A Season on the Brink (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

entertaining for college basketball fans

[jericho31 · 6/10 · 11 March 2002]

A Season on the Brink, the first movie made by ESPN ain't gonna win any awards, but its an entertaining looks at the most wildly charismatic and controversial coach in NCAA basketball history, Bobby Knight.

You can tell when you watch the movie that it didn't quite have the budget of your normal movie - the basketball scenes are kinda cheesy lookin and when they try to weave it in with actual game footage it looks a little ridiculous.

But the movie is worth watching just for Brian Dennehy, who looks and talks exactly like Bobby Knight. The movie surely takes some dramatic license, it has to, and the cast arouns Dennehy is nothing to write home about - but Dennehy sparkles and the movie is certainly worth watching for any college basketball or any sports fan.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 9 April 2019]

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY is how one would describe Bobby Knight. Brian Dennehy gave us an excellent performance. Unfortunately ESPN ran out of money to hire actors after they got Dennehy, making this movie more akin to a one man play.

They used actual footage of games as fillers. It was done poorly as you could tell when they were using stock film and when they were shooting the movie, especially during the second Michigan game when the film all of a sudden had a cheap digital look. This led me to believe this whole thing was filmed with a "cheap" $3,000 digital camera with special lenses to make it look like a major production and during the filming of the second Michigan game, they forgot the lens at the deli, and decided, "what the heck, film it without it, no one will know the difference."

I admit I am not a Bobby Knight fan. I believe in treating people with dignity and maturity, even ball players. In my opinion, the movie appeared to be fair to Bobby as a person, but as a coach, I thought it was more of a dis on his accomplishments.

This movie is for basketball fans only and not recommended as a date movie.

Lots of Hype...Didn't Quite Deliver

[uvafratguy · 6/10 · 10 March 2002]

Being an avid ESPN watcher, I can't even guess how many previews the network had for "A Season on the Brink"...To be honest I think the producers should have spent more time on the actual program then on all the hype. OK, this movie really seemed to have no middle ground: In the majority of scenes with his current players Bob Knight is just a bully. His language is just atrocious, and plainly it offended me to hear the F-bomb 50+ times in this movie, the show made its point that BK has a "potty-mouth," but enough was enough. Secondly, the other half of the movie tried to pain BK like a total angel. The scenes with his lovable son seemed contrived and way to lovey-dovey. When the older player(guy in wheel-chair) comes back to watch a practice he thanks Bob for saving his life, buying him a home, giving him a foundation....blah blah blah The movie just ended 10 mins ago, so maybe I'm jumping to a quick conclusion...but I think ESPN should stick to what it knows with sports broadcasting and forget its new original films projects

A Final Four perfomance, if not better

[bobbyknightmare · 9 June 2002]

As you can tell from my chosen screen name (a nickname I got on the job), I had a great interest in this film and it paid off. After all the pre-film publicity and trailers, I expected a scene in which disgruntled players and whiny referees chased Coach Knight with torches to the old windmill.

Instead, and having read the book I know this, the film stayed very close to the book and made a real attempt to show both Knight in his rages and tantrums and as a mentor, friend and a loving father. This film gives no quarter to either the pro-Knight or anti-Knight fans. The casting was excellent and the film's action scenes looked like these guys at least hit the local high school gym a few hours per week to get ready.

If I have any complaint with this film, it's that they seemed to try to use basketball footage to connect random episodes from the book. There would be a very moving, intense scene, then a graphic saying something like "Indiana won seven of the next eight games". This is like making a movie about World War II beginning with Hitler's election in Germany, then showing a graphic saying "Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and then conquored France", then cutting to a scene of The Battle of the Bulge.

But other than that, this was a great film, one of the few truly great sports films.

A total injustice to Coach Knight.

