This is an epic story which deserves a much better presentation than ESPN delivers. As a life-long Bear Bryant fan and follower, I was aghast at Tom Berenger's performance. I read the other glowing reviews and I totally disagree, it was an awful portrayal of the legendary coach, from the accent to the mannerisms, to the cold and callous nature of a man who you wonder why he wasn't arrested and imprisoned for what he did. Yes, much of the story is true, and yes, Bear Bryant was a ruthless hard ass who drove those boys hard in the Texas heat, but there was something about the way Berenger portrayed him, as if he had no human emotion whatsoever, just a mean old heartless bastard who didn't care if he killed every one of them.
The beer cans falling out of the car door as it opens, was this needed? I understand Bear Bryant drank alcohol, it came across as condescending and insulting. It's as if the movie was produced and directed by haters of Bear Bryant, attempting to do an all-out smear piece on his legacy. You even get the feeling that Berenger himself, didn't like Bryant, and wanted to play him as loathsome as possible. He succeeded. Perhaps the script and lines were historically on the money, but it was the delivery which bugged me the most? I think of how George C. Scott portrayed General Patton, another tough and relentless SOB, but Scott brought a humanistic element to the role, a soft and subtle side of the man we could relate to and admire. This was missing in Berenger's performance for the most part.
I read the book before watching the film, and one of the main aspects of the book was never really touched on in the movie, was how Bryant was livid that no one told him about the drought, or the lack of water at Junction beforehand. Had he known the whole deal, he would have never gone out there, but by the time he found out, there was no turning back. You can't teach boys not to back down from adversity and challenge by making that the very first thing you do, so they pressed on to Junction in spite of the situation. The movie may have spent 3 seconds on this, but it was important to the entire story, and would have really brought that missing "human element" to the portrayal of Bryant as a person.
I understand movies often over-play things, like the drunken trainer, Smokey, who was certainly never as exaggeratedly drunk all the time, as depicted on screen... I can accept that's Hollywood, no problem. But to have them portray Bear Bryant as some heartless cruel monster who just didn't care about those boys, was unforgivable, in my opinion.
I enjoy Tom Berenger in certain roles, he can be mean but have a charming side, and I can certainly see why he would be cast to portray Bryant, but the performance he gave was terrible, and didn't do the real Bryant justice. While the movie tried to stick with elements of the book, I would have loved to have seen more football on the field, the 'results' of what Bryant accomplished at Junction, perhaps? They could have shown Berenger lifting a young Coach Stallings to 'mock' carry him off the field, after Stallings led Texas A&M to a victory over Alabama in the 1967 Cotton Bowl. Again, that would have shown a 'human' side to Bryant, as opposed to the arrogance-filled reflections of Bryant fumbling around with a scrapbook and his thoughts.
The real shame is the story that wasn't told here. We could have been shown the bad stuff that happened at Junction, the rewards and redemption for what happened, and the reunion/reflection to conclude with humility and respect. What we got was; the bad stuff that happened at Junction, then some years later, they all forgave him, even though he was still a drunk old mean arrogant bastard. If I knew nothing of Bear Bryant before watching this movie, I think I would hate him afterward. Thank goodness, that is not the case. Thank goodness I read the book.
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