dual personalities

Last week the OM and I watched season one of Goliath (2016), the Amazon Prime original series “about a disgraced lawyer, now an ambulance chaser, who gets a case that could bring him redemption or at least revenge on the firm which expelled him.” (IMDB)

Although pretty intense and typically vulgar (every other word was f–king), it held our interest, which is saying something these days.

On Friday night we watched Hoosiers (1986) because the main character in Goliath–Billy McBride, played by Billy Bob Thornton–was obsessed with the movie and watched it at times of high stress. (I read that George Steinbrenner admitted to watching the movie 250 times.)

We enjoyed it very much.

Hoosiers is loosely based on the Milan High School team that won the 1954 Indiana state championship. With an enrollment of 161 students, it still stands as the smallest school to win a state basketball championship in Indiana. Hoosiers ranks high on all sorts of movie lists – 13th on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Films of All Times; fourth on an AFI poll of the 10 Greatest Sports Films of All Time; and first on USA Today’s For The Win list of the 25 Best Sports Movies Ever Made.

I must say, I can’t see this movie being made in Hollywood today. It takes place in Indiana–a flyover state after all–and is all about the old-fashioned virtues: hard work, dedication, forgiveness, humility. Characters say things like, “Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team – no one more important that the other.” It is about good people. There is no sex, no violence beyond some unsportsmanlike behavior on the part of opponents. And there are two ministers who travel with the team (on a church bus!) and pray before every game. At the final game: “And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen.”

Gene Hackman, who plays Coach Dale, thought the movie would bomb. He was wrong. It touched a cord with a lot of Americans. It is a very good movie, subtle and nuanced. Dennis Hopper is great. I wish he had won the supporting actor Oscar for which he was nominated.

So my advice is that you should try it, if you haven’t seen it, or watch it again if you have.

BTW, I looked up the original review of Goliath in the New York Times and, of course, there was the de rigueur correction at the bottom: A television review on Friday about the new Amazon series “Goliath” included an inaccurate discussion of the show’s plot structure. The critic mistakenly watched the first two episodes out of order. Morons.

*Said by Jimmy Chitwood at the end of Hoosiers (1986).