Movies You Missed the First Time Around

The snowpocalypse gave me a chance to start instantly streaming some sports documentaries that have been in my Netflix queue for awhile.  For my first film, I finally took Jim Tomek's advice from our 10 Questions with him and checked out the bowling-themed A League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

                                              

Synopsis (from Rotten Tomatoes):
Though never a sport of Kings, at one point in time bowling occupied a perfectly respectable place in the pantheon of American sports. It has long been one of the most popular participatory sports in America. When Eddie Elias convinced the country's top 33 bowlers to kick fifty bucks into a communal pot in a banquet hall in Syracuse, NY, in 1958, the Professional Bowlers Association was born. ABC began televising PBA tournaments in 1962, and as the lead in Wide World of Sports, Chris Schenkel's Saturday afternoon bowling telecast was for many years one of the highest rated sports programs on television. Then something happened: America ceased to embrace the portly, middle-brow image the PBA was selling, and bowling got kicked to the curb. The sport and its players, many of whom grew up idolizing the sepia-toned gods of bowling's golden era, found themselves wallowingin the backwaters of the popular imagination, alongside rodeos and tractor pulls. In 2000, three former Microsoft executives scooped up the entire apparatus of professional bowling -- its players, tournaments, trademarks and trophies, all for about five million dollars and assumption of the league's debt. Their stated goal was to save bowling from the brink of extinction and raise it to new heights, or at least put it on par with the Bass Masters tour, which, at current market values, would represent a tidy return on equity. The heavy lifting for this mission falls onto the broad shoulders of a man named Steve Miller, a former top Nike executive who had played for the Detroit Lions and rescued Kansas State football from the NCAA cellar. The film focuses on Miller and four of his charges, professional bowlers at very different places in their careers, and their sometimes funny, sometimes sad adventures on tour as professional athletes - albeit the Rodney Dangerfields of professional sports.

DSB Review:

The first ten to fifteen minutes of the movie are used to show the proud history of bowling tournament telecasts.  The film also delves into the problems the game now faces in the 21st century and tries to answer why there is diminishing interest in the sport and the league.

Filmmaker Christopher Browne then uses the rest of the movie to profile a year in the life of four different bowlers on Tour:
         Walter Ray Williams, Jr. - the unassuming and straight-laced dominant player on Tour
         Pete Weber - son of bowling royalty and heavily promoted as the sport's bad boy
         Chris Barnes - a rising new star and recent father to twin boys at home
         Wayne Webb.- forgotten legend who is now financially hanging on by a thread

Even though Barnes realized his potential and became one of the Tour's consistent winners, his segments of the film reflect Barnes' bland personality and are generally boring.  Thankfully, the editors must have realized this and his time on screen is limited.

The rivalry in both styles and performance between Williams and Weber are compelling and drive the film towards its inevitable conclusion at the end of the year PBA World Championship.  Williams (who has gone on to become the sport's winningest player ever) steadfastly believes that good bowling will draw in viewers and generate interest.  PBA Commissioner Steve Miller thinks otherwise and uses Weber's antics to draw crowds both on TV and in the bowling centers.  Who will win?  And will the Tour survive regardless of who comes out victorious in the end?

However, the most compelling storyline in the film is bowling great Wayne Webb and his struggle to stay competitive on tour while his skills and income shrink.  Even though Webb won 20 tournaments and over $1.3M mostly in the late 1970s and 1980s, he is now drowning financially because of failed marriages and bad money management including a gambling habit.  The heart of the movie is in Webb's struggle to make a living and his acceptance of his place on today's Tour.  As he puts it, "I would very much consider doing something different with my life, but at this point I wouldn't have a clue what that would be."

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen is a very good character study and worth anyone's time regardless of whether they are interested in bowling or not.  I recommend you check it out on Netflix or anywhere you can find it.

Thanks for coming and suckling Daddy’s Sugar Ball…

 

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