1996, the best year in movie history, pt. 40: Kingpin
I wonder if, when they made The Big Lebowski (1998), the Coen Brothers deliberately set out to one-up the Farrelly Brothers.
Nice comedy, I imagine the Coens saying. But here’s where Kingpin goes wrong.
A bowling movie should be about the LOOK of the sport.
Balls.
Pins.
Wood.
Those props deserve to be lavishly displayed.
Kingpin’s visual treatment of them is perfunctory.
Well – the Farrellies might reply – your own bowling movie isn’t really a BOWLING movie.
It has no sense of sporting drama.
WE showcase the slow tumbling of the pins.
The satisfying sound of the strike.
The agony of the 7–10 split.
Why aren’t THOSE things front-and-center in The Big Lebowski?
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Not that the Farrellies are bowling purists. Kingpin takes the slum-sport formula of movies like The Hustler and The Color of Money and lampoons it.
Bowling, not billiards. Otherwise, the elements are the same.
The general squalor.
A down-and-out virtuoso (Woody Harrelson).
The dame (Vanessa Angel).
The virtuoso’s pupil (Randy Quaid).
But Kingpin has a wild card: the pupil is a nice, strapping Amish farmer who is forced to hide his bowling from the disapproving community. This is what makes Kingpin original.
Other stuff – e.g., Bill Murray’s performance as Harrelson’s over-the-top nemesis – is funny, but it’s been done before.
And yes, it’s funny but unoriginal that the Harrelson character is a bowler with a maimed hand. 1996 was a good year for that sort of thing. Happy Gilmore and Shine are two other movies in which a precocious young man is mentored by an older virtuoso with a maimed hand.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Anyway, what’s wrong with a little recycling? The Farrellies even recycle their own material. There’s a confrontation at a roadside diner that is pretty similar to a scene from Dumb and Dumber. That’s OK: in both movies, it works.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Some viewers might take offense at the movie’s portrayal of the Amish. I think Kingpin is a pretty good satire of other cinematic portrayals of the Amish. Two of the funniest scenes – the milking scene and the barn-raising scene – are sly digs at Witness.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I wish to conclude by praising Vanessa Angel. I don’t remember seeing her in anything else, but here she holds her own against Harrelson, Murray, and Quaid. You can watch those guys in plenty of other movies. Kingpin is Angel’s movie.
Nice comedy, I imagine the Coens saying. But here’s where Kingpin goes wrong.
A bowling movie should be about the LOOK of the sport.
Balls.
Pins.
Wood.
Those props deserve to be lavishly displayed.
Kingpin’s visual treatment of them is perfunctory.
Well – the Farrellies might reply – your own bowling movie isn’t really a BOWLING movie.
It has no sense of sporting drama.
WE showcase the slow tumbling of the pins.
The satisfying sound of the strike.
The agony of the 7–10 split.
Why aren’t THOSE things front-and-center in The Big Lebowski?
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Not that the Farrellies are bowling purists. Kingpin takes the slum-sport formula of movies like The Hustler and The Color of Money and lampoons it.
Bowling, not billiards. Otherwise, the elements are the same.
The general squalor.
A down-and-out virtuoso (Woody Harrelson).
The dame (Vanessa Angel).
The virtuoso’s pupil (Randy Quaid).
But Kingpin has a wild card: the pupil is a nice, strapping Amish farmer who is forced to hide his bowling from the disapproving community. This is what makes Kingpin original.
Other stuff – e.g., Bill Murray’s performance as Harrelson’s over-the-top nemesis – is funny, but it’s been done before.
And yes, it’s funny but unoriginal that the Harrelson character is a bowler with a maimed hand. 1996 was a good year for that sort of thing. Happy Gilmore and Shine are two other movies in which a precocious young man is mentored by an older virtuoso with a maimed hand.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Anyway, what’s wrong with a little recycling? The Farrellies even recycle their own material. There’s a confrontation at a roadside diner that is pretty similar to a scene from Dumb and Dumber. That’s OK: in both movies, it works.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Some viewers might take offense at the movie’s portrayal of the Amish. I think Kingpin is a pretty good satire of other cinematic portrayals of the Amish. Two of the funniest scenes – the milking scene and the barn-raising scene – are sly digs at Witness.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I wish to conclude by praising Vanessa Angel. I don’t remember seeing her in anything else, but here she holds her own against Harrelson, Murray, and Quaid. You can watch those guys in plenty of other movies. Kingpin is Angel’s movie.
