Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [32]
44. THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED
(2005)
Directed by Bill Paxton
Screenplay by Mark Frost
Based on the book The Greatest Game Ever Played:
Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf by Mark Frost
Actors:
SHIA LABEOUF
STEPHEN DILLANE
JOSH FLITTER
PEYTON LIST
MARNIE MCPHAIL
ELIAS KOTEAS
STEPHEN MARCUS
LEN CARIOU
LUKE ASKEW
PETER FIRTH
JOE JACKSON
DAWN UPSHAW
JAMES PAXTON
There are countless movies about baseball, and a healthy supply of films about such other pastimes as football and basketball. Golf has never struck Hollywood as an especially compelling sport, but when writer-producer Mark Frost (whose television credits include Hill Street Blues and Twin Peaks) came upon the story of the 1913 U.S. Open Tournament, he knew he’d struck gold. The true story offered so much great raw material that he researched and wrote a book called The Greatest Game Ever Played, and then sold the screen rights to the Disney company.
Shia LaBeouf was on his way toward stardom when he landed the leading role in this period picture as Francis Ouimet, a golf-crazy kid from the wrong side of the tracks who repeatedly defied the odds and wound up playing opposite the British champion Harry Vardon (well played by Stephen Dillane) in the U.S. Open.
It turns out that Ouimet and Vardon have something unexpected in common: they both overcame poverty, yet they’ll never be accepted by the self-styled aristocrats who populate the golf clubs of the world. The Greatest Game Ever Played turns out to be more than just a good sports yarn: it’s also a highly relatable story about class conflict.
Actor Bill Paxton had already directed two feature films when he heard about this property. When he met with the Disney executives to pitch himself for this project, he came prepared: he had consulted with a conceptual artist who gave him sketches to show how he planned to “goose” the golfing sequences and make them riveting to a generation of moviegoers raised on video games. That sealed the deal.
Those eye-popping moments—following a golf ball in mid-air (with a ladybug sitting calmly on its surface) or adopting the golfer’s point of view as everything vanishes from sight except the hole, hundreds of yards away—give the film a flashiness that takes some getting used to. But in the end, it works.
Those cutting-edge visuals stand out in sharp relief from the rest of the film, which captures the look and feel of its period so well. No detail seems to have escaped the attention of production designer François Séguin, from the hand-lettered chalk scoreboard to the contents of the haberdashery where LaBeouf works after school. Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut bathes the film in a warm, nostalgic glow.
Paxton even decided to go against the modern trend of saving credits for the end of the film and build an elaborate opening-title sequence, using photographs and illustrations, to set the stage for his audience and draw us back in time.
Unfortunately, being a PG-rated Disney film put off adults from seeing the film, while kids apparently found no allure in a story about golf. A negative review in Sports Illustrated didn’t help. If it had been released after Disturbia or Transformers, Shia LaBeouf would have saved the day, but he wasn’t yet a household name. (He later credited Paxton with helping him to grow as an actor, and indeed, his performance in this film is sincere and strong.)
Because I liked it so much, I put this film to the ultimate test, showing it to my USC class of twenty-somethings, as tough a crowd as any filmmaker ever had to face. At first they felt superior to it because it was a Disney movie, but it soon won them over and they wound up loving it. I think you will, too.
45. THE HARD WORD
(2002)
Directed by Scott Roberts
Screenplay by Scott Roberts
Actors:
GUY PEARCE
RACHEL GRIFFITHS
ROBERT TAYLOR
JOEL EDGERTON
DAMIEN RICHARDSON
RHONDDA