Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to a Deep Focus episode of the five Minute Film Finder podcast. So this will not be limited to 5 minutes. My name is Samuel. This will be important that we're not limited to five minutes. And you'll find out shortly. But I should introduce my co host.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm Tracy. And I've never once been limited to five minutes of your podcast.
What are limits?
[00:00:37] Speaker B: The world does not exist.
You know, rules are there to be broken.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: That's how I feel about most things.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: That's kind of like I've heard in fashion. Right? Like learn all the rules and then.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: Learn when to break them.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: And then break them.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Yes, yes. And I've never once followed the rules of this podcast. So I am excited to get to do a Deep Focus episode with you where we really get to break down a movie that I think you care a lot about.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. So I'll introduce the movie.
It is on canopy. It is a 1997 British film Rom com.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Titled Fever Pitch.
If you were thinking. No, wait, that came out in, like, the 2000s with Jimmy Fallon. And it's very American. That's not the one that we watch.
[00:01:21] Speaker C: That's the one I watched.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: I'm aware. I've never seen it.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Actually, we can do a wrap up of it at the end.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Okay. I would love to.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: I did watch both.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Okay.
It is weird. So I do have a very personal connection to the British one, but I also kind of have a connection to the American one insofar as my mom's side of the family, they are from not Boston itself, but that area.
And so I have early childhood memories of watching Red Sox games with my grandfather. So that was.
But what my connection is. Sorry, Grandpa, you're to the side. We're Talking about the 1997 fever pitch, which is about. It's based off of a book.
[00:02:09] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: By Nick Hornby.
And the book itself is about his obsession with a particular soccer team. Football club. I will probably say football multiple times. I'm talking about soccer. Just because you slip into things.
And his particular team of choice is Arsenal. Arsenal Football Club in North London.
Funny story. I happen to be a massive Arsenal fan.
[00:02:35] Speaker C: You're wearing an Arsenal jersey right now.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yes. If we did a YouTube version of this podcast, you would see me looking like an absolute fool. No, I'm wearing my Arsenal shirt and I'm a grown man with Declan Rice's last name on the back of the shirt with his number.
This is the shirt. So the reason why I got this particular one. Sorry. We will talk about few things, but this, you know, this is, you know, in Champions League last year, it was a bad season for us, but we made it to the semifinals and in the quarterfinals we beat Real Madrid over two legs and Declan Rice hit two. Just absolute world class free kicks to win that game, three nil. And so I was like, well, I gotta get, like, I gotta get this shirt.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Because this is the shirt that he, like, he was wearing.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: I understand. Because my brother is a huge Arsenal fan.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: And as I was telling you, I have many Arsenal jerseys in my home that he doesn't remember. He's left there because he has so many others. So, like I almost wore an Arsenal jersey today because my brother owns so many Arsenal jerseys that he doesn't realize he's left multiple inside of my house.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: I don't know that much about Arsenal.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: That's okay.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: I know they are an English football club. I know you don't like Magpies.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: I don't like Magpies. Yes. Don't like Magpies. Absolutely do not like Tottenham.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: This is what I.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Or Spurs. Yeah, yeah.
Also Chelsea Bacon, you know.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: Nope, that's all my soccer knowledge. My football knowledge is that I had a brief three month period of being absolutely obsessed with everything Zlatan Ibrahimovic did. Oh, yeah. Because he's an egomaniac and I love an ego maniac, but otherwise I know almost nothing about the game of soccer. But I am a big fan of Nick Hornby, who wrote the memoir that this movie is based on. And he.
One of his other novels is the base for one of my favorite movies of all time, which is High Fidelity. Okay. So I've read a lot of Nick Hornby books, but I hadn't read this book before. I did not finish it, unfortunately, before we did the podcast. But I got a good way in and can see.
Can see why people wanted to make it into a movie.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's fascinating because in that memoir, it's sort of like he is.
So the movie itself centers around the 198889 season, which is incredible. It is maybe the greatest finish to a first division English soccer season ever.