[gatorzachary · 2/10 · 8 July 2002]

This movie probably seemed like a great idea in pre-production. "Let's make a movie about one of the greatest and most controversial athletic coaches of the modern era! And let's cast Brian Dennehey as Coach Bobby Knight!" That's where this movie went terribly wrong. Why cast an actor who bears no semblance of the man he's portraying? And then, why let this actor turn his character into not Coach Knight, but Brian Dennehey in a red sweater? As I sat watching this movie on ESPN, I didn't find myself believing this man was actually Coach Knight. He didn't look like him, talk like him, act like him, or even walk like him. I could not get past this fact, and thusly, I could not enjoy the movie. When Paul Newman and Robert Redford were cast as the outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, we didn't care if they were accurate historical models of their true characters because most of us had never even heard of these men until we saw the movie. But, with someone as visible in today's media as Coach Knight, you have to do better. When Anthony Hopkins was cast as Nixon, it was the same situation. But, Anthony Hopkins made us believe he in fact was Nixon. Dennehey didn't even try. What might have been a great movie was turned sour by this. Besides the fact that this movie tried to do for the four-letter word what "Saving Private Ryan" did for dismemberment, it stunk. Too little of the real Coach Knight and too much profanity for the sake of shock value turned this movie into a "season to turn off half-way through the broadcast." The only good thing about this is that it was television movie. I didn't have to waste my hard-earned money on this piece of trash.

A good initial effort by ESPN

[ckhosra1 · 7/10 · 11 March 2002]

This film was a highly anticipated one for me, partly due to all of the hype created by ESPN and because it was based on the real life character Bobby Knight. The movie had it's own style to it, with clips of actual Hoosier footage inserted into the acting, which in a way resembled the style of Forrest Gump. This film, in my opinion, is a "watch-one-time" movie because most of the good parts were given away by the commercials and it basically displayed what most of us sports buffs knew about Bob Knight anyways.

Plus: Profane language added realism and brought a new perspective to the reality of the Knight regime

Minus: It was a fairly uninteresting film, unless you are a devout

Hoosier fan



In sum, good work ESPN, don't quit your day job, but try to make a couple more good films.

One of the WORST TV-Movies of ALL Time

[Madcapsjs · 1/10 · 11 March 2002]

This movie is TRASH from the word go. First, it gives an account of a season that took place 16 YEARS AGO! Who cares? This movie had about as much depth as a bottle cap. It makes a complex person like Bob Knight into a cartoon character.

Swearing doesn't bother me, but I'm still amazed that ESPN showed a movie with more cursing than a Kevin Smith movie on a basic cable channel. The F-word was dropped at least 20 times before the first commercial break.

This movie was terrible and anyone associated with it should be embarrassed. I rate this on the same level as Jaws IV - The Revenge and Everybody Wins...2 movies that are in the Crapfest Hall of Fame.

Worth seeing just for Dennehy's performance.

[jibman33 · 6/10 · 3 April 2002]

This film clearly is not the greatest one in the history of the world, but it does have one real thing going for it. Brian Dennehy's performance as the General (AKA Bob Knight) is probably the greatest portrayal we will ever see of the character. True, he does not look or sound exactly like Bob Knight, but who else does? Dennehy had a very challenging role in this picture, and while the representation is not exact (he said himself that one can't act exactly like Bob Knight without getting a headache), I can't imagine anyone doing better.

I think that Bob Knight is a character who is best explored in documentary form, and that approach would have worked just fine as a film. As it is, however, we're left with a TV movie that is just slightly above average.

6/10

airrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrballllllllllllllllllllll

[the_mad_mckenna · 2/10 · 28 September 2002]

I watched this with great trepidation, and my trepidation was well founded, it seems. What was this movie about? Knight? The season? The Players? What? It was all over the place all the time. It had no tension (sorry, we all knew Bobby was going to curse and throw things) but Brian Denehy, a fine actor, comes across as mailing in the anger and delivering zero tension. Cheaply shot, like a MacGiver episode. Contrast this Thanksgiving main course with the job HBO did on the Don King movie "only in America" to show how to do sports biopics, warts and all. Notice that ESPN promoted the hell out of it and then never showed it again?

groundbreaking television use of the f-bomb

[cokeblazers · 7/10 · 10 March 2002]

brian dennehy was much better than expected in his portrayal of knight, although he should have dropped some pounds for the role. there is groundbreaking television use of the f-bomb, and it works wonderfully. the movie starts strong and ends a little abruptly, but overall a six or seven

