Gus (1976)

Last week's movie was pretty horrible and an all round grim experience. So let's never speak of it again and swiftly move on to much more jovial and comfortable subject matter like oh... I don't know... how about a donkey that plays football? Kinda apt really since we are just a couple of days removed from what was an outstanding Superbowl. If you didn't already I know, I'm a Brit but I quite like a bit of NFL and make an effort every year to at least catch the Superbowl and I really enjoyed it this year, proper right down to the wire kinda game, just 2 very good teams playing very good football. But err... anyway so yeah this week, let's checkout 1976's Gus: an obscure Disney movie about a donkey that plays football.

The California Atoms (not a real team. I checked!) are demonstrably the worst team in the NFL having not won a single game, and saddled (pun very much intended) with a lacklustre and underperforming attacking team, Owner Hank Cooper (Ed Asner), having been shown a story by secretary Debbie Kovac (Liberty Williams) about a Yugoslavian mule capable of kicking soccer balls over 100 yards with perfect accuracy, opts to import said mule and his owner Andy (Gary Grimes) into California to feature in his teams half time show. Andy and Gus are an instant hit, even if the team goes on to lose 41-0 (that's uh, not great if you don't know how NFL scoring works) and it leads Hank to make a daring bet with his creditors; The Atoms go all the way to the Superbowl and win and they'll finance him for one more year, or Hank defaults his ownership of the team. Meanwhile Andy and Debbie start to grow a little bit closer when Debbie is tasked with looking after him and Gus, which leads to him (Andy, not the mule) taking Debbie out to a movie. Much to the chagrin of Debbie's on off boyfriend Rob Cargil (Dick Butkus) a man with an impressive moustache and equally as impressive massive blue cardigan who races to movies only to pick the wrong car and get stared down by "Tall Man" (previous blog feature star, and all round cool guy: Richard Kiel). Back to some football though and within the 1st Quarter of their first season game, the Atoms bring in Gus to take a field goal and after some debate over the rules, the officials allow it to go ahead, with Gus smashing the ball over 100 yards into the opposing goal and eventually (somehow?) leading the team to victory! As the Atoms go on to win 4 from 4, Hank's Creditors, begin to get desperate and recruit 2 recently released criminals: Spinner (Tom Bosley) and Crankcase (Tim Conway) to interfere with Gus's transport to game, ultimately costing them the match and then again by getting Gus drunk on vodka, completely ruining a pre-game ceremony being held in Gus's honour and embarrassing the club. Minor interferences notwithstanding though, the Atoms still make the playoffs much to Debbie's delight and she kisses Andy for the first time, doing nothing to calm Rob's jealousy with Rob eventually transferring to the Michigan Mammoths (also not a real team) after he gets pelted into the end zone during training by an errant kick from Gus! Interfering once again, Spinner and Crankcase convince Andy that Debbie has been in a car accident causing him to rush to the hospital and miss the crucial playoff game affecting Gus who won't kick for anyone else but a quick thinking Debbie subs in for him at the last moment and pleads with Gus to play, which he does with the Atoms just scraping a win as Andy finally makes it to the stadium, albeit too late. Andy, seeing Gus perform without his help, and compounded by his own parents favouritism to his older, successful brother, feels useless and vanishes, causing Gus to come down with a serious case of depression, but Debbie realising that Andy will most likely try to fly home, manages to convince him to stay although both he and Gus are put into protection until the Superbowl. With the opposing team; Michigan Mammoths on the horizon and Andy restricted to only telephone conversations with Debbie, Spinner and Crankcase set about trying to determine where he and Gus are holed up. They figure out that Andy and Gus are staying at a cabin in the mountains in L.A, and pull off a switcheroo, donkeynapping Gus and switching in a regular mule in his place... It's Superbowl Sunday! And Andy hasn't yet realised that his donkey pal is not the same mule he was last night but it soon becomes apparent when on the field imposter Gus won't respond to Andy's calls. Meanwhile, holed up in a hotel room with Spinner and Crankcase, the real Gus bucks the door down and escapes with his captives in hot pursuit, eventually trotting into a supermarket and there is this crazy long slapstick scene as Gus outsmarts his captives on almost every occasion leaving them covered in lobsters and cake before he trots back out onto the street. Commandeering a helicopter, Hank and Andy spot Gus from above, airlifting the mule into the field just in time for the 4th quarter! Dragging the Atoms back to a 16-15 deficit in the last 10 seconds, the Mammoths fumble the ball in Atoms end zone with 3 seconds to spare, giving Andy and Gus one last chance at winning the game and with it the Superbowl. At the snap, Gus slips in the mud causing the ball to go flying and recovering the ball, Andy manages to make it the whole 100 yards, with Rob Cargil in hot pursuit, to score a touchdown and win Atoms the game!

