The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training

In 1977, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training had a moment in the sun. A glowing junk sculpture of American genres—sports flick, coming-of-age story, family melodrama, after-school special, road narrative—the film cashed in on the previous year&;s success of its predecessor, The Bad News Bears. Arguing against the sequel&;s dismissal as a cultural afterthought, Josh Wilker lovingly rescues from the oblivion of cinema history a quintessential expression of American resilience and joy.Rushed into theaters by Paramount when the beleaguered film industry was suffering from “acute sequelitis,&; the (undeniably flawed) movie miraculously transcended its limitations to become a gathering point for heroic imagery drawn from American mythology. Considered in context, the film&;s unreasonable optimism, rooted in its characters&; sincere desire to keep playing, is a powerful response to the political, economic, and social stresses of the late 1970s.To Wilker&;s surprise, despite repeated viewings, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training continues to move him. Its huge heart makes it not only the ultimate fantasy of the baseball-obsessed American boy, but a memorable iteration of that barbed vision of pure sunshine itself, the American dream.