Pathetic attempt at making a movie

[jdbaker21 · 1/10 · 5 December 2002]

Its obvious ESPN drools whenever Knight is in the news, but did they have to make a freakin' movie about him? This was THE worst attempt at a serious dramatic movie I have EVER seen. It had it all: terrible acting, terrible dialogue, ridiculous casting, cheap sets, etc etc. It looked like it was shot on a $10 budget. Cummon, whats up with the game scenes? Were they in a middle school gym? And the lighting, well, let me just say it was ridiculous. And Brian Denehy as Bob Knight? Give me a break. Denehey looked like...Denehy in a red sweater, nothing more. ESPN lost a lot of credibility with this flop attempt. They poured millions of $$$ in advertising, then the premier was a huge dissapointment. Bob Knight is not a subject that can be covered in a 2-hour movie. ESPN blew it. Even Knight himself thought it was more stupid than anything else.

A captivating and emotional tour-de-force.

[mhasheider · 8/10 · 13 March 2002]

Absorbing and highly interesting portrait of how Bobby Knight (Brian Dennehy) handled the numerous on-going dilemmas while coaching the Indiana Hoosiers during the tumultous 1985-86 season. I don't know anyone else who could handle playing "The General" besides Dennehy. Playing Bob Knight isn't exactly like playing a character from a William Shakespeare story. The atmosphere that is displayed here during any of the games, practices, or off the court isn't only real, but very bleak and unforgiving. The movie is based on a novel (of the same title) written by John Feinstein. I give the people at ESPN who decided to back the movie a lot of credit. A captivating and emotional tour-de-force.

Good for a TV movie, but too short, doesn't really give us why Bobby was such a winner

[DaveduFresne80 · 7/10 · 18 February 2021]

I grew up in a time when guys like Knight were still allowed to exist. In all honesty I never did particularly well with such types, just wasn't tough enough, but most guys elevated their play as long as expectations were consistent. I have to say I had one coach and he'd just say "Try your best" or something like that. He certainly didn't get mine or anyone else's best effort.

This film gives a glimpse into Bobby Knight who at heart was a moody guy, possibly what we would consider bipolar today. He was more of a drill sergeant than a coach, albeit one that followed NCAA rules to the letter. Practices were tough, but generally not early in the morning nor did he usually double them up unless he was pissed off or trying to send a message. Moody as he was he recognized beat up players wouldn't play too well. He preferred maximum effort in a short practice and everyone could go home on time.

As far as getting pissed off it was an act- most of the time. But if they kept losing or even worse failing to get winnable rebounds or set screens then after the game and in the next practices they would suffer for it, no question. It shows him getting on a player called Thomas which I think is an example of a player he didn't understand. Privately he said "The problem with Thomas is when you call him a wimp (saltier language than that) rather than play harder he starts believing he is one." So the point was he was trying to toughen them up through language, tough practices and even practicing with them at this point in his career (he was already a bit overweight, but nothing like the actor that portrays him).

He would toss students out of practice, tell them not to show up to the next practice and then be furious if they didn't show. A player like Alford was mostly smart enough to recognize what he wanted, but some weren't. Over time, word got out on Bobby Knight and players in the late 80s and especially 90s no longer wanted to play for him. Oh, a ton still did, but they weren't the best players anymore. It was unfortunate that Indiana was too cowardly to reign him in. I think his work at Texas Tech in the 2000s proves he could coach modern players and keep himself under control- of course he still had fire and some choice words, but he mostly kept things in the acceptable region. You can watch Knight School on youtube to get a picture of how he really was or read "A Season on the Brink" but this film is a fine representation for someone with some casual interest in Knight. It leaves out important details like how he'd be up all night after a win game planning the next team, but there's only so much time in a short film. I think he was given too much slack for most of his career, but most athletes would be better team players under a tough coach like Knight than other coaches. He didn't produce many NBA players in part due to his commitment to following NCAA rules, but possibly also because his system didn't allow for individuals to blossom.

a HUGE disappointment! buy the book instead!

