What’s Aged the Worst?
Myra Fleener's mean-spirited character; Hackman and Hershey kissing; the racial pattern criticized in Best Seat in the House; Coach Dale's coaching
In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:40Read transcript
- Barbara Hershey's Myra Fleener is the token wet-blanket female character (the 'Adrian Balboa Hall of Fame'), the most mean-spirited version, who jumps on the bandwagon once the team wins.
- Deleted scenes released on DVD around 2003-2004 include Myra thanking Coach Dale, saying she is moving to Chicago and that Chicago isn't that far away.
- The studio wanted it under two hours (the final film is an hour 57), so scenes were cut, including Buddy asking back on the team; 19 minutes of scenes are missing.
- A column asking how Buddy just showed back up was reportedly read in Bristol by John Walsh.
- Hackman's aroused look after the feed-truck and dinner exchange prompts jokes about his lack of sex scenes, and The Firm as horny Gene Hackman.
- Any scene with Hackman and Hershey kissing is rough, like watching grandparents kiss.
- The actor who played Flatch was seemingly spotted as a cop in a late-night erotic thriller that is not on his IMDb.
- A basketball book written with Ralph Wiley, Best Seat in the House, called Hoosiers racist for white players toppling South Bend's black players, a pattern traced to Rocky; this tainted the movie about 10%.
- The film is based on the 1954 Milan team, whose opponent had black players, though Milan was a strong team; the white-hero pattern recurred in that era.
- Watching with that lens, the South Bend white backcourt, not the black players, costs the game.
- Coach Dale's coaching is questioned: the pass-four-times rule, hiring the town drunk, playing four players, ejections, not running the final play for Jimmy, and not playing Strap enough.
- His greatest gift was getting everybody rowing in the same direction, like Joe Tori, but the resume is not one of the all-time greats.