That Championship Season (1982)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Jason Miller

Writer:

Jason Miller (play)

Release Date:

14 January 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

It started as a friendly meeting between 4 old buddies with their basketball coach and ended up in revealing the truth about their relationship...

Plot Keywords:

Coach | Basketball | Adaptation Directed By Original Author | Father Figure | Reunion

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Bruce Dern	...	George Sitkowski
Stacy Keach	...	James Daley
Robert Mitchum	...	Coach Delaney
Martin Sheen	...	Tom Daley
Paul Sorvino	...	Phil Romano
Arthur Franz	...	Macken
Michael Bernosky	...	Jacks
Joseph Kelly	...	Malley
James M. Langan	...	Cooney
Tony Santaniello	...	Marelli
William G. McAndrew	...	Harrison
Barry Weiner	...	Sharman
Edward Cunningham	...	Newspaper Editor
Robert E. Schlesinger	...	Nelson
George Lowry	...	Zookeeper
Jim Sparkman	...	The Heckler

Directed by
Jason Miller

Writing credits
Jason Miller		(play)

Produced by
Yoram Globus	....	executive producer
Menahem Golan	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Bill Conti

Cinematography by
John Bailey

Film Editing by
Richard Halsey

Production Design by
Ward Preston

Set Decoration by
Robert R. Benton

Costume Design by
Ron Talsky

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Robert Engelman	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Yarek Alfer	....	sculptor

Sound Department
Sandy Berman	....	supervising sound editor
Raul A. Bruce	....	boom operator
Marty Church	....	adr mixer
Marty Church	....	foley mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Bobby Brown	....	second assistant camera: "a" camera
Jim Duggan	....	company grip
Dave Friedman	....	still photographer
Al LaVerde	....	key grip

Editorial Department
Lorenzo DeStefano	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Dan Wallin	....	score mixer
James D. Young	....	music editor

Transportation Department
Robert Benjamin	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Jim Gerwig	....	caterer
Kathryn Loraine Hibbs	....	assistant accountant

Distributors

• Citadel Films (1983) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Cannon Film Distributors
• Globo Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

American Zoetrope Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Trivia:

The play "That Championship Season" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1973.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Mayor Sitkowski is riding the exercise bicycle in his office in Scranton, the sun is shining outside, but the apparently live baseball game he is watching from Yankee Stadium is being played at night. Scranton isn't far enough west of the Bronx for this to happen.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Bruce Dern/Leon Redbone (#8.15)" (1983)

Structuring the Unknowable

Where would we be without mythology? Up the creek. Cultural anthropologists have a respectable amount of information available on about four thousand independent societies, and every one of them has an organized system of myths that explains, among other things, where we came from, how we got here, and what hold us together. This movie is a kind of case illustration of how it all works. "That championship season" -- a time in the long past when a group of now overgrown high school kids under the tutelage of a coach of limited mental means but considerable moral stature guided them to the top. Well, it wasn't simply a season, according to this film, but their Garden of Eden. The entire underpinning of the film is an allegory regarding religious mythology. It mirrors current society in that the myth has become hoary and is beginning to show many cracks. Lord knows people are staying away from mainstream churches (and other ideologies, such as Marxism) in droves. "The boys" have turned into philanderers, drunks, and shady businessmen, and their solidarity is falling apart. None of them is noble in any way. At critical moments, it is the "coach" and their faith in him that holds them together. And when, after all the arguments and recriminations and name-calling, they stare at their meaningless trophy and hold hands in an empty gymnasium, the scene must touch the stoniest heart. The trophy, and the coach who gave it to them, don't amount to very much -- a cheap piece of metal symbolizing little, and a man now grown older who dispenses clumsy advice like -- "Boys, don't lose your poise." It isn't much but they hang onto it for the simple reason that they have nothing else. It is their little myth, and there is no replacement for it. John Ford made a similar point in "Steamboat Round the Bend," but his story was more optimistic. Will Rogers comes to manage a steamboat with an exhibit of old wax statues of mythological figures and historical persons like Napoleon. There is a distinct absence of customers because no one cares about seeing a likeness of Hercules anymore. What does Will Rogers do? He throws out the old costumes and dresses them in new, more modern, more "reform" garments. Romulus and Remus become Frank and Jesse James, and so forth. In other words, when the old myths are worn out, you create new ones that attract people. Joseph Campbell would have approved. But these boys are shackled to the past and lack such resources. The film is well played and has many dramatic moments -- and humerous ones too. The coach expounding on a professional athlete's achievements and referring to him as "a splendid nigger." A failed attempt to bury an elephant (!). I thought this movie was excellently done. Miller did a fine job of directing his own play and opening it up. Mitchum effortlessly plays the naive and well-intentioned Mentor. He should have received more recognition for his talents than he did, though, to be sure, he walked through some parts and chose others badly. "That Championship Season" isn't shown on TV very often. Too bad. It ought to be seen.