Because Arsenal go into the last game needing to beat Liverpool by two goals. Liverpool currently sits top of the stance current in 1989. They sat top of the stand in.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: The time of the film.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: In the time of the film. So this, you know, in a weird way, like the American version of Fever Pitch, right? It kind of mimics an actual real season, which they didn't plan, I think, in the American version. But because the Red Sox went on this miraculous run, it was like, oh, okay, we're gonna. Yeah, but.
But it is this incredible thing. They go into the final game of the season. Arsenal need to win by two goals.
No one gives them, like, a chance.
And in the. In stock. So in soccer, right, like, you have stoppage time, so the clock is always running. And so at the end of the game, the referee decides, okay, there's been, you know, they'll add on time based off, like, if there's an injury, sometimes when a goal is scored, they'll add on time or substitution. Right.
And so in stoppage time, Michael Thomas.
I didn't even. I wasn't even alive for this.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: But I think the movie does a.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Good job of capturing the.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: Yeah. The energy of it. And also, he wasn't a particularly much beloved player.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he was, you know, like. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was at that point, like, he was. He was not like, you know, the big star. Right. And he. And he had. He had missed a chance earlier. And they kind of. They play that out in the movie. I think it's really well done the whole game. And it's kind of incredible because I've watched this YouTube clip numerous times.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: You weren't even alive.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: I wasn't even alive, but I just, like, I just live off of the good vibes of it.
And, yeah, he scores the goal and Arsenal win the game two, nil.
And it is kind of like to this day, one of the greatest ends to a season ever.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Well, I think that's why they chose that portion of the memoir to base the movie on, because the memoir actually follows from. And the movie does in a way, too, from his very first Arsenal game.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Up until, I think, basically the publishing of the book, which. The book was published in 92, I think, and then the movie was put out in 97.
But it is loosely based off of this point in Nick Hornby's life when he is having, like, a first very serious romantic relationship with somebody and she is having to deal with the fact that he is this absolute fanatic for this soccer club and he's kind of a child. Oh, yeah. So the Nick Hornby character in the movie is named Paul.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: He's played by Colin Firth.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: Who at the time was just two years past doing the Pride and Prejudice TV series, like, miniseries, which is very important to me.
So he's already like rom com leading man type guy.
And Then what he plays in this movie is a man child.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: A delightful man child.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: It kind of works because he has, like, his hair. It's, like, very moppish.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: He is the saddest boy in all of England for 98% of this movie. And it's exactly how I love to see Colin Firth. I want him to be sad and insightful.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
And he stars opposite Ruth Gimmel.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Who is.
She has her ducks in a row.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: Oh, she's so good in this movie. Are you a Bridgerton fan?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: I can't say.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: You can't say if you.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: I can't say that. No. I can't say that. I am. I have not. Okay. It's on Netflix.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: It is on Netflix. Yes.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: She is. I don't have a Netflix show.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: She's one of the main characters in Bridgerton. She's a lot of. So for people who are watching Bridgerton right now, she is the mom of a lot of the characters on Bridgerton. So I saw her in this, and I was like, oh, my gosh. Who is that lady? Why don't. I was like, oh, my gosh. She's on Bridgerton.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: This is my only exposure to her.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Is this movie good exposure? She's so good.
She's so. We were talking about it. I was like, this is the cutest woman I've ever seen in my whole life. She's so. But she is.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Even my dog loves her, as we discussed.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: Your dog really responded to her voice.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: So, yeah, my poor dog was just like.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: Also, I was absolutely gobspacked by little baby Mark Strong in this movie.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is kind of like, I think this happens. I think for a lot of Americans with British actors is, like, they play very serious roles a lot in, like, Hollywood films.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: And so your impression of Mark Strong, I think generally when I think about the roles I've seen him in, it does not, like, drive with him playing this.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: No. I always think of him in, like, Kingsman or, like, he's usually like, like a British villain, you know, and he's very kind of, like, cut glass, cheekbone kind of vibe. And then he's, like, a little bit younger, still a little bit chubby.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Very silly. And at first I wasn't sure it was him, and then I was like, no, that's definitely Mark Strong.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: He's, like, calling for his best. Best friend in the film.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: And he is kind of the foil because, like, okay, Paul Colinford is England's status boy. Right. For 98 minutes.
