Football fans get a close-up
‘Silver Linings’ captures fanatical passion of game
NEW YORK, Dec 1, (AP): In David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook,” Bradley Cooper plays an unstable former teacher trying to improve himself after exiting a mental institution. When his character, Pat Solitano, consults his otherwise levelheaded psychiatrist Dr Cliff Patel (Anupam Kher) on whether a Philadelphia Eagles’ jersey is appropriate attire for a dinner party, Patel questions which jersey. On hearing that it’s star wide-receiver DeSean Jackson, he responds unequivocally: “DeSean Jackson is the man.” This is Philadelphia, where undying loyalty to the local NFL team — “the Birds” — is everywhere, even in the sensitive relations between therapist and patient.
As large a role as football plays in American life, Hollywood has typically focused its cameras on the field of play, where the dramatics of gridiron battle are self-evident. But “Silver Linings Playbook,” which was recently nominated for five Spirit Awards and is widely expected to be a best picture Oscar contender, is more interested in the face-painters in the stands.
The annals of pigskin pictures have ranged from the hijinks of Groucho Marx (“Horse Feathers”) to the inspiration of a newcomer to the sport (“The Blind Side”). Football in movies has been a regular source of hardknock action (“Any Given Sunday”), manly tragedy (“Brian’s Song,” ‘’Remember the Titans”) and underdog triumph (“Rudy”).
But along with “Silver Linings Playbook,” a handful of films have sought to capture the fanatical passion — both the communal spirit and the toxic obsession — that grips millions of households and acres of parking-lot asphalt every Sunday this time of year.
In Vincent Gallo’s “Buffalo ‘66” (1998), Gallo drew from his own childhood in the upstate New York city, playing a man named after the hometown team (Billy), with lifeless saged the Academy of Motion Picture’s choice. (RTRS)
LOS ANGELES: Oscar host Seth parents glued to the TV screen for Buffalo Bills games. A lost bet on a crucial game cost Billy $10,000 and put him in jail. On his exit, he’s bent on avenging the guilty place kicker, a fictionalized version of a real-life Bills scapegoat, kicker Scott Norwood.
“Big Fan” (2009), written and directed by Robert D. Siegel (who also wrote “The Wrestler”), depicted a diehard New York Giants fan (Patton Oswalt) whose devotion is tested when he’s brutally assaulted by his favorite player.
The 2004 film “Friday Night Lights,” and the subsequent TV series, sought to portray a football-mad Texas town, where the sport reverberated in nearly all that was good — and all that was bad — in Dillon, Texas. MacFarlane is inviting college students to join him on stage at the Academy Awards.
The “Family Guy” creator made a surprise appearance at UCLA to announce a
Memoir
These movies all share in the spirit of Frederick Exley’s classic 1968 fictional memoir, “A Fan’s Notes.” The Giants-loving author wrote: “Cheering is a paltry description. The Giants were my delight, my folly, my anodyne, my intellectual stimulation. ... I gave myself up to the Giants utterly. The recompense I gained was the feeling of being alive.”
It was that kind of intensity that interested Russell, whose last film, “The Fighter,” captured the boxing community of Lowell, Mass.
“What makes characters fascinating in a funny and an emotional way to me is when they have life and death stakes about their particular currency,” the director says. “So (Robert) De Niro’s currency was everything about the Eagles.”
As with many things in sports, the Eagles devotion in “Silver Linings Playbook” flows through the father, played by De Niro. He not only makes much of his living from the Eagles as a bookie, but he watches each game at home with obsessive-compulsive ardor. The fortunes of the Solitanos become inextricably linked with that of the Eagles.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quick, a Philadelphia native who, reached by phone at his home in Massachusetts, makes no bones about his allegiance: “I bleed green,” he says.
“My earliest memories of my father are of going down to the Vet,” says Quick, referring to Veterans Stadium, the former home of the Eagles. “In the neighborhood I grew up in, the men didn’t tell you that they loved you or give you hugs, they took you to Eagles games,” says Quick. “If the Eagles scored a touchdown, you got a hug.”
“It’s such a metaphor for striving,” says Quick. “No matter what happens, there’s always that next game. There’s always that next season.”
The plot of “Big Fan” might suggest a more cynical view of football, but Siegel, too, is a lifelong sports fan. Growing up on Long Island, he became a devoted listener to the New York-area sports radio station WFAN. In the film, Oswalt’s character is a regular caller, dialing in like a performer with a nightly show.
“The callers seemed like these incredibly vivid, almost movie characters,” say Siegel. “You’ve got these ordinary working Joes taking on the machismo and testosterone of their heroes and doing it anonymously through the radio where it’s very safe. It’s kind of a form of fantasy play acting.”
As he treated a sport usually not taken seriously (professional wrestling) in “The Wrestler,” Siegel feels the often-disrespected sports fan is fertile, relatively unexplored territory.
“What (fans) are passionate about might seem silly to the outside observer,” says Siegel. “Certainly you could make the case that that’s very sad and pathetic, but I don’t. I admire their passion and I identify with it.”
“Sports fans are outsiders who feel like insiders,” he adds, “which is an interesting thing to explore.” contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU that will allow winning college students to appear on the Feb 24 Oscar telecast.
The contest invites students to submit videos on the academy’s Facebook page describing how they’ll contribute to the future of film. At least six winners will serve as trophy carriers on the Oscar show, replacing the leggy models who usually perform the duties.
MacFarlane spent 40 minutes leading the undergraduate film and television class at UCLA’s Westwood campus on Wednesday as part of mtvU’s “Stand In” series, which brings celebrities to college classrooms as guest lecturers.
“In re-imagining what we want the Oscar show to be, we wanted everyone appearing on that stage to feel a deep commitment to film and its legacy, and most importantly, its future,” said Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron in a statement. “That was the impetus in creating this special honor for young film students who will inspire a new generation to create the films that will be honored in the future.”
The contest is also aimed at drawing younger viewers favored by advertisers to the Oscars’ aging TV audience. Like UCLA student Abby Smith, who immediately pulled out her smartphone to share the moment on Facebook when MacFarlane appeared before her class. (AP)