A Season on the Brink

[Han Solo]

Is ESPN promoting this at all? I don't think I've seen that many ads for it..

Whoops, had sarcasm mode on there for a minute. All better now. Anyone planning on watching? And incidently, which version - the ESPN one or the one on the deuce where they censor all the f-bombs.

[Dr T Non-Fan]

I read that it sucked bad from a television reviewer who hasn't let me down yet. So I will find other things to watch/do.

[Patience]

Local sports talk radio said it is not worth the time. They are not pro-Knight, but said the movie has little substance.

[Pseudolus]

Even espn.com's own "Sports Guy" (formerly "Boston Sports Guy") was only lukewarm to it (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/020307.html).
Q: Is this movie going to be any good? What's it about?

I haven't seen a finished cut of the movie, but I read the script and watched a full day of filming. The script seemed OK. It's a straight-forward treatment of the '86 season -- as described in detail by John Feinstein's superb book -- which has the same problems that most TV movies have: Too much ground to cover, not enough time to explore the fringe characters, clichéd dialogue, plots moving along too abruptly and so on. Given that it was the first ESPN-produced movie, they probably weren't expecting anything beyond a cost-effective, watchable, semi-absorbing sports movie that could be carried by one visible star (in this case, the bankable Brian Dennehy as Knight).

As for the scenes I watched in person, if you're looking for inexperienced actors reciting lines of dialogue like this ...

"You gonna study tonight?"
"Sure, I'll study what's on the tube."

... then "Brink" is the movie for you. From what I witnessed, the Unintentional Comedy Rating for "Brink" could be off the charts. Either way, it's going to be intriguing, especially with Dennehy and a competent director (Bob Mandel who did "FX") involved. Whether the finished product will be described as "Entertaining & Absorbing," "Perversely Enjoyable" or "As Gripping As a Two-Hour Car Crash" remains to be seen. At the very least, I'm guessing it will keep our attention for two hours.

[sb_jim]

I cheered for Rambo when he dropped Brian Dennehy in the first Rambo. Kevin Kline got the best of big fat sheriff Brian in Silverado. Since I know R.M. Knight is still alive in Texas this movie can't have the ending I would prefer. Maybe I'll rent Death of a Salesman to see how Brian does as Biff.

[Troy McClure]

I'm looking forward to it, although it has been seriously over-promoted. Since I lived in Indiana at the time, I know the story (read the book, too - didn't think it was "superb", though) pretty well, and I remember that season clearly. For example, when I read the book, I remember thinking "Oh, yeah, this is the game that I watched over at Brian's place", etc.

You would think they would have done a more recent story, though - this happened 15 years ago.

[Rockhound]

It's just a ploy to get Knight the Coach of the Year award.

[Troy McClure]

On 2002-03-08 16:57, Rockhound wrote:
It's just a ploy to get Knight the Coach of the Year award.


If there's any fairness in the world, he's already a lock. He just beat Oklahoma State, and there isn't a player on Texas Tech that has as much talent as I do.

PS. I am not a fan, don't really like the guy, I just recognize that he's brilliant.

[Mick Fan]

I watched the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. The F-bomb was dropped time after time ... I didn't know you could even do that. You couldn't post the script to this site, right Traci? :smile:

I watched ESPN's NCAA selection special, and they conveniently interviewed Bob Knight (the real one) from 7:51 to 7:59. The interview ended one minute before the movie started.

[Drzy]

I watched the whole thing, but unfortunately, I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. It was an enjoyable movie, but nothing spectacular.

I was most impressed with how they handled mixing in real footage from the season with acted footage; it was still obvious and horrid, but at least they made the setting and the camera work fit with the time period. That's a lot better than most movies do with that.

[jets fan]

I watched it last night - I agree that it was OK, but it wasn't anything great. You're not missing much if you didn't see it. I also agree that it was WAY over-promoted!

[Troy McClure]

Actually, it got mentioned on the Sports Reporters on Sunday morning, too - that small guy that's always on there (the one from Boston) asked if ESPN was going to run any commercials for it.

Watched it. Agree it's worth seeing, but nothing to get excited about. I think it's slightly biased against Knight - showing more of his bad side than good - but I think that it would be really hard to do his good side justice in two hours. It takes no time to show him yelling at his players, but it takes a while to explain the whole Landon Turner thing (for example).

[WWSituation]

I thought it was descent, worth seeing, cheesy at times. I didn't get that it was biased against Knight. They really tried to show the whole picture, as a family man, a hunter, etc. It only seems biased because Knight is such a jerk.

Do you think it's funny that Knight's graduates "never saw Knight ever slap or hit a kid", but those who transferred and have nothing to lose by speaking out against him have seen all sorts of things?

Its a good thing that the Neal Reed video tape wasn't depending on Knight for a coaching job.

[WWSituation]

I also thought it was fun to see Roy Tarpley depicted in the movie. Is he dead?

[Troy McClure]

On 2002-03-11 10:01, WWSituation wrote:
I thought it was descent, worth seeing, cheesy at times. I didn't get that it was biased against Knight. They really tried to show the whole picture, as a family man, a hunter, etc. It only seems biased because Knight is such a jerk.

Do you think it's funny that Knight's graduates "never saw Knight ever slap or hit a kid", but those who transferred and have nothing to lose by speaking out against him have seen all sorts of things?


Actually, I was comparing it to the book, and noticing things that were sort of skipped over - Landon Turner being the most prominent. In case you don't know, Turner was a player on one of Knight's earlier teams (can't remember if he was on the 1981 National Championship team) who Knight never really liked all that well. When he was hurt in a car crash and put in a wheelchair, Knight did a ton of work raising money for him and finding him a job, etc.

But, I wasn't thinking about the family thing. That was way overdone relative to the book. I think the book only mentions his family a couple of times. So, that painted a nice picture. And, he is a jerk, so I can't blame them for showing him swearing and being a crude a--, but they used a lot of lighting and camera angles to make sure he looked as evil as possible.

And, I don't think there's that many who have that much to say about slapping and hitting - for example, Ricky Calloway was on after the movie, and he has no relationship with Knight today, but I don't think he has ever said anything like that. What about Isaiah? Do you think he is dependent on Knight for his future success? Coach K? Calbert Chaney? Steve Alford?

My opinion is that he hasn't done anything worse than a lot of coaches wrt to hitting etc - and the scene with the player on the bench that gets head-butted or Neil Reed are blown out of proportion because he is a jerk.