"Bingo" scores with baseball lovers and movie fans alike
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Yesterday, CineVerse caught all 9 innings of "The Bingo Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings," a quirky African American baseball comedy from the mid 1970s. Here's a play-by-play recap of our group discussion:
WHAT SURPRISED YOU ABOUT THIS FILM?
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It takes a very lighthearted, comedic approach
to a dark chapter in American sports history: the segregation of white and
black baseball players, and doesn’t tackle a lot of the racial undercurrents of
that era
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Good casting: Memorable performances by Billy
Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and the scene-stealing Richard Pryor
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It’s a crossover movie that appeals to all
races, not just African Americans, although it overwhelmingly features African
American characters
·
It’s a baseball-themed picture, but it’s
arguably less a film about the sport and spectacle of baseball than it is about
black entrepreneurship and independence
·
As one critic put it, it was “part of two
concurrent waves of 1970s cinema: movies about African Americans going into
business for themselves (like Car Wash), and movies about the wild side of the
first half of 20th century America (like The Sting, The Godfather)
CONSIDERING THAT RACISM AND RACIAL SEGREGATION IS AN
IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF THE STORY OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES AND NEGRO BARNSTORMING
TEAMS, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE ISSUE OF SYSTEMIC AND INSTRINSIC RACISM IS EXPLORED
ENOUGH IN THIS FILM? OR IS THAT TOO DEEP AND DARK A SUBJECT MATTER FOR AN
OTHERWISE LIGHTHEARTED FILM?
·
Tonally, this movie is a nostalgic comedy
featuring an all-star black cast, so it’s best elements really only need to be
laughs and familiar stars
·
Hence, the approach is cheery, light and
comical; to delve too deeply into racial subtexts would create a dark, deep
drama, and that wasn’t the apparent intent here
·
Nevertheless, considering that so few movies to
that time even tackled the topic of the Negro Leagues, and that so little
historical footage of negro league players even exists, perhaps the filmmakers
had an obligation to address the issue of racial segregation and the
difficulties these players faced in white-dominated America
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THEMES WOVEN INTO BINGO LONG THAT
YOU CAN IDENTIFY?
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The pluck, spirit and determination of the
underdog: facing off as an independent against the established order
·
American entrepreneurship: the can-do resolve of
a self-made man, no matter the color of his skin
·
Black pride and black power, as not only
demonstrated by the characters, but by the African American actors and filmmakers,
who included producer Berry Gordy
FILMS THAT REMIND YOU OF “BINGO LONG”
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The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
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42
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Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy ‘Satchel’
Paige (1981 tv movie)
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The Harlem Globetrotters (1951 movie)
OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR JOHN BADHAM
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Saturday Night Fever
·
Whose Life Is it Anyway?
·
WarGames
·
Stakeout