A lot of people complain that the movie is a dishonest interpretation of the book. I'll have to take their word for it, because this was based on a kids' book written by Jerry Spinelli in 1991, long after my childhood was over. Nevertheless, I'm here to comment on the movie itself.
Jeffrey Lionel Magee is a little leaguer who hoped his parents would meet him at an upcoming game, until they died in a car accident. At their funeral, he finds that he's on the verge of winding up in the foster care system, and bolts at a miraculous speed, giving him the reputation and nickname "Maniac Magee." And when he enters a town in Pennsylvania(apparently) that's still segregated even two decades after the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, he turns the whole community and everything it stands for upside down. Magee isn't just a maniac because he's a super-fast runner and a great baseball player, but because he sees the world for what it really is instead of the way people want him to see it, or the way they want to make it, and that rubs people the wrong way. He knows that knowledge is important, that the racism that his newly adopted home has kept mandatory is pointless, and that the old house that all the kids are scared of isn't really haunted.
As he runs between the white and black sections of the town, J.L. Magee meets his eventual love interest Amanda Beale, played by none other than Disney-cutie Kyla Pratt. When she takes him into her family's house, her younger siblings adore him and her parents object at first, but grow to accept him quickly. He even builds a private library for her. Unfortunately, his neighbors don't and brand the Beale family as race-traitors. Another boy who calls himself "Mars Bar" (Orlando Brown), the school bully with a candy bar in one hand and an obvious crush on Amanda, hates Magee simply because he's white. One peculiar aspect of this segregated town is that both white and black bigots have their own ethnic slurs, probably because the writers wanted to discourage the use of ethnic slurs from the real world. What's also peculiar is the excuse given by George McNab(Rip Torn), the descendant of town's founder for segregation. It's not the usual b.s. about Afro-Americans being more prone to a life of crime and drug addiction, or the fear that our daughters will fall for them instead of white boys, but that they're out to steal the white man's beans!
You read right -- BEANS!
Naturally, Magee realizes that he's not the REAL maniac, and he must put a stop to the town's madness. Couple this with a semi-predictable and heartwarming ending, you've got a worthy made-for-television movie for all ages.
Jeffrey Lionel Magee is a little leaguer who hoped his parents would meet him at an upcoming game, until they died in a car accident. At their funeral, he finds that he's on the verge of winding up in the foster care system, and bolts at a miraculous speed, giving him the reputation and nickname "Maniac Magee." And when he enters a town in Pennsylvania(apparently) that's still segregated even two decades after the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, he turns the whole community and everything it stands for upside down. Magee isn't just a maniac because he's a super-fast runner and a great baseball player, but because he sees the world for what it really is instead of the way people want him to see it, or the way they want to make it, and that rubs people the wrong way. He knows that knowledge is important, that the racism that his newly adopted home has kept mandatory is pointless, and that the old house that all the kids are scared of isn't really haunted.
As he runs between the white and black sections of the town, J.L. Magee meets his eventual love interest Amanda Beale, played by none other than Disney-cutie Kyla Pratt. When she takes him into her family's house, her younger siblings adore him and her parents object at first, but grow to accept him quickly. He even builds a private library for her. Unfortunately, his neighbors don't and brand the Beale family as race-traitors. Another boy who calls himself "Mars Bar" (Orlando Brown), the school bully with a candy bar in one hand and an obvious crush on Amanda, hates Magee simply because he's white. One peculiar aspect of this segregated town is that both white and black bigots have their own ethnic slurs, probably because the writers wanted to discourage the use of ethnic slurs from the real world. What's also peculiar is the excuse given by George McNab(Rip Torn), the descendant of town's founder for segregation. It's not the usual b.s. about Afro-Americans being more prone to a life of crime and drug addiction, or the fear that our daughters will fall for them instead of white boys, but that they're out to steal the white man's beans!
You read right -- BEANS!
Naturally, Magee realizes that he's not the REAL maniac, and he must put a stop to the town's madness. Couple this with a semi-predictable and heartwarming ending, you've got a worthy made-for-television movie for all ages.