The Bad News Bears(1976)

Paramount Pictures

PG
1h 42m

Release Date: Apr 7, 1976

30%
31%
7.3

An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.

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Director & Top Cast

Michael Ritchie
Director

Walter Matthau
Coach Morris Buttermaker

Tatum O’Neal
Amanda Whurlitzer

Vic Morrow
Roy Turner

Joyce Van Patten
Cleveland

Ben Piazza
Bob Whitewood

Jackie Earle Haley

Kelly Leak

Alfred Lutter III

Ogilvie

Chris Barnes

Tanner Boyle

Erin Blunt

Ahmad Abdul Rahim

Gary Lee Cavagnaro

Engelberg

Jaime Escobedo

Jose Agilar

Scott Firestone

Regi Tower

George Gonzales

Miguel Agilar

Brett Marx

Jimmy Feldman

David Pollock

Rudi Stein

Quinn Smith

Timmy Lupus

David Stambaugh

Toby Whitewood

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English,Spanish

Summaries

Plot Summary

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic and former minor-league baseball player, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Little League which excluded the least skilled athletes (including his son) from playing. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team - the Bears - which is composed of the worst players in the whole Little League. Buttermaker becomes the coach of the unlikely team, which includes (among others) a near-sighted pitcher, an overweight catcher, a foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex, an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron, and a motley collection of other "talent". Shunned by the more competitive teams (and competitive parents), the Bears are the outsiders. They play their opening game, and do not even record an out, with the score at 26 to 0 before Buttermaker forfeits the game.Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: First up, is sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal), a skilled pitcher (trained by Buttermaker when she was younger) who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriends. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but then she reveals that she had been practicing "on the sly". Before agreeing to join the team, Amanda makes a number of outlandish demands (such as imported jeans, modeling school, ballet lessons, etc.) as conditions for joining. Upon hearing her demands, Buttermaker asks, "Who do you think you are, Catfish Hunter?" Amanda responds by asking, "Who's he?" Rounding out the team, Buttermaker recruits the "best athlete in the area," who also happens to be the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley). With Whurlizer and Leak on board, the team starts gaining more confidence, and the Bears start winning games.Eventually, the unlikely Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees, who are coached by aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless and competitive against each other, going as far as fighting, spiking on slide, or the batter getting hit on purpose.The turnaround point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner's son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey (Brandon Cruz) and the Bears at-bat catcher Engelberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro). Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome, despite Joey's wish to give it a try. In response, Joey intentionally throws a wild beanball nearly striking Engelberg in the head. Horrified, Turner goes to the mound and slaps his son. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg has an inside the park home run. Joey then leaves the game dropping the ball at his father's feet.Buttermaker - realizing that he has become as competitive as Turner - puts the benchwarmers on the field, thus giving everyone a chance to play. In spite of this, the finish-up brings up the best team-play from the Bears. After loading the bases with smart tactics (two walks and a bunt) they nearly recover a four run difference, with the last runner getting taken out at the last moment.Having narrowly lost the game at 7 to 6, Buttermaker gives the team free rein of his beer cooler. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of having come a long way. The condescending Yankees congratulate the Bears (in a sarcastic tone implying that they really not mean it) telling them that although they are still not that good, they have "guts." Tanner, the shortstop, replies by telling the Yankees where they can put their trophy. The Bears cheer and Lupus overcomes his chronic shyness enough to yell "Wait 'til next year!", then they spray their beers all over each other. The movie ends with a field celebration by the Bears that makes it look as if they won the game.

Storyline

Former minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker is a lazy, beer swilling swimming pool cleaner who takes money to coach the Bears, a bunch of disheveled misfits who have virtually no baseball talent. Realizing his dilemma, Coach Buttermaker brings aboard girl pitching ace Amanda Whurlizer, the daughter of a former girlfriend, and Kelly Leak, a motorcycle punk who happens to be the best player around. Brimming with confidence, the Bears look to sweep into the championship game and avenge an earlier loss to their nemesis, the Yankees. — Rick Gregory <rag.apa@email.apa.org> Perpetually semi-inebriated, the beer-drinking, cigar-smoking, one-time minor-league pitcher turned professional pool-cleaner, Morris Buttermaker, agrees to coach San Fernando Valley's hopeless little league baseball team, the Bears. To scrape up some cash, Coach Buttermaker has to show this band of maladroit oddballs the ropes--to have, at least, a fighting chance in the upcoming championship--going as far as to recruit the streetwise twelve-year-old daughter of one of his ex-girlfriends and first-rate pitcher, Amanda, and the tough juvenile delinquent, Kelly Leak. Will the group of misfits start winning games? Do they stand a chance against the nearly perfect team, the Yankees? — Nick Riganas Hard-drinking, ex-minor-league hopeful Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) grumpily agrees to coach a Little League team at the behest of lawyer-councilman Bob Whitewood (Ben Piazza), who has a vendetta against the league for excluding his marginally talented son from play. After failing with his new team of misfits, Buttermaker enlists feisty and gifted pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer (Tatum O'Neal) to lead the charge -- but can he find the luck and patience to whip these outcasts into shape? — FilmsNow

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