Paramount Home Media Distribution announced this past week that director Michael Ritchie’s 1976 comedy smash, Bad News Bears, will be making its Blu-ray debut on Mar. 30.
Tatum O’Neal had reached instant star status with her Best Support Actress win in her 1973 debut film, auteur filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich’s of the Joe David Brown’s 1971 novel, “Addie Pray,” which was retitled for the screen as Paper Moon. Her father, according to industry trade reports at the time, pulled her off the market until she had a chance to grow up a little, with 16-years of age being the target date for her return to film.
However, the deal for Bad News Bears was just too good to pass up — a healthy salary and a piece of the film. So, at thirteen Tatus O’Neal made her second film, and to many, it is perhaps her best performance on screen.
Another “child star” in the film, who also shined, was bad boy power hitter “Kelly Leak,” played by Jackie Earle Haley, who had just delivered a sensational performance in director John Schlesinger’s 1975 film adaptation of Nathanael West’s 1939 “Hollywood” tell-all novel, The Day of the Locust … Haley would star in the two sequels that Bad News Bears spawned and deliver another memorial performance in director Peter Yates 1979 film, Breaking Away (as Moocher).
Of course, Walter Matthau, as Coach Buttermaker, is the comedy spark that brings the film together. Beer-drinking, failed minor league baseball player and now a San Fernando Valley pool cleaner, he not only pulls this collection of losers together, but gives them life-lessons (sometimes a little suspect) that will serve them well as they grow.
Bonus goodies include three featurettes — “Sometimes You Lose” (featuring filmmaker Kevin Smith), “Life Imitates Art (with Jackie Earle Haley) and “Got to the Finals” (with producer Stanley Jaffe — plus “Shot on Super 8,” which are a collection of home movies from Jackie Earle Haley. The Blu-ray of Bad News Bears also includes Digital Copy.
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