And Mark Strong's character is maybe more of the optimistic fan. Right.
And that comes out in again, the Final Match. Right.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: So this is where I get to talk about what I liked so much. Well, I get to talk about it the whole time. I liked this movie a lot and I am enjoying the book a lot. And the thing that I think that it really nails is how difficult the life of being a sports fan is, as much as that is indulgent and terrible to say. Yeah. I am a fan of the University of Oklahoma college football team.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker C: I have been.
I was a member of the pride of Oklahoma for many years. And I had. When I was in grad school, I had in student tickets.
And now as an adult, I have season tickets to the football games.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
And what the book and the film capture so well is the first time that you are in that live sports environment.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: And it's all happening around you.
You understand why the kid version of this character falls in love with this team who is bad.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like, this is. So this is like, I wanted to talk about this because I, you know. Yeah. Like, this is weird because I like this team that is, you know, way over there. Like, I will, like, I will probably never go to a live Arsenal match in my life unless they do one of their tours in America in the summertime. And that's not the same. Right.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: And that scene of him walking into Highbury, which no longer exists, which is.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Another, like, have a new stadium now. I looked up some of the stuff about that.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: And so my first year as an Arsenal fan, I was a kid and it was their final season in Highbury.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: And so it was kind of this weird thing of like, like falling in love with like this team in this particular location. And then the next year it's like, oh, it's a different, different stadium and that. And that comes across, I think, in the. When you watch games televised a bit. But. But I will never have the experience of this kid, like, walking through the stands and coming out into Highbury and like, having that experience.
But the closest. But when I watched that scene, the closest I could get was like, you know, I, you know, I went to OU and definitely, like, you know, support the football team and stuff, but not as passionately, I think, as Arsenal, though maybe at times of my life I have supported OU football, like, mainly when I was in grad school and I wasn't living in Oklahoma, it was like a touchstone for home. But when, you know, my father in law, he has season tickets and Every now and again, I've gone to a game with him and, like, walking up the ramps into the stadium, and there's all these people around you.
It's incredible.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's one of the things that I think that the book and the movie both did really well.
And the movie in particular is that there are a lot of these scenes of him in sort of, like, this sort of rough area where they're all shouting and, like, they're all angry. And it's really.
I always tell people that if you have seen me at an OU sports event, you know who I am as a real person, and then you will meet who I am at a sports event. She's not nice and she's not cute and she's not fun. No, she's not. If things aren't going well, and I have been. The way that the guys in this movie are yelling, like, at the refs or anything like that, I've been. I've been that person. And so. And it's not good. And the guys in this movie know that it's not. Yeah.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Well. So this is like.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: This is.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: The thing is, like, this is so, like. And this is why I would recommend this movie to our customer base, which is like, you're probably not an Arsenal, and you might be. There are Arsenal fans out there.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: There are Gunners around here.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. And maybe you don't care about soccer, but. But I think there is something relatable between, like, the fanaticism around, you know, being a soccer fan in England and I think, particularly in the American context, the fanaticism around college football. Because, like, over there, your neighborhood probably has, like, a football club that is maybe amateur, maybe professional, and a lot of people support that club. And the closest analog to it in the American scene, I think, is college football, which is, like, you have places. For the longest time, Oklahoma didn't have a professional sports team, but what they did have was two college football teams that, like, you know, that. That people were sucked into that orbit some form or fashion.
And so I think.
I think this is why just, like, the experience of, like, walking to, like, you know, OU's football stadium, the experience of, like, a kid over in London walking into, you know, Arsenal's, like, you know, stadium.
It's almost.
It's not necessarily a universal experience, but it's one of those that can transcend.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: But I think it does transcend, like, sport. And in the movie, the whole kind of crux of it is that it is while all the sports stuff is great.
