''Pastime'' is a 1990 American
sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by Robin B. Armstrong and written by David Eyre Jr. The film stars
William Russ
William Russ (born October 20, 1950) is an American actor and television director. He played Alan Matthews on the sitcom ''Boy Meets World'' (1993–2000) and appeared in the television series '' Wiseguy'', the soap operas '' Another World'' and ...
,
Glenn Plummer
Glenn E. Plummer (born August 18, 1961) is an American film and television actor best known as Timmy Rawlins in '' ER'' (1994-2007), and Vic Trammel in ''Sons of Anarchy'' (2008-2009).
Biography
Plummer was born in Richmond, California.
Career ...
,
Noble Willingham
Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. (August 31, 1931 – January 17, 2004) was an American television and film actor who appeared in more than thirty films and in many television shows, including a stint opposite Chuck Norris in ''Walker, Texas Ranger ...
,
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank Kings ...
, and
Scott Plank
Scott Chapman Plank (November 11, 1958 – October 24, 2002) was an American actor who played Nick Reardon on ''Melrose Place'', and as Wiley Farrell on '' Air America''.
Life and acting career
Scott Plank was born in Washington, D.C. on Novem ...
. The film premiered on November 8, 1990 at the
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
and screened at the 1991
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
under the title ''One Cup of Coffee'', where it won the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic Film. The film was acquired by
Miramax Films
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey Weinstein, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was ...
and was theatrically released as ''Pastime'' on August 23, 1991.
Plot
In 1957, a
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
low-level
minor-league baseball team called the Steamers has a pitcher way beyond his prime, 41-year-old Roy Dean Bream, who reminisces about his brief "cup of coffee" in the
Major Leagues and how the great
Stan Musial
Stanley Frank Musial (; born Stanislaw Franciszek Musial; November 21, 1920 – January 19, 2013), nicknamed "Stan the Man", was an American baseball outfielder and first baseman. Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most consis ...
once hit a grand slam home run against him.
New to the team is 17-year-old Tyron Debray, a fireballing pitcher Bream immediately takes under his wing. Because one is old, talkative and white and the other young, quiet and black, various tensions materialize on the team, many of them instigated by Randy Keever, a bad-tempered bully who is another of the team's pitchers.
Bream is keeping a secret as he goes through what is likely to be his final season, a heart condition for which he is taking medication. His dream is to see young Debray succeed and to get one last chance himself before giving up America's "national pastime," baseball, once and for all.
Cast
MLB
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
players
Ernie Banks
Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between ...
,
Don Newcombe
Donald Newcombe (June 14, 1926 – February 19, 2019), nicknamed "Newk", was an American professional baseball pitcher in Negro league and Major League Baseball who played for the Newark Eagles (1944–45), Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1949–1 ...
,
Duke Snider
Edwin Donald "Duke" Snider (September 19, 1926 – February 27, 2011), nicknamed "the Silver Fox" and "the Duke of Flatbush", was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a center fielder, he spent most of his Major League Baseball (M ...
,
Harmon Killebrew
Harmon Clayton Killebrew Jr. (; June 29, 1936May 17, 2011), nicknamed "The Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. He was a prolific power hitter who spent most of hi ...
,
Bob Feller
Robert William Andrew Feller (November 3, 1918 – December 15, 2010), nicknamed "the Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob", and "Rapid Robert", was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Clevel ...
, and
Bill Mazeroski
William Stanley Mazeroski (born September 5, 1936), nicknamed "Maz" and "The Glove", is an American former second baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played his entire career for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956 to 1972. A 7-time All-S ...
have cameos in the film.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a 50% approval rating based on 10 reviews, with an
average ranking of 5.7/10.
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the film a score of "C+", saying "The movie turns out to be the opposite of ''
Bull Durham
''Bull Durham'' is a 1988 American romantic comedy sports film. It is partly based upon the minor-league baseball experiences of writer/director Ron Shelton and depicts the players and fans of the Durham Bulls, a minor-league baseball team in ...
'': Instead of undermining baseball clichés, it re-embraces them."
Marjorie Baumgarten of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' gave the film 1 star out of 5, but praised the acting.
Accolades
Under the title ''One Cup of Coffee'', the film won the Audience Award in the Dramatic category at the 1991
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
. At the
1992 Independent Spirit Awards, the film received nominations for
Best Male Lead (William Russ),
Best Supporting Female (Deirdre O'Connell),
Best Supporting Male (Glenn Plummer), and
Best Cinematography
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
(Tom Richmond).
See also
*
List of baseball films
This is a list of films about baseball, featuring notable films where baseball plays a central role in the development of the plot.
See also
* List of sports films
* List of highest-grossing sports films
References
{{Sports films
Baseball ...
References
External links
*
*
*{{AllMovie title
1990s sports drama films
American baseball films
American sports drama films
Films scored by Lee Holdridge
Films set in 1957
Films set in California
Sundance Film Festival award-winning films
Miramax films
1990 directorial debut films
1990 drama films
1990 independent films
1990s English-language films
1990s American films