty at every turn and uses his wooden paddle as a demented form of discipline. This was a different era, and it’s heartbreaking to see how orphans were treated not just as castaways from society, but also as free labor so Wynn could personally profit.

Rusty Russell’s commitment is a key to the story, and although he suffers from post-war PTSD (with flashbacks), he brings structure and humanity and teamwork to a group of boys who had none. We learn that Rusty was also an orphan, and this helps us understand why this mission was so important to him and Juanita. Martin Sheen appears to be having fun co-starring as Doc Hall, an alcoholic who not only serves as Rusty’s assistant, but who also served the home for 30 years without ever taking a paycheck. It’s Doc Hall who was responsible for luring Rusty to the home, and he’s very supportive of building the program for the boys.

The sports movie clichés are numerous, but this is the kind of story and movie that we desperately want to like – an inspirational story with clearly defined good people and villains. Boys stigmatized by society goes beyond the underdogs against-all-odds. Although they had some success on the field, the real message here is self-respect and education for those who felt superior. Co-writer Lane Garrison plays the arrogant coach of the powerhouse Polytechnic, and though the performance is a bit of a caricature, his attitude speaks volumes about the mentality of the times. Oscar winner Robert Duvall (now 90 years old) makes a brief appearance as a Freemason, who was also an orphan.

Historical significance resonates here as “Fort Worth Star-Telegram” publisher (and early Fort Worth mover and shaker) Amon Carter (played here by Treat Williams) was so enamored with the “Mighty Mites” that he got President Franklin Roosevelt to intercede on behalf of the boys when controversy struck. The Masonic home closed in 2005, but its impact remains today. One of the featured players on the team was Hardy Brown (Jake Austin Walker) who went on to serve in the Marines, and later play professional football. Rusty Russell went on to coach at SMU, and became a legend thanks to his creation of the “spread offense”.

The film was co-written by director Ty Roberts, Lane Garrison, and Kevin Meyer, and the script takes some liberties with history and the source material from author Jim Dent. Mr. Dent also wrote the 1999 book “The Junction Boys”, and spent many years as a sportswriter covering the Dallas Cowboys. On a personal level, he faced serious consequences from his run-in with the law over his many DWI convictions, and remains incarcerated today. The post-credit sequence features actual photographs and a real life update of each of the players and the key people involved. Sure, some of the acting is a bit stilted, the dialogue often unnatural, and the football sequence heavily edited, but we do find the story uplifting at a time when such stories are quite welcome.

The film opens in Texas on June 11, 2021 and then on June 18 nationwide.

***NOTE: Former Texas Longhorns defensive standout Breckyn Hager appears in the film, and thanks to one of my favorite Austinites for the heads-up

WATCH THE TRAILER

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Posted by David Ferguson

THE IRON ORCHARD (2018)

February 21, 2019

 Greetings again from the darkness. No one knows for sure how many times someone in Hollywood has attempted to adapt the 1966 novel for the big screen, but we do know that director Ty Roberts is the only one to succeed. The actual author of the novel, Edmund Pendleton Van Zandt, used the pen name Tom Pendleton, as he was unsure how the book would be received and wanted to avoid embarrassment for his prominent family – a family very influential in the founding and development of Fort Worth. Also part of the Van Zandt family are the beloved singer/songwriter Townes, and the author’s own son Ned, who has a supporting role in the film. Since I missed the premiere at last year’s Dallas International Film Festival, I was glad to catch up with it recently.

The film tells the story of Jim McNeely, a dropout dumped by his girlfriend’s parents for not being good enough for their daughter. McNeely is a fictional character, but similar stories (some better, many worse) have played out in real life many times over the years. It’s 1939, and the country is trying to dig out of the depression. McNeely heads to west Texas in hopes of escaping his personal life and capitalizing on the new oil boom – a boom not unlike the gold rush of California almost 100 years prior.

Frank Pickrell’s Santa Rita No. 1 spewed forth boldly (in 1923) announcing the Texas Permian Basin as oil rich. Since then, the area and work have made and broken folks, and that pretty much sums up the story of Jim McNeely – played here by native Texan Zane Garrison (“Prison Break”). His initiation to the oil field crew is not kind, as the roughnecks don’t take kindly to the city boy. Of course, McNeely holds his own until he is ready to head out – and he takes the lovely wife of a local engineer with him. McNeely and Lee Montgomery (Ali Corbin) are soon setting up house and a new business.

It’s McNeely’s first drill and it leads to the obligatory oil gusher shot. This initial luck or success (depending on how you view it) reconnects him with a couple of buddies from his original oil field days: Dent Paxton (Austin Nichols, “Ray Donovan”) and scruffy oil field veteran Ort (played by familiar face Lew Temple). Dent is the dusty road philosopher while Ort is the one who understands drilling. What follows is a case study of how a person reacts to good times and bad. When dreams come true, does corruption of self follow?

Director Roberts is himself a Midland (west Texas) boy, and the excellent opening sequence of the windswept plains proves he has a feel for the area. His black and white shots slowly fade to color as we meet McNeely. Mr. Roberts not only directs, but also co-wrote the script with Gerry De Leon, produced the film, and edited it as well. Such is the life of a low budget production, and though he accurately captures the feel of oil fields, the film would have benefitted from a lead actor who could better pull off the charisma required to accomplish the fundraising and networking of the McNeely character – a man so unlikeable that we never understand why some remain loyal to him. The film does a nice job of showing the rise and crash, as well as the life lessons that prove one is never too old to come of age. It must be stated that following in the footsteps of Jett Rink (James Dean) in GIANT (directed by George Stevens), Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in THERE WILL BE BLOOD (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson) and Larry McMurtry’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (directed by Peter Bogdanovich) is a perhaps a task too tall for even a Texan.

watch the trailer:

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Posted by David Ferguson