The Bad News Bears (1976)

The Bad News Bears
Directed by Michael Ritchie
Written by Bill Lancaster
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Engelberg: You’re not supposed to have open liquor in the car. It’s against the law.
Coach Morris Buttermaker: So is murder, Engleberg. Now put that back before you get me in real trouble.

Gee, I love this movie!  Along with everything else, I think this may be Walter Matthau’s best performance.

Morris Buttermaker (Matthau) is a beer-guzzling pool maintenance man.  In the old days, he was a second-rate minor league baseball player.  A local politician sued for the right to add an additional team to the area’s ultra-competitive Little League, one that would allow misfits who were never chosen to play.  He hires Buttermaker as coach.

The team is hopeless and Buttermaker is in it strictly for the money.  He half-heartedly trains the boys.  But something about the condescending attitude of the gung-ho parents and coaches of the other teams gets him interested in helping his hapless charges when the season starts.  He bribes Amanda (Tatum O’Neal), whom he taught to throw a mean curve ball when he was dating her mother, to pitch for the team.  Eventually she entices the local “bad boy” (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking motor-bike riding twelve-year old with a powerful swing, to join.

The fortunes of the team improve.  Will Buttermaker succumb to the winning-is-everything attitude of the other coaches?  And how will the Bears perform in their last game?

One need have no interest in baseball to enjoy this movie.  One just needs to remember what it was like to be a child.  I love it because all the kids have so much personality and the script is hilarious with plenty of heart. And Matthau is absolutely superb.  Warmly recommended.