Reviews

One late night while staying at a friends house babysitting their kids, I was flipping through the movie channels looking for anything decent and came across this movie.

What immediately struck me was the music that was chosen - the writers chose some of the most darkest and haunting music ever written by the great masters - who could teach some whippersnapper kids a thing or two about writing music.

As another reviewer pointed out already, this version makes total sense and the remake doesn't at all. It was like the people who did the remake had to try and out-do EVERYTHING the original did with disastrous results. Had I not known the rules of the game from this movie, the new version would have been even worse.

My favorite scene in the entire movie is at the end where he survives everyone and then picks up the ball and stuffs it in the goal. It is totally quiet and you hear a loud CRANG, the scoreboard then adds to the goal total, and then he starts skating around while the crowd starts chanting - first very lowly and then louder and louder his name. He builds up a huge head of steam as he whips faster and faster around the track, and then goes right for Bartholomew.

In one of the most brilliant moments in cinema, they don't show him actually attacking him - instead they freeze him in mid-flight as he leaps into the stands and they fade out and then the music starts to "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor" by Bach. You undoubtedly have heard this piece on Halloween and they don't credit it, so you don't know what organ player they used, but it is HAUNTING. You can literally feel the creeping doom as they roll the credits and the music continues until the piece is complete which is over 8 minutes long.

It's the touches like this that make this version much better than the remake. The remake reeks of badly done heavy metal and lacks any punch whatsoever and they even changed the ending.

I was so taken away by the music I went out and bought a performance of "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor". And for you "so called" keyboard musicians out there, if you can play THAT piece on a real pipe organ and play it properly, then I will give you your due. It is the most technically complex organ piece ever written ( try 9 simultaneous parts which each finger playing a part plus your foot playing pedals ). For writing and performing this piece, Bach was nearly permanently exiled from his job of music director at the church and the equivalent today would be every employer blackballing you and not giving you a job. It's amazing given what the church thought of it that it survived.

I didn't sleep the rest of the night - that music haunted me until daybreak due to that movie. I thought this movie was far scarier than anything I had ever seen - it totally freaked me out and then add that music to it - they should have left this movie alone.

Hopefully you can get a copy of this version as opposed to the new one, don't even bother with the new one - it's not even worth the 5 cents it cost to make the disc.

I may be biased on this as I am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. However, the "gem" of this movie is not where most people would think.

The gem in this movie is how Dan Heller won over his teammates with his leadership. If I were teaching how to manage people, this film would be required viewing by every single student in the class. At first, he thinks his chance is totally zero, but then one fluke incident - and he's basically the CEO of the on-field team.

Instead of just going in and saying "I'm Dan Heller - I'm the guy and do what I say" - he takes the time to learn about his "second string" and why they are on the second string. You come to find out that just about every one of them would be stars on any other team, but for one reason or another - they ended up on the second string. His butt is pulled out of the fire by his wife who believes in him more than he does and his long time friend Jerry who gives him a huge lecture after they barely win the first playoff game.

What struck me was after that talk with Jerry, he takes the time to really dig in and learn about his teammates - and he goes the extra mile to make them a lot better. He works out in a graveyard with the running back helping him to learn cutback moves. When he finds out his left tackle can't tackle the play book, he learns what is required of that position on every play and then tells the guy what to do on every play - just like he had it in high school and college. They work overtime ( night practices ) with new plays he draws up just for them that he knew would work with their talents. He reaches out to every player, even "Ernie Weathers" - the grizzly veteran with a chip on his shoulder so large, it takes the last play of the Super Bowl to remove it. Ernie doesn't get it until Dan tells him - "What if we do win and you had nothing to do with it? - how would you feel knowing you didn't do a thing to earn it". That finally gets Ernie thinking and he makes the winning move on the last play of the game to win it. He even wins over the coach who admits to him that he was never given a chance because the coach didn't want him because he didn't fit "his system".

Even when he's pulled for someone who is supposedly better for the Super Bowl, its quite obvious to all of the players who made them better - and why. When things start to go wrong in the big game and even then he tries to explain it to the new guy, the new guy doesn't want to listen worth a crap. Thus, his teammates mutiny, knock the "3 time SB champ" out with a head butt, and they put Dan back in.

And that my friends is the ultimate gem that many managers need to learn - you adjust for the players you have, not what you want your players to do. This is true for any workplace - and not just sports. I personally have been in great work situations and horrid ones, and the great ones follow what Dan does to the letter and the horrid ones follow the lead of "Tommy". I personally worked for a guy in one situation who had a cast of people who on paper weren't up to the challenge - but every day he told them they were - and although I can't give more details - I will tell you that 20,000+ jobs were saved because of his effort.

You know when you're working for Dan, you know when you're working for Tommy, hopefully there are enough Dan's where you are who keep the Tommy's at bay or even keep them out of the company.

So to the writer of this movie, you have a gem - if you want to make a lot more money for this film, license it to a "Dan" who can use it to make better managers.

When I was much younger and in college - I enrolled in a film class. One of the films we had to see was one called "White Wine, Red Wine". I had almost forgotten about that movie until I saw Avalon.

In "White Wine, Red Wine" ( could be backwards - I apologize - it's been almost 20 years since I saw it and I even looked it up on this site - it wasn't in it ) - the film starts out with everyone being an alternate universe - people didn't behave as they would - etc - and everyone was drinking white wine. All of a sudden, we see the people as they really are and they are all drinking red wine.

I stumbled upon this film watching it late one night and was stunned. I'm in the computer field myself and I could not help but notice the similarity of computer systems between this movie and Brazil - the movie by Terry Gilliam. Did anyone else notice the quaint keyboards and graphics on the screens? The terminals reminded me of stuff from the 70's.

I loved how when she went to the real world - it was all in full color as opposed to the sepia filtered world she was from. But again, as in her other world, it turned out to be just as fake as the other worlds. I liked the fact they really don't explain what happened to her - you're left to try and figure it out yourself. However, I agree with one other reviewer - I think she ended up in the hospital with Murphy. Her one fatal flaw was that she had to win no matter what the cost plus she was ticked off at Murphy for what he did earlier. She ends up eliminating his character, but then realizes her mistake as she finds out he never loaded his gun and she could have lived in that world forever. The "game" used her just like all the others, which is why she ends up going back into the hall and trying to shoot the ghost. Of course, the game just "resets" on her and claims her as a victim.

I do agree with the other writers - if you're looking for an action flick, go elsewhere. If you're looking to think, you've got the right film.