The Chris Moeller Archives

"John Smith" High School, Class of 1993

There was ridiculous news out of Van Horne, IA last week. Benton Community High School Superintendent Gary Zittergruen and the school board denied the use of the school's name to the producers of the upcoming movie, "The Final Season," about the 1990-91 state champion Norway, IA baseball team.
The film chronicles Norway's last state title the year before entering a whole-grade sharing agreement with Benton high-school students in 1991.

While the board authorized the film's use of the Norway baseball diamond and the building housing "the old shop" (the significance of the latter I cannot yet explain,) Zittergruen explained that he had concerns about Benton's depiction in the script.
"Although The Final Season, Inc. claims that 'at no time does the movie berate or denigrate the Benton Community School District or their personnel,' I believe that this is an inaccurate statement," he said. (He didn't provide specifics.)
"In deciding whether to grant access... the district should be assured that it and its personnel will not be portrayed unfavorably. However, in this situation, there is no way to guarantee this without the district having final approval over the script and final cut of the film. Furthermore, there is no guarantee the script the district has been provided will not be changed during the course of the production or the film will be edited in a way... blah, blah, blah."
They did the same thing to my graduation speech. Snip here. Snip there. Final edit this. Final edit that. Cut the heart right out of it.

When will movie subjects realize that it's always best to cooperate. If I were this film's producers, I would tit-for-tat the whole thing: We want this, and if you don't give it to us, we'll turn the principal into "The Simpson's" Principal Skinner. If you don't give us that, we'll allege racial or gender bias. Et cetera. They don't need to use real names to do a hatchet job on the district.
What does the school have to hide anyway? What axe could screenwriter Art D'Alessandro, a New York native and Florida resident, possibly have to grind? Frankly, I doubt I'll be inaccurately portrayed in the film. So when the Superintendent says "the Benton Community School District or their personnel," he means the personnel.

It's difficult for me to understand why the producers even need the board's approval. Proving libel is one of the most difficult legal proofs there is. You have to demonstrate all five of the following: defamation, identification, publication, fault (negligence or malice), and damage. I'm guessing the first would be very difficult to prove in this case (considering that the truth, [slippery here] by definition, cannot be defamatory.) And I'm nearly certain that the fifth would be impossible to prove. Is school enrollment going to drop? (I predict it goes up in coming years.) An administrator's career could almost certainly be damaged, but remember, they're asking for use of the school's name, not the names of school officials.

If I were the film's producer, I would simply change the name of the school in the film to "Van Horne," and be done with it. The rest of the state already refers to the high school as "Van Horne, Benton," or vice-versa, and you'd be dealing with an altogether different public entity in relationship to the town.

It just makes me so angry. I've been telling all sorts of people that my high school was going to be blown up big as life on the silver screen. I was even planning to wear my baseball jersey ("ole' #10) to the film's premiere. Now, people will just say "Benton, where's that? Oh, you must mean Capital City."

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Additional note: Production on the film has been moved back from June to July. The film still plans to use the Norway diamond, as mentioned, and they'll be shooting as well at Cedar Rapids locations of the producers' choosing, and the 1991 state championship site in Marshalltown. Iowa residents, contact your agency for audition times and locations.

posted by CM @ 8:19 PM