The kind of idea behind it is that it is Paul trying to figure out how to cross over into being a real boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When he meets this woman and is required to have this responsibility.
And it's a proper rom com, which I think is really great, because I don't know that we've done a lot of rom coms on the podcast. Yeah, we've definitely. We've done some. The one Deep Focus episode that maybe we've done on a rom com is Kendall and I covered Moonstruck forever Ago, which I would argue that that's maybe just a perfect film and not a rock.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: I remember that episode. That was a good one. That was a good one.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: It's my favorite movie.
Not to talk about Cher, but Cherry.
This is a really good, solid rom com that I feel like you don't always get a lot of anymore where it's like. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles to it. Obviously there is.
The crux of the movie is the stuff with Arsenal and him. But it is really like a coming of age story. It's a rom com for the romance girlies. It is an enemies to lovers. Technically. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: It's very short enemyhood.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: I guess they really do like each other.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Yeah. They really hate each other.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: The movie does a really good job of being like, these people are diamonds.
Opposed.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: And they continue to be throughout the movie.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Really.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: It's like a huge argument between them is that she is quite. He calls her Ms. Jean Brody a lot.
And he's like, truly. He has children doing, like, football chants in his English class. At one point, at the beginning of this movie, they really don't like each other.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: And then they're like, but we do.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It is fascinating. And there's a sense that there's the frustrating aspect to it. And this is.
I keep a little notebook where I journal the movies I watch. Good.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: And I just, like, never one's been so organized.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: That's okay.
Anyway, we don't need to get into why I do this, but I usually will write just like, a sentence as my initial thoughts.
And both times I wrote frustrating or I'm upset because I do not like how much I see of myself in Paul.
This sense of like, here I am a grown man with a job, with a wife, and yet I can have a Saturday ruined by.
[00:18:13] Speaker C: By sports.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: By sports.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: Yes. So I think that this is a thing with Nick Hornby movies.
And Nick Hornby works is because. So As I said earlier, one of the. My favorite films is High Fidelity, and I feel like I am Rob from High Fidelity. I don't know if you've ever seen High Fidelity, but he is also like a sort of adult man who is letting really, really.
What's the word I'm looking for?
Just, like, basic things ruin his life.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: And I have always related to that character a lot. And so when I saw Paul in this one, too, I have also let my day be ru by an OU football game. Not as much now as I used to, and certainly not in the way that other people in my life have. So my brother, who I've brought up many times because he is a huge Arsenal football fan and is also the person that I go to OU football games with.
Terrible.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Well, my mom used to kick him out of the room when we watched football games at all, just to be like. She's like, I can't be around you.
So she'd be like, you need to go somewhere else.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:27] Speaker C: And do this. So I feel like. I'm sure that Nick Corby did a good job because he did also write this.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: He adapted it. Yeah.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: Yeah. It's the only one of his own works that he's adapted to film. All the others he has had somebody else write, because I checked that today. But he was like, this is. It was a memoir about him. He adapted it into this movie.
And essentially he was like, it's my life, and I want to be in control of how. And that's why I think it feels. Feels so real to someone who is a sports fan of, like, how this makes you feel and in a way, how stupid you can feel about it when you do let it ruin it. And that's one of the things about the movie that I think really, really works is that it really captures that emotional feeling. And then also of all the people around you who are not like you, who do not let this ruin their day and their magic, mad at you about.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: So this is kind of. There's a scene in the movie, right, where.
So Paul. I almost called him Nick. It's this weird thing because I read the memoir before I saw the movie, and so, like, I kind of, like, interchange him a bit in my mind. But. But Paul, he's, like, up for this promotion at the school head of year. I don't know what that means. I'm sure it has something to do with the British school system, but.
And he doesn't get it. And he's told the same day that Arsenal lose a match and throws their title hopes into disarray.
And Ruth Gimmel's character comes over to console him about not getting the promotion.
And she comes over, she's like, I'm so sorry. He's like, thank you. I really appreciate that.
And the whole time he thinks she's talking about Arsenal losing.
