In 1987, two weeks into the season, the National Football League Player’s Association went on strike. In the past, player strikes had led to cancelled games and shortened seasons. But in 1987, the owners fought back. Instead of cancelling games, they brought in replacements. Some of the replacements were former college players. Some were players that were recruited from the Canadian leagues or the recently folded USFL. Some of them were just locals who could throw a ball or kick a field goal. They were called scabs and, at first, they were hated by the fans. But for three weeks, they were the NFL.
Year of the Scab, the latest entry in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series, is about the players who (briefly) played for the 1987 Washington Redskins, the only team to be 100% made up of replacements. To the shock of everyone, while the team’s stars were walking the picket line, the replacement players won all three of their games, including one against the Dallas Cowboys. For three weeks, the scabs were stars but, when the strike ended, the replacements were cut and ultimately forgotten. When the Redskins won the super bowl, the replacements got to join the team at the White House but they did not receive rings. As one of the replacement players puts it, “Even the girl who answered the telephones in the front office got a ring.”
The most interesting part about Year of the Scab are the interviews with the former replacements today. Some are still involved in football, coaching high school teams. One works in a warehouse. Tony Robinson was paroled from prison so that he could play for the Redskins and then returned to prison as soon as the season was over. All of them are still emotional about their time in the NFL and, to varying degrees, all of them are aware that, because of their status as scabs, they will never receive the recognition that their gameplay deserved. Some of them still struggle with their decision to cross the picket line while others just wish they had gotten a ring. (One player even had a duplicate super bowl ring made but he laments that it’s still not the same as having the real thing.) Year of the Scab is an interesting and thought-provoking documentary about opportunities received and lost.
Jerry Bolanti (Joe Cortese) is a cocky loud-mouth who has just returned to New Jersey after serving a prison sentence. Jerry needs a work so a mid-level gangster named Tony (Lou Criscuolo) hires Jerry as a debt collector. The problem is that Jerry is just not very good at his job. His attempt to collect money from Bernie Feldshuh (Frank Vincent) leads to Bernie hiring a legendary hitman (Keith Davis) to kill Jerry. Despite working with two experienced enforcers, Joe (Joe Pesci) and Serge (Bobby Alto), Jerry’s next job is just as unsuccessful and leads to even more unnecessary deaths. Tony starts to wonder if maybe he made a mistake giving a job to Jerry and, unfortunately, no one simply gets fired from the Mafia.
Yesterday, the great character actor Harry Dean Stanton passed away at the age of 91. Cisco Pike is not one of Stanton’s best films but it is a film that highlight why Stanton was such a compelling actor and why his unique presence will be missed.
Jimmy Dworski (Jim Belushi) is a convicted car thief who only has a few days left in his criminal sentence but still decides to break out of prison so he can go see the Cubs play in the World Series. Spencer Barnes (Charles Grodin) is an uptight ad executive who needs to learn how to relax and have a good time. When Spencer loses his organizer, Jimmy finds it. Before you can say “The prince and the pauper,” Jimmy has access to all of Spencer’s money and the mansion that Spencer is supposed to be staying at over the weekend. While Spencer tries to survive on the streets and track down his organizer, Jimmy is living it up, spending money, impressing a Japanese businessman (Mako), romancing the boss’s daughter, and taking care of business.
In this filmed version of a hit Broadway musical, four musicians who look like the Beatles from a distance play 3o Lennon/McCartney songs while newspapers headlines scroll over their heads and famous events and figures from the 60s appear on the screen behind them. The camera sometimes follows the musicians backstage as they switch from dark suits to white Magical Mystery Tour tuxedos and later into the uniforms of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. They also try on a variety of wigs and fake facial hair.
Through the Shattered Lens 