The Dude and I were genuinely obsessed with The Sandlot. It came out when I was in grade seven and The Dude was in grade five. We were already a year into our obsession with two movies released the previous year-- The Mighty Ducks and Newsies. The Sandlot and The Mighty Ducks go together nicely as an adolescent sports flick double feature, but I have to own up to our appreciation of Newsies. We love us some musicals. In the early '90s, we didn't own many movies. In fact, before saving up to purchase these three killer VHS tapes (and the two subsequent Duck sequels), I believe the only movies at 8 Victor Terrace were E.T. and The Addams Family. E.T. was the first movie I ever saw at the theater, and is an acknowledged classic. I am still contemplating naming my fake son Elliott in honor of that film. The Addams Family is a little tougher to explain. I did see it at the theater with a bunch of my grade six friends, but I'm not 100% sure why we felt compelled to scoop this for our collection. I can tell you with certainty that we bought it at McDonalds though-- right around the time when Micky D's was hosting "All You Can Eat Pizza Nights." Pizza at McDonalds. It didn't last, but damn if it wasn't delicious. Back me up, Dude.
When I think back to the number of times The Dude and I watched Newsies, The Mighty Ducks, and The Sandlot, I know it is a small miracle that we made good grades and grew to be quasi-successful adults. In 1994, D2 came out and we worked that into our rotation. (D3, released another two years later, was never a favorite, though we did buy it to complete the set.) I can remember the excitement of our mum driving us to Home Vision Video to buy these gems. We had to save up somewhere in the neighborhood of $15-$20 for each, but boy did we get our money's worth. The Dude and I got into a routine of watching these movies constantly for several years. We didn't have cable and I hadn't hit my John Hughes period yet, so we would easily crank through selections from the Newsies/Ducks/Sandlot collection every weekend. And sometimes we'd fit one in after school if we didn't have practice. My dad was not pleased with our consumption of these movies, but he did enjoy The Sandlot when he sat through it once. (He is not a repeat viewer. That comes directly from our mum's bloodline.)
The Sandlot holds up as the most quality of our mid-90s favorites. It is the story of Scotty Smalls, a pre-teen boy who moves to a new neighborhood in 1960s California. Although Smalls initially doesn't have any athletic or social skills, Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez takes him under his wing and Smalls joins the group of neighborhood boys who spend their summer vacation playing ball together at the sandlot. I related to the anxious, non-athletic Scotty Smalls. Benny, the most talented player and the leader of the group, always reminded me of what my dad might have been like as a kid in the '60s. (Don't burst my bubble if you knew my dad in the '60s and he was a can't-hack-it pantywaist who wore his mama's bra.) Michael "Squints" Palledorous slayed me with his giant grin after tricking Wendy Peffercorn into giving him artificial respiration, and his delivery of "for-ev-er" will be stuck in my head until the end of time. But the movie is stolen by red haired and pudgy (say hello to my future Match.com tagline) Hamilton "Ham" Porter. Holy smokes is Ham quotable. The article below references "You're killing me, Smalls" and I'm bummed that the director never happened to overhear me one of the approximately 11,000 times that I have uttered those words. Ham's description of himself "baking like a toasted cheeser" on a hot summer day clearly struck a cord with The Dude and me. Tropical weather is hard on husky gingers. And Ham's trash talking is priceless. Enjoy:
I can't believe two decades have passed since The Dude and I were in our Newsies/Ducks/Sandlot heyday. Four movies with pre-teen/teen male casts-- What more could a junior high gal (and her little brother) have wanted on any given Saturday afternoon in mid-90s Central Maine?
Check out this article about the 20th anniversary of The Sandlot. It includes a "Sandlot Kids: Then and Now" slideshow. Yes!
No comments:
Post a Comment