Knight's tale lacks depth

Sporting News, The, March 4, 2002 by Fritz Quindt

After an advance screening, the movie critic's duty is to provide pithy phrases suitable for use in trailers and newspaper notices. Me, I'm perspiring to produce the definitive slogan for the first made-for-ESPN flick, A Season On the Brink.

"Move over, Steve Martin! Brian Dennehy is `The Jerk' known as Bobby Knight!" Too wordy.

"Bleep!" Too open-ended.

"Based on the book!" Okey-doke.

Brink, which premieres March 10 (a.k.a. Selection Sunday), is a semi-literal adaptation of the best-seller by John Feinstein, who claims the script is semibogus. (Big whoop. Since when do book authors like screen adaptions?) The movie opens with the coach visiting Normandy's beaches, an aside Feinstein buried. The book ends when the season ends; the movie ends with Knight's firing in 2000. Worse, moans Feinstein, the filmmakers favor "melodramatic screaming scenes."

At those, Dennehy excels. In wig and monogram sweater, Dennehy sheds his lovable Tommy Boy image and embodies the Hoosier Daddy. He rages as convincingly as Nick Nolte's Knight Lite in Blue Chips, snarling such epithets as "Nice is for women's magazines. Nice is for losers." (Warning: In the director's cut, Dennehy launches 15 f-bombs--all bleeped--before the first commercial. Hel-lo, TV-MA rating.)

As the only star in the cast, Dennehy is in practically every scene--"Brink goes as far as Dennehy can drive it!" During filming in Canada, he mused to ESPN.com: "Sports people will say it doesn't work ... whereas people who know a little bit about Bobby Knight will say it's an interesting character. It is a character. It's not necessarily Bobby Knight."

Mm-hm. Chanting the it's-only-a-movie mantra helps during action sequences. Uniforms and muscle definitions don't match, and while James Lafferty facially resembles Steve Alford, the former TV son of Emeril is no ex-Mr. Basketball.

But, hey, ESPN did a movie cheaper and faster than Waterworld or Apocalypse Now were produced (which explains why the production resembles SportsCentury). Producers boast (as Knight does) the film was completely independent of Robert Montgomery Knight, and "painstakingly loyal" to the book.

Ultimately, that's a liability. The book is simply anecdotes strung together; only its subject is sensational. Feinstein didn't attempt any insight into Bob Knight: Human Being, and neither does this accurate-but-not-necessarily-true film. ESPN mirrors the image of a twisted, profane perfectionist, with token scenes of his softer side. Left unexplored are gray areas, such as Knight's X's-and-O's genius, the mysteries of almost 800 victories, his ability to inspire legions and why they tolerate him.

Oh. My choicest phrase: "Brink is on the edge of Knight!"

fquindt@sportingnews.com