And then when it becomes clear that she's talking about the promotion, he's like, who cares? I've wanted this for 18 years. And that kind of hurt me because I have been an Arsenal fan since their final year of Highbury, which means I've never seen them win the League. And so. And that's been. So I've been a fan. This will be like 20 years of being an Arsenal fan. And he's saying, 18. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, 20 years.
20 years.
[00:21:39] Speaker C: That's one of the scenes in the film, though, that I think, like, I kind of think this film really deserves be to more credit that it's used. I don't know if it just didn't come over to America because America did not care about soccer in the 90s, and now I think it would maybe go over better because there is a lot more soccer culture or football culture in America now. But he. He says, I've. I've wanted this for 18 years. What have you ever wanted for so long?
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: And. And she.
I feel bad now that I can't remember her name. I think it was Sarah. Is her name in the film?
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: Yes. I get to keep my feminism card for remembering a woman's name.
Sarah says, I've never wanted anything that long. Cause 18 years ago, I was a child.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:25] Speaker C: And I don't want to marry David Cassidy anymore. To which I internally said, why not?
I love David Cassidy.
Maybe get your priorities right, Sarah.
It is just, like, really, like, I have to assume that Nick Hornby had this exact fight with someone in his life because it felt so real to the arguments that, like, you've seen people in your life have with their partners or that you have had with their partners, where they just have one thing about you that they don't get and they'll never get. And they either have to choose to love that thing about you.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Or move on.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So. Well, here's the thing. This is. I'm not going to say I am Nick Hornby here, but I'm currently married. I've referenced my wife already on the podcast.
My wife, who is a saint, who has put up with my love for Arsenal for, I guess, well over 10 years now.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: We met in college and that the, the, My final year of college, we were together and Arsenal got maybe the closest, maybe one, one of the closest moments to winning the League.
It was early on in the season playing West Brom, and so I didn't have like a tv.
So basically if I wanted to watch Arsenal matches, I would go to like, if it was Champions League, it was really easy because a lot of the international students would gather in one of the, the student lounges and just have it on and I would watch it there in the union. But if not, if it was like a Premier League game, a lot of times my friends thought it would be funny to have me over and just watch me, who's like soft spoken and mild mannered, like totally have a total character flip watching Arsenal or my wife who had TV and cable this before streaming, I would go over there and watch it and this West Brom match happened to be at where she lived and I was there on the couch watching it and all kinds of things happened in this game. I had to refresh my memory a bit, but I was able to go relive your trauma. Yeah, a little bit because I was like, you know, it's so nice of.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: You to do that for work. Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Well, I was like, man, because I was watching this movie, I was like, this reminds me of this moment in my life.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: And.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: And I was like, who was it? I think it was West Brom. And sure enough, it was.
We lost that game two, one. And I looked up the report of the game and I was like, oh, this is maybe why it upset me so much. We had a penalty to equalize late in the game we missed.
There was an own goal from us who are now manager played for us back then, and he scored an own goal, which was the deciding goal. Kind of weird irony of fate, but yikes. But. But there I was, there's my wife, she's a twin. So there's. I'm watching this game.
Rosemary's there and then her twin sister's there and the game ends 2, 1.
And I stand up, I walk out of the room and I collapse, like prone, like face down. I am depressed and unbeknownst to me, I was told about this later.
Rosemary and her sister, who like their dad, obviously loves ou football, but they've never been around someone who's had such a dramatic reaction to a sports loss, to a sports loss.
And I guess they both turned and looked at each other and Rosemary said to her sister.
What is going on?
What do I do?
And her sister was like, I have no idea.
[00:26:16] Speaker C: No idea.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Like, how do you.
[00:26:18] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's really.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: How do you talk to someone who's so irrational?
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: You're inconsolable.
This is really. It's what I liked so much about the book and the movie is that it really does tap into, like. I think it is a little window for people who are sports fans. Like this.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: But for people who are not into, like. You don't understand the. Cause this movie does use voiceover.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: And a couple of points where it's like this, I think, really effectively to where it really is truly like a window inside of that person's mind of, like, you don't understand that you have put a sort of loving commitment into something for, you know, in your case, 20 years. In Paul's case, 20 years or 18 years. In my case.
