As you know if you’ve read this blog for very long, I’m a sucker for inspirational sports movies. THE BASKET, from 1999, has the added appeal of being a historical movie about an era and setting that haven’t been done to death. The time is shortly after World War I, the place the wheat-farming country of eastern Washington state where a small community is still feeling the effects of the war. The son of one of the local families who lost a leg during the war returns home. A new teacher takes over the local school, bringing with him some opera records and a game that’s new to most of these farming families: basketball. And two youngsters, brother and sister, who are German refugees, come to live with the local doctor.
THE BASKET is pure fiction, not based on or inspired by true events, but that
won’t stop you from being able to predict everything that’s going to happen in
it. Tragedy strikes, people learn and grow, and it all comes down to a big game
at the end as a team of local amateurs takes on an undefeated team from the big
city, Spokane. The appeal of a movie like this with a script that doesn’t
contain any surprises is how well it’s executed.
In that respect, THE BASKET is pretty good. The cast is led by Peter Coyote as
the new teacher and Karen Allen as the mother of the boy who loses a leg in the
war. Eric Dane, who went on to star in GREY’S ANATOMY and THE LAST SHIP, looks
impossibly young as one of the students. Ellen and Joey Travolta, John’s sister
and brother, show up in minor roles. Nobody else is anybody you’ve ever heard
of, but the whole cast does a good job. And the movie looks great, really
capturing the agricultural landscape and the feel of the times.
THE BASKET isn’t a lost gem. But it’s a pleasant, relatively heartwarming way
to spend a couple of hours. The older I get, the more I feel that sometimes
that’s plenty for me.
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