[adam-1268 · 2/10 · 22 August 2007]

"Season on the Brink" is one of my favorite books of all time - an insightful unflinching look at Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. And Dennehy is one of my favorite supporting actors of all time. So I made a point of watching this adaptation.

It disappointed on every level. Dennehy's performance was less than inspired, and he seemed unprepared to play Knight - like he had accepted the role just prior to filming. The rest of the cast isn't much better.

And it was obvious that this was ESPN's first movie. It was poorly directed, poorly filmed, and the lack of budget was obvious anytime games were being simulated (smaller gyms, empty seats, etc.) Skip this adaptation and read the book - it holds up well to this day!

Horrible and ridiculous

[bgva · 25 March 2002]

I can't believe ESPN took so much time to promote this film, for it to turn out the way it did. Every time I turned on ESPN, there was a commercial or an on-screen ad for this movie, and it never lived up to its hype. It seemed like nothing more than an excuse to say the f-word on TV. Watching the edited version on ESPN-2 was even more ridiculous, if not hilarious, with some of Knight/Dennehy's "multiple-expletive" phrases being nothing but quick bleeps. (What was supposed to be the f-word three times in succession, was done as bleep-bleep-bleep). If I were Brian Dennehy, I would not include this on his resume.

Not too shabby

[frankwhat · 8/10 · 13 September 2004]

I liked this made-for-television movie and thought the acting was adequate enough by far. I don't know how close it was to the book it was based on but it looks like they at least got the general gist of it. Bobby Knight is a great coach in my opinion, he teaches his players how to be men both on and off the court. Knight also advises them on so many of life's secrets but sometimes it appears that it is undervalued. The problem today is that athletes have no more discipline, it was all taken away by throwing too much money at them...way more than they're worth in my opinion. In the 50's or 60's Knight's tactics would be embraced but because we're too politically correct and cater too much to these cry baby millionaires that see his antics as outdated for these times, and maybe they are. I only wish there were more distinguished coaches such as Knight that were willing to throw it all on the line but I'm afraid that he's the last of a dying breed.

Final Recommendation:

Movies : Was released straight to video.

DVD Purchase : It could be worth it if it's on sale and you're a Bobby Knight fan.

Rental : A rather solid rental flick!

Roughing it with Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers.

[michaelRokeefe · 4 April 2002]

ESPN attempts to give us a look at the inside wheeling and dealings of the charismatic coach Bobby Knight(Brian Dennehy)whipping an Indiana Hoosier team into shape to compete in the 1985-86 basketball season. Knight is the vocal point of the project and there are some good scenes where real game footage is used. Interest is moderate and it is odd watching a candy coated, but nonetheless brash vision of the ballsy coach. Dennehy seems at ease with the role and some good performances are turned in by Al Thompson, James Lafferty, Michael James Johnson and Yorick Park as Indiana team members. Not as impressive as a three pointer, but worth a trip to the free throw line.

Nicely done film

[DELL337ed · 9/10 · 10 March 2002]

Of course, when you first look at where I go to college at and where I am from, you may assume that this is biased. I thought the movie was pretty good though. Just got done watching it twice tonight and I thought it was cool. The beautiful seasonal shots of campus were a nice pride booster and the game footage that they worked into the acted out games was just awesome. I also thought the input from the local community and people involved was nice. There was more pro-Knight input than Anti-Knight input, but that because this movie is evidently geared more towards the pro-Knight fan. Who would want to see a bunch of Anti-Knight commentators rip on him in segments through the 2 hours? I agree with what one of the portrayed coaches said on the post-movie show when they kind of made the assistant coaches not get along very well. I was kind of expecting him to blow up a little more. They left out the part where he yells at some cheerleaders for scoring a psyche-out (ref, Baseketball) on Alford. It appears they were pushing for people to look at the good side of Knight. I thought there was a bit of a reference to the previous season when Knight threw the chair out on the court during the practice (being that the chair incident happened at Purdue the previous season). They were all just quiet and staring at him and I didn't get it until I thought about it. Little things like this and what I mentioned were what I thought made this movie good.