The Chris Moeller Archives

"The Final Season" review

I took in the film "The Final Season" last night at the Wynnsong Theater in Cedar Rapids and the official verdict from the CM Blog comes in as a "flawed but decent." First, this spoiler warning: Norway wins.

The feature, as expected, is a fine tribute to the history of Norway, Iowa high school baseball-- a tremendously successful program to which I grew up a neighbor roughly 10 miles to the north; and it is a valentine to the school's "final season" on the diamond in 1991, to which I was a rooter and a part-time spectator as a 10th grader at Benton Community, the school into which Norway would consolidate a year later and which refused to allow its name to be used in the film without final script approval by its school board.

I would hereby like to apologize for every comment I've made on the blog previously in reference to that board decision, and particularly for my use of the word "chicken" at one or several points to describe it. I think I was prone to believe that this was the case in the aftermath of the superfluous edits that the same board made to my graduation speech in '93, but the board made the correct "out" call on this one.

I'm not sure exactly why such an interesting and already naturally-thrilling narrative had to be dumbed-down with caricature villains like the opposing pitcher from South Clay in the championship game, or more so, of course, the head of the shared school board that forced the consolidation. If you loved Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland," you'll love Harvey Makepeace, superintendent of "Madison" High School in "The Final Season." I gather Makepeace is intended to be a stand-in for the real superintendent of the time, Harold Merchant, who always seemed a decent enough fellow to me, and who I sincerely doubt was actually maneuvering behind the scenes to sabotage the last of Norway's baseball campaigns. I must have been busy studying during the moment in history when the answer to whether the final Norway baseball season would be played was in limbo, because it seems only natural in retrospect that the full school activity schedule of the '90-'91 year would play out through the term.

I thought the well-worn cliches of many other designed-to-be-uplifting sports films were expertly avoided during the scenes that conveyed action on the diamond, such as the winning run scoring on a tag play that wasn't altogether that close, or just the general sense throughout that the school wasn't expected to lose, but even the Norwegians, perhaps especially the Norwegians, would have to admit to a few cringes upon hearing lines such as "we grow baseball players like corn." Also, though admittedly not being present at any of the board meetings during the consolidation debate, I'd like to believe that the future of the baseball squad wasn't the only topic of conversation broached during the question and answer periods.

The town meeting scenes begged, but clumsily dismissed, interesting questions about the fates of small rural communities everywhere, and the subject would seemingly interest theater-going audiences even in towns where they don't differentiate their baseballs from their nectarines, but the villain in that flick wouldn't be Harvey Makepeace, it might be Stan Willhelp, a name I just made up and a stand-in for the Sam Walton corporate socialists of the world who have annihilated our rural main streets.

Lest we not forget, after all, that Norway High School was itself a consolidated school, and we'll pause now for just a moment to recall the lost identities of tiny Watkins and Walford, Iowa, and for each of the individual one- and two-room schoolhouses from township to township that shuttered during the first two decades of the century to make room for a bright and golden 20th century for the Norway Tigers, for the ballplayers as well as the "math-letes."

But I digress. I was absolutely tickled that the script included the story about the ball supposedly slugged by Hal Trosky one afternoon during the 1920s that reached the train tracks behind the right field fence. My late Grandpa Moeller, coincidentally, would be one of those "old-timers" referenced who repeated that story and I've been telling it myself for more than 15 years. Trosky (originally Trojovsky, 2nd generation Bohemian-American, and buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in Norway) was perhaps the best of the Norway-produced big-leaguers-- the all-time home run leader for the Cleveland Indians franchise before Albert Belle started swinging. I was a tad disappointed though that former catcher and Cubs' manager Bruce Kimm and ALCS MVP of 1983 Mike Boddicker were not mentioned on-screen as conquering Norway heroes in the big leagues as well. Boddicker was at least listed in the credits as a consultant for the film.

I've always felt somewhat alienated by this fact, but I find Tom Arnold to be a winning presence in almost everything he does, and detoxing "Deadwood" fans will be salivating with no less than four actors from that television series appearing here-- Powers Boothe, as Coach Jim Van Scoyoc, his daughter Parisse, as Jean Marie, Dayton Callie, as Mr. Stewart, the bus driver with the Honest Abe beard, and Marshall Bell, as Harvey Makepeace, complete with the lacking morals of "Deadwood's" Magistrate Claggett. (From the end of season one, people.)

Kudos to the film's producers for including some profane language throughout, and for not presenting the Norway players as just a collection of altar boys, though many of them actually were altar boys, and thank the heavens that most of the Norway players, in actuality, only used chewing tobacco and not cigarettes, like the Chicago transplant of the film, "Mitch Akers." As Benton Community students, we were never subject to a lot of second hand smoke from our new classmates, only to a solid number of boys spitting their chaw into discarded soda cans.

Finally then, and as important as anything else, I thought my home county looked absolutely gorgeous on the big screen. As with the films "Field of Dreams," "The Bridges of Madison County," and "The Straight Story" before it, "The Final Season" portrays Iowa as it is-- quite possibly the most beautiful of any corner in the world. That makes us all look good.

posted by CM @ 7:04 PM