Oh, gosh, 15, 16 years of loving a sports team and. And they will never once love you back enough for that to make that disappointment Okay.
I don't know.
I think it's what's so good about the movie. I appreciate you sharing this story, that it really does capture that. And there's the scene at the end when they're watching that final Arsenal game that you were talking about earlier, when Paul. He's so mad about the fact that they are. It's nil. Nil. He doesn't think they are going to score.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:42] Speaker C: He puts on his jacket and he's like, we're gonna go out. Yeah, we're gonna go out. I can't watch this. And Mark Strong, who is kind of the more rational one, is like, no, we're not. I'm gonna watch the game. You can go wherever you want. And Paul's like, it's my apartment. And he's like, try to get me out of here. I'm not leaving. And he truly spends the rest of the game in a leather jacket, standing by his own door frame with his arms crossed.
Just. Even after they score, he's like, no, I'm still going. I'm still. Because they score. They need to win.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: They're getting my hopes up.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Just.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Yes. And it's.
I will say, Ted Lasso is another thing that I thought about a lot while watching this because I'm a big fan of Ted Lasso. And a big quote from Ted Lasso is, it's the hope that kills you.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: With soccer fandom or with sports fandom. And I was just like, oh, it's the hope that kills you. Because he's like, well, they've done this now just to upset me.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Just to make me feel something. And he's just in. In a leather. Ben's laughing at me.
He's in a leather. Just so grumpy by the door. And I'm like, I know that man. I've been that man.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: I love that man.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it is, like, so, I mean, for those who don't know, like, I think, you know, Arsenal have just come out of. Currently, not back in the 80s, but currently. They've just come out of like.
They were just awful. You know, the. The end of the Arsene Wenger years were terrible. And then Unai Emery came in and nothing improved. And then Mikel Arteta came in as the manager and. And now things have have flipped. And so I feel like the last, I guess, three years of my life, My life has gotten progressively more intense because.
Because kind of like, you know, when we were sort of like, never really competing for the title, I was just like.
I felt like a very sort of just easygoing fan because it was like there was no. There was no hope.
[00:29:44] Speaker C: No, I understand completely.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: And then out of nowhere, you know, it would have been the 22, 23 season.
They were just playing out of their minds. No one expected them to push for the title. And it looked like we were gonna do it, and then we kind of collapsed. Young team, Manchester City, just a machine. They catch up and they win the title.
And then it's like, well, now I have hope. Like, you know, we get Declan Rice the next year. I'm like, we can do this. That 23, 24 team. I love that team so much because I felt like we. We. We won, like, 16 of our final 18 games.
[00:30:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: And still finished second.
And then last year, it was like, okay, this is the year.
And then Man City has a bad year, and it's like, okay, but then we also have a bad year. And then Liverpool, who was. Who were in disarray out of nowhere, win the title.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: And we finished second again. So it's like this. This intense. This intense pressure. And I feel like each year, like, you know, you play multiple competitions, right? It's not like just. You just have one competition.
[00:30:53] Speaker C: It's very different than America.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: It's very different from American sports, where, as they say, we're fighting on four fronts.
And, you know, like, last year, even though we had a terrible, you know, league season in Europe, in the European competition, we got to the semifinals, right? Like, you know, I didn't think we were going to win it, but then when we got to semifinals, I was.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: Like, well, and then boom, you know?
[00:31:16] Speaker B: And my earliest. One of my earliest memories of being an Arsenal fan is that final year in Highbury. They made it to the Champions League final. Had never won that. Still have never won that competition.
And we go up one nil. We actually go down a man, and then we go up one nil. So we're playing with 10 minutes against 11 and we're up one nil. And then we let two goals in towards the end of the match. And that, like, that. That is, like, seared into my brain, like, that is. And so there's this, like. But these past three seasons, I've been, like, increasingly, like, hopeful. I don't want to say joyful, because we. We haven't won anything.
