The Bad News Bears ((hot)) File

The lesson isn't "winning is everything" or "winning isn't everything." The lesson is that the trying —the dirty uniforms, the stolen bases, the middle fingers to the Yankees—is the actual victory. The Bears lose the trophy, but they win their souls.

The story follows Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), a washed-up, alcoholic former minor-league pitcher who is paid to coach a Little League team of misfits in Southern California. The Bad News Bears

The Bears are stupid, foul-mouthed, lazy, and beautiful. They steal bases on passed balls. They argue about the meaning of "suspended animation." They graffiti the dugout. The lesson isn't "winning is everything" or "winning

If you have only seen the poster or the memes, you have missed the point. isn't a sports movie. It is a hangover movie. It is a poetry of failure. And 48 years later, it still hits a little too close to home. The Bears are stupid, foul-mouthed, lazy, and beautiful

To understand the film, you have to understand 1976. The idealism of the 1960s was dead. America was reeling from Watergate, the end of the draft, and economic stagflation. We weren't in the mood for The Brady Bunch . We were ready for Walter Matthau.

If Buttermaker is the film's weary heart, the team is its chaotic soul. The Bears were the antithesis of the polished, uniformed Yankees, the antagonists of the film led by the vile coach Roy Turner (Vic Morrow).