I remember watching the Bad News Bears as a teenager close to when it first came out, and thinking that yeah, this was a fun movie that kind of reminded me of real life. The movie was famous at the time, and I never remembered it being anything more than a fun entertainment. When I watched it again a few days ago (perhaps the first time in 30 years), I was really startled. This movie was not just funny but impressive, capturing something of the truth about the way adults and kids really interact with each other in our society. The kids are gritty--they swear, they fight, they are insolent and belligerent, they are cruel (sound familiar?). The adults are hyper-competitive, drunken, prone to selfish projection, lazy and insensitive (sound familiar again?). The movie becomes much more than a feel-good underdog story (although it would inspire many such imitations) but rather becomes a desperate struggle for dignity among all the participants in a situation that is full of snares. This is a really good movie, not particularly for kids to view.

I remember watching the Bad News Bears as a teenager close to when it first came out, and thinking that yeah, this was a fun movie that kind of reminded me of real life. The movie was famous at the time, and I never remembered it being anything more than a fun entertainment. When I watched it again a few days ago (perhaps the first time in 30 years), I was really startled. This movie was not just funny but impressive, capturing something of the truth about the way adults and kids really interact with each other in our society. The kids are gritty--they swear, they fight, they are insolent and belligerent, they are cruel (sound familiar?). The adults are hyper-competitive, drunken, prone to selfish projection, lazy and insensitive (sound familiar again?). The movie becomes much more than a feel-good underdog story (although it would inspire many such imitations) but rather becomes a desperate struggle for dignity among all the participants in a situation that is full of snares. This is a really good movie, not particularly for kids to view.

Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) is a drunken ex-minor leaguer. He gets hired to coach a little league team of misfits. One of the fathers had sued to get the kids into a competitive league. However after a humiliating opening loss, the father figures the team should quit and so do the kids. Buttermaker try to save the team by getting a couple of ringers, his former girlfriend's kid (Tatum O'Neal) who happens to be a little girl and a juvenile delinquent (Jackie Earle Haley).

This isn't simply a good kids movie. Quite frankly, parents today wouldn't want their kids to see this. The language is rough. A parent hits his kid. The kids swear, smoke, talk sex, and drink beer. I don't know how they got PG.

The kids are great. Walter Matthau is his grumpy best. Tatum O'Neal is wonderful. It works as a good underdog movie. And then the last act explodes into something wonderful. It's heartbreaking when Buttermaker rejects Amanda for simply wanting a father figure. Then it goes all out as both coaches go super competitive. It's a real indictment of the ugliness of kids' sports culminating in that slap. It's not just a simple underdog movie, but a movie about real sportsmanship. It is a great original that the 2005 remake cannot touch.