And.
[00:32:00] Speaker C: But it's there.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: But it's there and it feels like. I don't know if, like, I can handle things getting more intense. And I think. I think this, this year, is a breaking point. I am either gonna go back into, like, being like, whatever. Like, it is what it is, like, numb, or.
And. Well, this is the other great thing about this movie is at the end, when they win, there's a sense, there's a voiceover work in my reading of it is there's a sense of, like, Arsenal almost. They don't matter as much to Paul.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Right. He's able to sort of divorce himself somewhat from them.
And I just have a feeling.
I have a feeling this is your.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: Make or break year.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: If Arsenal win, I think it might just give me just that. That. That little breathing room to maybe not. To not care as much.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: So that was gonna be. My question is, do you think that this movie is an accurate depiction of being an Arsenal fan?
[00:33:02] Speaker B: It is, it is. And it's so funny because, you know, there are all these aspects to it. So, like, he, like, when he became an Arsenal fan, that was like, Arsenal famously, were the club that. That they didn't play beautifully, right? Like, they, they. They would grind out one nil results.
And. And that a lot of the success in the. The 80s and early 90s were. That was that team of, like, what, like, one nil to the Arsenal was a famous chant. Right.
Unfortunately, fortunately, like, this Frenchman, which all the British people hated, Arsene Wenger comes in and he takes over Arsenal and he's like, I'm a purist. We're gonna play. We're gonna play, like, beautiful attacking football and you get this Free flowing, like, one touch, passing, attacking kind of style, but maybe not as physical as, like, what the English game is known for.
But that was. My introduction to Arsenal Football Club was not what I think has been their identity for many, for much of their history, which is like a grinded out, like, bully, like, hooliganism. Yeah, hooliganism.
Mine was, like, very sort of like.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Almost the total football type stuff.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Yeah, the more total football. And like. Yeah, you play beautifully. And I think Arteta, the new manager, he's not new. He's been there six years now. But like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you start measuring your fandom in decades, you know. Yeah, right.
But, but. But he. He's, I think, brought back that sort of, like, boring style of football. And. And I'm sort of liking it because I.
I watched us get.
Well, I actually, at work, before coming over here to record this podcast, I was ranting about how we had three guys get their legs, like, basically broken in half. Because. Because the reputation was like, Arsenal, they don't like a physical match. And so guys would come in with these, like, crazy tackles. And then, like, you know, if your leg misses the ball, it's gonna hit another. Yeah, yeah. And so.
So we had three guys who had their legs broken during my early years as an Arsenal fan. So I'm scarred from all of this.
[00:35:14] Speaker C: And.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: And so now we have this manager who's like, we're gonna play solid defensive football.
I'm going to get all the players who are, like, over six feet.
Like, we're going to have a big football team and we're not going to get bullied. And I'm like, yes, yes, yes. More.
But now I'm like, sorry, I had a point of tying this into Fever Pitch.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: No, I think the point is that this is.
Our conversation is Fever Pitch.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: So if you want to know me more, if you watch Fever Pitch, you'll know who I am as a person.
[00:35:46] Speaker C: If you are trying to understand the soccer football fan in your life.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:50] Speaker C: Fever Pitch is actually maybe a perfect film for that. Do you want to hear a little bit about the 2005American version of Fever Pitch that I watched to sort of annoy you?
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It won't annoy me. It won't annoy me.
[00:36:04] Speaker C: It's okay. No, I remember when this movie came out. I remember that it was based off of the Nick Hornby novel, and I said, jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. No, thank you. I like both of those people, but I know I watched it with my dad last night. It is based off of the Boston Red Sox. My dad is a huge baseball fan. He's a St. Louis Cardinals guy who is. Who the Red Sox beat in that World Series final.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that was. They swept him, right?
