The Best of Times

The Best of Times is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, written by Ron Shelton, and starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as two friends attempting to relive a high school football game.
==Plot==
Jack Dundee (Williams) is a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: dropping a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft and their arch rivals, Bakersfield, which ended in a scoreless tie.
Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget this event. He works for his father-in-law, The Colonel, Bakersfield's biggest supporter, who reminds him of the event almost daily.
Thirteen years later, Jack coerces Reno Hightower (Russell), quarterback of the fateful game, and now a financially struggling garage owner in debt to Jack's bank, into helping him replay the game. He convinces supporters in both towns to re-stage the game and in the process revitalizes Taft, as well as his and Reno's marriages.
==Cast==
*Robin Williams as Jack Dundee
*Kurt Russell as Reno Hightower
*Pamela Reed as Gigi Hightower
*Holly Palance as Elly Dundee
*Donald Moffat as The Colonel
*Margaret Whitton as Darla
*M. Emmet Walsh as Charlie
*Donovan Scott as Eddie
*R.G. Armstrong as Schutte
*Dub Taylor as Mac
*Carl Ballantine as Arturo
*Kathleen Freeman as Rosie
*Tony Plana as Chico
*Kirk Cameron as Teddy
*Robyn Lively as Jacki
*Jeff Doucette as Olin
*Anne Haney as Marcy
*Linda Hart as Blender #1
*Tracey Gold as Jaki's friend (uncredited)
*Wayne Adderson as Bakersfield coach
==Production==
===Filming===
Much of the film was shot in and around the actual Taft Union High School. The football scenes took place at Pierce Junior College in the San Fernando Valley. The night game was filmed at Moorpark High School, in Moorpark, CA.
==Reception==
===Critical response===
Walter Goodman of the New York Times drew attention to the "constrained" plot and uneven script, but was complimentary of Williams' "amiable performance" and relished the rousing ending which "leaves you with the sort of sappy happy feeling that Frank Capra and Preston Sturges used to provide." In the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilmington gave special praise to the co-stars, Williams and Russell, whom he described as "maybe the best thing" about the movie and excused the "excesses and flaws" of the script. Calling the film "a lip-smacking tale of all-American wish-fulfillment and a witty satire of its dangers," he commended scenarist Ron Shelton as having "a wickedly tight grip on the absurdities and dynamics of small American cities."
Overall, though, the film has received mixed reviews over the decades since its release, with a 31% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.
Pauline Kael called the film "a small town comedy where the whole population is caught up in some glorious foolishness." Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com wrote: "Forgotten by most yet seemingly adored by those who choose to remember it, The Best of Times stands in my book as one of the truly great sports comedies."
Category:1986 films
Category:English-language films
Category:1980s sports comedy-drama films
Category:American films
Category:American football films
Category:American sports comedy-drama films
Category:Films directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Category:Films produced by Gordon Carroll
Category:Films set in California
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:1980s comedy-drama film stubs
Category:Rated PG-13