That Championship Season_720p(480P)

source: That Championship Season

Trailer—That Championship Season

That Championship Season

Being I am from Scranton PA originally, I loved the film. I bought it twice. I remember allot of this actually happening and I met Jason Miller because he was a friend of Jack Churilla, credited at the end of the film. The events with the elephant falling actually happened and I remember it well. My Dad worked for the city of Scranton and spent time with the elephants the city had. We were devastated when the elephant died. The film is so powerful especially if you were from Scranton. The scenes that show the city and the mayors house are real. It made me relive allot of my childhood. And I love the 5 characters who played the parts. All excellent. Bravo to Jason Miller for telling it all.

I went back to this after 25 years. I read an article about Robert Mitchum and it reminded me of his performance in That Championship Season, which wasn't even mentioned in the article. I bought it and re discovered 5 excellent acting performances. The best performance? Stacy Keach (James Daley). He is as pathetic as any self-disappointed middle aged man could get in his grandiosity and self pity. My favorite Character is Phil Romano, played by Paul Sorvino. Rich, degenerate, and one election away from financial ruin. In one of the first scenes, when the group shows up at the emergency City Council meeting to discuss a political disappointment, his swagger walking in and walking out of the room was elegant arrogance. The writing is superb, and the backdrop in economically depressed Scranton captured the atmosphere of Rustbelt economic desperation (which nicely parallels the personal and professional desperation of each of the characters) perfectly. Worth seeing.

This is a great story based somewhat factually on events in the City of Scranton. I was cast as an extra (as was many of the Scranton Inhabitants)I was the kid with the red stripped Tube Socks walking on the left of the Elephant in the parade. The events of the Elephant actually happened in Scranton about 1976. The Main Characters are based on High School Basketball Players that Jason Miller went to High School with at Scranton Central High School. The Stores that line the street that the parade moved past, were blown up @1992 to make way for a shopping mall. Jason Miller became a Drama Professor at the University of Scranton. At Miller's Funeral, many of the original stars of the movie were in attendance.

To me the outstanding feature of this movie is the acting of Robert Mitchum, who superbly fits the role of coach to a group of men who gather to reminisce and during the course of their encounter, almost tear each other apart--verbally, physically and emotionally. The others are outstanding as well and are all great actors. However, Mitchum shows the range he has as an actor that many of his earlier roles didn't allow him. A note of division is introduced into the proceedings that lays raw their emotions. It leads to an escalation of bitterness and recriminations. During it all, they find out about themselves and what they have become because of the brutal honesty of one another. None of them are plaster saints, far from it, they are classic alpha males, no worse or better than most of us. In the end, they probably realize that they are better for the brutal honesty that they can share with one another.

I'm writing this hopefully to have these comments take the place of the inane, untrue comments by another viewer whose comments' title is "a failure". This film is full of performances that are a primer for anyone wishing to be an actor; and I watched it expecting it to be play-ish and dry: it was not, it was expertly directed (rare for a playwright to do that so well; Mamet can't even do it), expertly paced, expertly shot and edited. This film richly reflects the excellent play and is a championship effort by all. (I am a produced playwright and screenwriter; most likely the viewer/commentator who deemed this film "a failure" is a failure himself.)