[00:36:30] Speaker C: Yeah. He and I had a good time where he was. Name every baseball player who came on screen. And I go, what do they do? Because I'm not a huge baseball fan. Yeah, I hated it. I know people liked that movie a lot. I thought it was genuinely terrible. It is the most where the British version has this real romantic charm and was quite obviously based off of someone's real relationship.
They tried to make it more palatable to an American audience. And what they did was just make everything really blown out and weird. And it felt like the most unrealistic relationship I've ever seen on screen. And even though I think Drew Barrymore is an extremely charming actress, and it's not her fault that the. It was written by the Farrelly brothers. So, like, that they made, like, Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary.
And I was like, I don't know that this, like, really gentle, kind of meaningful British romantic comedy was necessarily meant to be put into their hands. Yeah, I really did not enjoy it. But you know who did give it three and a half stars? Roger Ebert.
He loved it.
So don't listen to me. Listen to Roger Ebert. He thought it was great. I thought it was insane, negative. I did enjoy going through a lot of people's RBIs with my dad while I watched the movie. Okay, so that was great. He was like, big, poppy. He was incredible. And I was like, what did he get up to? And then we would look at his Wikipedia page and go through all of the awards that he got. And then someone else would come on, and we'd be like, what did he. He get up to? We'd look at all their awards. So, like, maybe watch the American one with your dad if your dad really likes baseball. We had a great time, but when the movie was over, I said, that was terrible. And my dad said, oh, I could have told you that. I watched it years ago. And I said, kevin, that's funny. It was great.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:38:23] Speaker C: So that's my pitch. That's my fever pitch on 2005's Fever Pitch, starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, which is.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: I don't think is on Kanopy.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: It is not on Canopy, but we do have a DVD of it at the library.
Gonna return it tomorrow. So if you want to have a weird Experience with your dad. You can rent the DVD from the library.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: It might be fitting, though. This is. I mean, his whole obsession starts because his dad is trying to build a relationship with them.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Yes. In the Nick Hornby one. Yes.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: In the real one.
[00:38:56] Speaker C: In the American one, his parents have gotten divorced and it's his uncle who takes them and then gives him the season tickets to these Red Sox games that are apparently really good. I don't. Yeah, it's fine.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: Not a baseball. Not a baseball fan.
[00:39:13] Speaker C: I grew up a Cards fan.
Not. Not my game.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
I.
Well, we don't want to turn this into a baseball.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: No, we'll have to. We'll do whenever the Natural comes on Canopy. We'll do a defocus episode on the Natural, and we'll get into baseball.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I do think they're having listened. Ben and Darren did a couple episodes on, like, sports movies.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: Oh, Ben's a sports movie guy now.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's funny because they're.
Yeah, they're. Don't watch sports because they both say. Right. Like, not a sports fan. Right. And then there's a real tonal shift here when you put two sports fans with a sports movie and where all.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: We talked about was being sports. Yeah.
I hope our audience appreciates us talking about it for a little while. Any final notes that you want to put on Fever Pitch? Everyone should become a gunner.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Yes.
Become a gunner, which is the name for Arsenal fans.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: If we never said that.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Come on, you Gunners. Sorry. Five Minute Film Finder is an Arsenal podcast now.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Move out of the way, everyone. British. This is the premiere Arsenal podcast now from one person who really loves them and one person who knows a little bit about the.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: But yeah, it's a good movie. Give it. Give it a watch.
[00:40:33] Speaker C: It's great and it's like breezy, like 90 something minutes. And it's a good romantic comedy. If you are one of the people who are like, romantic comedies are dead. This is a good romantic comedy. But it is, I think, a really good sports fan movie, which there are not a ton of.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And if you're trying to understand the sports fan in your life.
[00:40:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it will help. I think it will help because I felt seen.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah, same, same.
Awesome. Well, yes, Fever Pitch is on Canopy.
And we will see you next time for whatever the next episode is. Thank you for joining me, Tracy. This was fun.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Thanks for having me. This is a good time.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: Bye.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Si. Theme music by Ben Si.
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please email podcastioneerlibrarysystem.org Remember to like, review and subscribe.
Thanks for listening.
