Ancient Chinese movie director’s curse: “May you peak during your first six years, and then experience a long, very gradual, mostly erratic decline over the next 25 years.”
Friendo: Did you ever get to meet/interview Michael Ritchie? Yes, he made stinkers like The Golden Child and The Island. but don’t you miss the guy who directed The Bad News Bears, Smile, The Candidate and Downhill Racer?
HE: Downhill Racer, The Candidate and Smile comprise Ritchie’s masterful trio. In late ’23 I finally saw and had an okay time with The Bad News Bears, but I don’t swear by it. Plus I was agreeably amused by Semi-Tough (’77).
Friendo: You don’t think BNB was his masterpiece?
HE: No — Downhill Racer and The Candidate, both starring peak Robert Redford, are the top two. Smile is a close third.
Friendo: Disagree, pal. Ritchie’s best, in the correct order, are BEARS, SMILE, CANDIDATE, FLETCH, RACER, DIGGSTOWN and SEMI-TOUGH. I might add AN ALMOST PERFECT AFFAIR to the mix as Monica Vitti is my #1 time-travel crush.
HE: Diggstown?
EW‘s Chris Willman on 4.26.01: “It’s difficult to think of any director, ever, who had a more consistently uneven career.”
Ritchie died of cancer in 2001, at the age of 62.
“Cancel The Bad News Bears,” posted on 10.27.23**: “I need to finally watch Michael Ritchie‘s The Bad News Bears, I suppose, because a friend assures me it’s coarse and offensive and about as politically incorrect it could’ve been back then. But also hilarious.
That’s right — I never saw it. I ducked it like a champ. I thought I had seen it at first, but then I searched my memory but couldn’t find any shards.
Is it as coarse and un-p.c. as friendo is claiming? I’m asking.
If so, I would seriously pay $50 if L.A. Times critic Justin Chang would re-watch it and review it the way he’s just reviewed The Holdovers.
Friendo: “This movie showed how racism was in the 1970s. Meaning that no one took it that seriously — they made fun of it. This kind of film could never be re-made today. Everyone in the cast is mocked. It’s 100% politically incorrect. Every racial slur imaginable. N-word used freely. But absolutely hilarious. Tatum O’Neal as an 11 year old who smokes and talks about being on the pill. If only someone had the guts to make it today as it was then. A great little movie.”
** I finally saw The Bad News Bears start to finish in late October 2023.
