Review Detail

I recently saw this movie for the first time when I rented it on Amazon Prime. Renting movies on Amazon Prime and YouTube brings back memories of when my dad used to take me to Blockbuster on Fridays. The Bad News Bears is a tremendous Sports/Comedy film. It’s crazy that it took me this long to watch this movie. 

This movie would not be made today. Today mainstream media would not allow it. That’s how soft we have gotten. The main idea of the movie is about an aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer who coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league. Walter Matthau is portrayed as Buttermaker, the coach who is an alcoholic as well. He was horrible at their coach at the beginning of Act One, but then you saw that he started to become tougher on his players and his players started to listen to him. 

The movie has so many great lines. At the beginning of the movie, Buttermaker tells Tanner, the catcher of the team, “There’s chocolate all over this ball.” Tanner loves eating chocolate. Tanner responds to him to stop bugging him about food and always has to hear it from people by calling him fat. It’s the way he reacted to Buttermaker that made that scene funny. 

One of my favorite scenes of the movie is when Buttermaker snaps at his players for not playing well. All of the players are sitting on the bench as he’s rolling them apart. After he said what he said, he took a pause and then told them “Do the best you can.” He realized that he was becoming like the opposing manager, Roy Turner. This is the most powerful and important scene of the movie. The thirty seconds of silence made Buttermaker realize his behavior toward his players. His players are kids, not adults. Buttermaker was funny but he showed his serious side in this scene. Also, Tatum O’Neill’s silent acting in that scene was great. 

The scene with Buttermaker and Amanda in the dugout is heartbreaking. When Buttermaker tells Amanda that he doesn’t want or need her company, you can tell the sadness on her face. She wanted to build a connection with him, but Buttermaker tells her that she shouldn’t waste her time being around him because he’s a drunken bum and a loser. Amanda doesn’t see it that way, but he refuses to listen. The good thing about it is that later on they were able to reconcile, and everything came back to full circle.  
Outstanding classic baseball movie!  Walter Matthau is a comic genius.  Highly recommend you watch this classic film.