Well this was just GREAT. I dunno what it was I just thought this was really enjoyable. There was very little that the movie got wrong here, maybe the slapstick stuff was a little bit drawn out and little bit silly but aside from that this was just a very well put-together comedy / coming-of-age movie and an all round enjoyable one with it. I think it being a 70's movie retrospectively gave it a bit more charm going in as well, Dick Butkus had a very impressive moustache and there was some pretty groovy hairstyles going on. Guess it kinda helps if you like American Football too? But yeah, I thought this was pretty great.

Don't think anybody really put a foot wrong so far as acting was concerned. Gary Grimes did a good job as the reluctant and uncomfortable hero in Andy, Ed Asner as Hank was great as the stereotypical businessman and gambler, Liberty Williams as Debbie was just all round lovely and the perfect feminine touch, but the bumbling henchmen Spinner (Tom Bosley) and Crankcase (Tim Conway) I think just pip this one for me as the best characters in the film, they are forced to carry most of the second half and they did a really great job, switching disguises and playing it up as the Scooby Doo-esque villian characters. Tom Bosley in particular, having more speaking lines, was excellent as the brains between the pair.

In terms of storyline and plot, it was a very stereotypical affair with the opening peril laid out: win the Superbowl or else and then the story cataloguing the journey there with the pitfalls before culminating in the final win, so it was a tried and tested formula as is the case with a lot of these Disney movies. But it was at least entertaining along the way if there was nothing fresh with it. Helped by the characters along the way and I guess padded out a little bit by the supermarket slapstick scene but it was well paced and well written that at no point was there too much fixation on one particular detail and instead the movie did a good job of giving just enough to unpack a certain developing point in the plot before moving on to the next. The movie flowed really well actually and although it was mostly kept simple it went through the stages it had to pretty effortlessly.

Productionwise no complaints there either really, I particularly enjoyed some of the culturally soviet music choices used during the supermarket slapstick scene, it gave it quite a nice little amusing edge, and there was some decent cinematography work when the scene called for it. In the modern era, it was a little bit obvious where a green screen had been deployed but it blended in fairly decently enough with the rest of the movie and there was plenty of moments the movie took the more expensive route to accomplish a scene rather than cheap out on the camera angle and the special effects. It's clear a good degree of thought and attention was put in to make each scene as convincing as possible when it involved having to deploy the green screen. Some good camera work too, especially with scenes involving Crankcase and Spinner trying to capture Gus.

So if I have one criticism it's that I didn't really care much for the slapstick stuff, and for a comedy it was a little bit light on laughs, but there was a sprinkling of humorous moments, very of it's time for a 70's movie though. There were bits that got a laugh out of me, maybe for more inappropriate reasons than the movie was trying to achieve to be honest... but it wasn't laugh out loud funny. Not that that made it any less enjoyable, because it didn't, but I didn't really care much for the slapstick stuff. Seemed like it was sandwiched in just to cater to the lower age demographic, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it ruined the movie for me or anything.

Yeah, I enjoyed this. Just a very easy, very comfortable and enjoyable watch. Didn't challenge the brain too much, gave you a decent movie, decently performed, decently produced even if it was a bit formulaic, a bit safe and predictable and at times a little bit silly and childish. I still had fun watching this one though and I could watch this again a bunch of times. Everyone did a pretty god job in their roles, even the mule to be honest! And it was just an all round fun film to experience. High 3 out of 5.