Themes: Redemption, Underdogs, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, Pamela Reed, Holly Palance, Donald Moffat
Release Year: 1986
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Small-town banker Robin Williams has never been able to live down the fact that he dropped an important pass during a crucial high-school football game. Likewise tainted for life is the team's star quarterback Kurt Russell, now a garage owner. Fed up with living his life under a cloud, Williams hits upon a brilliant idea: he will stage a rematch-13 years after the fact--with the members of the rival team. Trouble beckons when Williams' father-in-law announces that he's rooting for the opposition. Williams is determined to win, and in pursuit of that goal he pushes his former teammates to hitherto untapped brilliance. Directed by Roger Spottiswood, The Best of Times was written by Ron Shelton, future writer/director of such delightful sports films as Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump and Tin Cup; it was Shelton, in fact, who directed most of Best of Times' climactic football game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
There is real charm and warmth in the simple romantic comedyThe Best of Times. The two lead couples Jack (Robin Williams) and Elly (Holly Palance) and Reno Kurt Russell and Gigi (the wonderful Pamela Reed) reveal an intimacy (thanks to Ron Shelton's warm, perceptive screenplay) that allows the viewer to see both sides of their respective marital disputes, even though the film spends more time with the guys. The film is about men who live in the past and must confront it in order to live with themselves and their wives in the present. One of the smarter touches in this script is that Reno, who is as beloved for his past success as Jack is tainted by his failures, suffers just as much for his inability to put the past behind him. All of that, however, is subtext for a very funny movie about high school football and how much it means to small towns. Although The Best of Times is directed by Roger Spottiswoode, and contains fine performances from its talented cast, it clearly belongs to screenwriter Ron Shelton, whose later directorial efforts (Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump, Tin Cup) are also about sports-obsessed adult "boys" who learn to be men. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Margaret Whitton - Darla; M. Emmet Walsh - Charlie; Donovan Scott - Eddie; R.G. Armstrong - Schutte; Carl Ballantine - Arturo; Dog: Buck; J.P. Bumstead - Cop; Kirk Cameron - Teddy; Eloy Casados - Carlos; Christopher Cory - Assistant Football Trainer; Jake Dengel - Caribous; Robert Dickman - Taft Business Man; Jeff Doucette - Olin; Kurt Fox; Kathleen Freeman - Rosie; Hugh Gillin - Caribou #2; Anne Haney - Marcy; Linda Hart - Blender; Hap Lawrence - Dickie Larue; Robyn Lively - Jaki; Wayne Montanio - Felipe; Tony Plana - Chico; Adam Rose; William G. Schilling - Caribou #1; Jeff Severson - Johnny O; Nick Shields - Bam Bam; Hugo L. Stanger - Old Man Lester; Dub Taylor - Mac; Peter van Norden - Mando; Philippe Gerard - Disgruntled Fan; Wayne Adderson - Bakersfield Coach; Patrick Brennan - Ronny; Marie Cain - Blender; Raymond W. Clanto - Bakersfield Coach; Cathy Cheryl Davis - Taft Woman; Hilary Davis - Michelle; Mike Douglas; Herman Edwards; Jim Giovanni - Taft Football Player; Michelle Guastello - Taft Woman; Vister Hayes - Dr. Death; Brenda Huggins - Mrs. Jackson; Christopher Mankiewicz - Safari Room Security Guard; Peggy Moyer - Blender; Fred A. Nelson - Bakersfield Coach; Bill Overton - Luther Jackson; Chuck Ramsey - Himself; Steve Riley; Kim Romano; Norm Schachter - Referee; Steve Shargo - Taft Football Player; Susan Signorelli - Taft Woman; Darryl B. Smith - Bakersfield Coach; Kelly Thomas; Iron Jaw Wilson - "Iron Jaws"; Michael Rich - Blade
Credit
Anthony Brockliss - Art Director, Linda Hart - Choreography, Pat Norris - Costume Designer, Roger Spottiswoode - Director, Garth Craven - Editor, Arthur B. Rubinstein - Composer (Music Score), Carole King - Songwriter, Burt Bacharach - Songwriter, Arthur Benson - Songwriter, Hal David - Songwriter, Gerry Goffin - Songwriter, Ewin Mac Coll - Songwriter, Barry Mann - Songwriter, Stan Vincent - Songwriter, Cynthia Weil - Songwriter, Brad Wilder - Makeup, David Nichols - Production Designer, Bruce Surtees - Cinematographer, Charles Wheeler - Cinematographer, Gordon Carroll - Producer, Marc E. Meyer, Jr. - Set Designer, Garry J. Elmendorf - Special Effects, Ron Shelton - Screenwriter, Edward Elgar - Featured Music
Robin Williams plays Jack Dundee, a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: The moment that he dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft and their arch-nemesis, Bakersfield.
Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget his drop. He works in a bank for his father-in-law, a.k.a. The Colonel, Bakersfield's biggest supporter, and is reminded by him almost daily, that it was his clumsiness and inability to catch a football that lost Taft its one chance for glory by finally beating Bakersfield, and how Taft would never do it again.
Thirteen years later, Jack coerces Reno (Kurt Russell), star quarterback of the fateful game and now a financially struggling garage owner in debt to Jack's bank, into helping him replay the game. He convinces supporters in both towns to re-stage the game and in the process revitalizes Taft, as well as his and Reno's marriages. The game is replayed and at the critical moment Reno throws another perfect pass to Jack. He catches it, and Taft defeats Bakersfield.
Much of the film was shot in and around Taft. The football scenes took place at Pierce Junior College in the San Fernando Valley. The night game was filmed at Moorpark Memorial High School, in Moorpark, CA.
The Renegades (1982) ·The Last Innocent Man (1987) ·Time Flies When You're Alive (1989) ·Third Degree Burn (1989) ·And the Band Played On (1993) ·Hiroshima (with Koreyoshi Kurahara) (1995) ·Prince Street (1997) ·Murder Live! (1997) ·Noriega: God's Favorite (2000) ·The Matthew Shepard Story (2002) ·Ice Bound (2003)
