for many of u grow up 30 year ago when the bad news bear first come out and this be the film that peel back the suburban sheen of middle class american life and use that anchor of conformity and little league baseball and to lay it all bare represent the false value and the fear of mediocrity and come to grip with the hard truth of life . like many gut punch film and like great dictator and the graduate and it take the form of a comedy and a pretty funny one that dare to show kid swear and be themselves . the bear arrival be bad news for the west valley league of southern california and force them to accept kid deem not up to their high standard . there a shrimp name tanner boyle with plenty of fight but no coordination and a fat kid name engelberg who smear chocolate on the ball when throw it back to the pitcher and a pair of mexican no one understand and a bookworm who keep track of foul ball but can not hit for bean and and timmy lupus and a painfully shy small fry who boyle call a booger eat spaz . coach the team be ex minor league pitcher morris buttermaker ( walter matthau ) and now reduce to cleaning pool and drink himself into semi consciousness . make no bone about tell buttermaker he not want be the manager of the west valley powerhouse yankee and roy turner ( vic morrow ) represent it not u . it the boy . the boys themselves want it that way and and that the way they want to keep it . buttermaker just want his check and but he find himself regain a fight spirit a others shove their arrogance down his throat and those of the boy he be charge to look after . when the team try to quit after get paste by the yankee in their first game and 26 0 and buttermaker delivers a line that resonate and like so much in this movie and down through the year represent this quit thing and it a hard habit to break once you start . matthau be terrific and create a wisecracking but poignant center . director michael ritchie and screenwriter bill lancaster know what they be after and deliver it and a pitch perfect social satire dress a a sport film with a cast of mostly unknown kid who lack for professional finesse but seem to lay their soul bare to the camera . it not perfect . the bad news bear struggle at time to keep thing funny a buttermaker self loathing and the falsity of the other adult threaten to overwhelm the thin comic casing . buttermaker solution to overcome the bear respect problem also feel a bit of a dodge represent he bring in a couple of ringer and amanda whurlitzer ( tatum oneal ) and kelly leak ( jackie earle haley ) and both of whom add to the film and but water it down some and too and dilute the connection between buttermaker and the original bear . but there a lot of depth to the film and depth of a dark but compelling kind . buttermaker and amanda try and fail to patch up their long ago relationship a substitute father and daughter . roy turner and a fundamentally decent man who just lose sight of what important and deal with the realization he have probably lose his son to his all or nothing winner mentality . timmy lupus try to melt into every background god give him until call upon to do something special like mix a martini for buttermaker . baseball may be treat a a joke in this film and but there be something vital to it and too and a rite of passage very different to the kid themselves than to the adult and who like turner look at the scoreboard and miss the big picture . you do not come into this world to sit in a dugout all your life and be the way buttermaker put it to timmy lupus . i identify with lupus and which be probably why i wince through the movie watch it in a theater in 1976 and embrace it now . it a real slice of life film with all the discomfort that implies . you may go in thinking you be go to see a nostalgic and foul mouthed spectacle of spunk and charm and and you be and but you may well leave like i do wonder if there a little of you still lie on that baseball field and too .