The Best of Times (film)
Encyclopedia
The Best of Times is a 1986 American film starring Robin Williams
and Kurt Russell
.
plays Jack Dundee, a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: The moment that he dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft
and their arch-nemesis, Bakersfield.
Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget his drop. He works in a bank for his father-in-law, a.k.a. The Colonel, Bakersfield's biggest supporter, and is reminded by him almost daily, that it was his clumsiness and inability to catch a football that lost Taft its one chance for glory by finally beating Bakersfield, and how Taft would never do it again.
Thirteen years later, Jack coerces Reno (Kurt Russell
), star quarterback
of the fateful game and now a financially struggling garage owner in debt to Jack's bank, into helping him replay the game. He convinces supporters in both towns to re-stage the game and in the process revitalizes Taft, as well as his and Reno's marriages. The game is replayed and at the critical moment Reno throws another perfect pass to Jack. He catches it, and Taft defeats Bakersfield.
Much of the film was shot in and around Taft. The football scenes took place at Pierce Junior College in the San Fernando Valley
. The night game was filmed at Moorpark Memorial High School, in Moorpark, CA.
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
and Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
.
Plot
Robin WilliamsRobin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
plays Jack Dundee, a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: The moment that he dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft
Taft, California
Taft is a city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Taft is located west-southwest of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 955 feet . The population was 9,327 at the 2010 census...
and their arch-nemesis, Bakersfield.
Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget his drop. He works in a bank for his father-in-law, a.k.a. The Colonel, Bakersfield's biggest supporter, and is reminded by him almost daily, that it was his clumsiness and inability to catch a football that lost Taft its one chance for glory by finally beating Bakersfield, and how Taft would never do it again.
Thirteen years later, Jack coerces Reno (Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
), star quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
of the fateful game and now a financially struggling garage owner in debt to Jack's bank, into helping him replay the game. He convinces supporters in both towns to re-stage the game and in the process revitalizes Taft, as well as his and Reno's marriages. The game is replayed and at the critical moment Reno throws another perfect pass to Jack. He catches it, and Taft defeats Bakersfield.
Production
The Best of Times (1986) was writer/director Ron Shelton’s first foray into sports movies. It starred Kurt Russell and Robin Williams as two frustrated football players who get a chance to play for their old high school in an alumni game against a rival team that had beaten them 13 years earlier. Shelton said his script was inspired by the intensity of the “Big Game” between the Santa Barbara High Dons and San Marcos Royals, a community drama that made an indelible impression on him when he was an SBHS student in the ’60s.Much of the film was shot in and around Taft. The football scenes took place at Pierce Junior College in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
. The night game was filmed at Moorpark Memorial High School, in Moorpark, CA.
Cast
- Robin WilliamsRobin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
as Jack Dundee - Kurt RussellKurt RussellKurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
as Reno Hightower - Pamela ReedPamela ReedPamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...
as Gigi Hightower - Holly PalanceHolly PalanceHolly Palance is an American actress.Palance was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of the actor Jack Palance and his wife Virginia Baker. Holly was the first of three children born to the couple, followed by Brooke Palance in 1952 and Cody Palance in 1955...
as Elly Dundee - Donald MoffatDonald MoffatDonald Moffat is an English-born actor, now a naturalized American citizen.-Early life:Moffat was born in Plymouth, Devon, the only child of Kathleen Mary and Walter George Moffat, who was an insurance agent. His parents ran a boarding house in Totnes...
as The Colonel - Margaret WhittonMargaret WhittonMargaret Whitton is an American stage, film, and television actress, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Whitton did her primary film work between 1986 and 1993. Her most visible roles were that of baseball team owner Rachel Phelps in Major League and its sequel Major League II, and as...
as Darla - M. Emmet WalshM. Emmet WalshMichael Emmet Walsh is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions.-Life and career:Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Kathrine and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent...
as Charlie - Donovan Scott as Eddie
- R.G. Armstrong as Schutte
- Dub TaylorDub TaylorWalter Clarence Taylor, Jr. , better known as Dub Taylor, was an American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.-Early life:...
as Mac - Carl BallantineCarl BallantineCarl Ballantine was an American magician, comedian and actor. Billing himself as "The Great Ballantine", "The Amazing Ballantine" or "Ballantine: The World's Greatest Magician", his vaudeville-style comedy routine involved transparent or incompetent stage magic tricks, which tended to flop and go...
as Arturo - Kathleen FreemanKathleen FreemanKathleen Freeman was an American film, television, and stage actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed tart maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors, almost invariably to comic effect.-Early life:Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois...
as Rosie - Tony PlanaTony PlanaTony Plana is a Cuban-American actor and director. He is well known for playing Betty Suarez's father, Ignacio Suarez, on the ABC show Ugly Betty.-Personal life:...
as Chico - Kirk CameronKirk CameronKirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains , as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor...
as Teddy - Robyn LivelyRobyn LivelyRobyn Elaine Lively is an American actress. Lively is best known for her role in the film Teen Witch, as well as for her roles in the TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D., Twin Peaks, and Saving Grace.-Early life:...
as Jacki - Jeff DoucetteJeff DoucetteJeff Doucette is an American television and film actor. Doucette has appeared in over 92 films and television series which include Bedazzled, That '70s Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Murphy Brown, Invasion, "Gilmore Girls", Desperate Housewives, Newhart, Little House on the Prairie, Highway To...
as Olin - Anne HaneyAnne HaneyAnne Haney was an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as social worker Mrs. Sellner in Mrs. Doubtfire, Greta the secretary in Liar Liar, and for her unique, low-octave voice.-Career:...
as Marcy - Linda HartLinda HartLinda Hart is an American singer, musician, and actress, mainly appearing in musical theatre.- Biography :As a child, Hart sang in her church choir; at age seven, she joined her father and the rest of the family in The Harts, a weekly gospel television series. Hart attended Los Angeles City...
as Blender #1 - Tracey GoldTracey GoldTracey Gold is an American actress and former child star best known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains. In early 2009, she co-hosted with Fred Roggin on the live show GSN Live.-Early life:...
as Jacki's friend (uncredited)