“They made a game on top of a game,” laments an old ball coach in Steven Soderberg‘s new Netflix drama “High Flying Bird” (read our review). The character, played by the great Bill Duke, is referring to a league system that treats black players like commodities because it could never beat them on the court. In this way, “High Flying Bird” is a scathing send-up of not only the NBA but all sorts of starry-eyed sports movies.
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On this episode of Be Reel, we look at sports disruptors in film, those who see the game on top of the game and choose to count cards, load the deck or throw the whole thing away in favor of something new, something fresh. In “High Flying Bird,” to circumvent a lock-out that has paralyzed the NBA, veteran sports agent Ray Burke (Andre Holland) teases a future of social justice and technological freedom by creating new avenues for player empowerment.
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Which sounds a lot like “Moneyball” in reverse, right? (ironic given Soderbergh was supposed to make it and then was pushed off the movie years ago before Bennett Miller finally made it) A strapped-for-cash baseball team looks to “count cards” by using analytics to buy wins instead of players. MLB fans currently frustrated by the cold free agent market can blame Moneyball (the idea, not the film) for ruining the 10-year deal. In the 2011 hit, Brad Pitt plays the enigmatic Billy Beane, a washed up player-cum-general manager who, with the help of a number-crunching Jonah Hill, creates “an island of misfit toys” in the shape of a 25-man baseball roster. But does this strategy (and film) fail to allow the human to factor in?
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Finally, Noah and Chance dig up ’90s time capsule “The Great White Hype,” which even from the title seems troubling in today’s conversation about representation in film and sports. Samuel L. Jackson plays a huckster boxing promoter who sees an opportunity to get his black champion (Damon Wayans) the richest purse possible by inventing a white antagonist (Peter Berg) to stir up a little feel-bad racial tension.
Nobody said it was going to be pretty or that the innovations would stick, but it’s an interesting sub-genre where geniuses and con artists might be one and the same. Listen below.