Bill O’Byrne’s Bargain Bin Blues: Draft Day

Draft Day | Value for money: $$$

• Directed by Ivan Reitman.
• Written by Scott Rothman, Rajiv Joseph.
• Starring Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary.
• $18.99 (Mighty Ape)

PHIL vs BILL
Anyone unfamiliar with the recruiting gamesmanship of pro-football franchises in the United States should first watch this disc’s illuminating extras before playing the movie. It stars Kevin Costner as the Cleveland Browns’ general manager racing against the clock to revive his team’s fortunes while trying to escape the spectre of his legendary predecessor (his late father), coping with the unexpected prospect of becoming a father himself, and generally being offside with everyone. Draft Day is slickly made but is too inside-baseball, and not funny or dramatic enough, to be as memorable as Costner’s other sporting triumphs (Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Tin Cup). — Phil Wakefield.

This is one for the sports fans. And while you don’t have to be a fan of American football, it sure will help in your appreciation of Draft Day.

It’s an action packed day in the life of the general manager of the Cleveland Browns as Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has to do some rapid fire trading to get the picks he wants from the up and coming college stars.

He’s also dealing with the death of his dad the week before (the previous coach, who he sacked) and the rather interesting news that the gal who looks after the team’s salary cap has just discovered they have made a baby. Or at least a pretty solid zygote.

Anyhow, as the gal is Jennifer Garner (always hire an ugly au pair, you idiot Affleck), he’s not entirely broken-hearted.

But he does have a day of drama as he clashes with the team’s owner (Frank Langella), coach (Denis Leary) and other of what seems an immense team of folk, to sort out how to get the picks he needs to give the team from hope.

(The Browns last won a Superbowl in 1964 but it has a rabid fan base that just wants some hope for the future. Sort of like Canterbury, but not so obnoxious.)

It sounds rather dull – it’s not.

But it is really, really confusing. (And I passed School C maths! But they had less numbers back them …)

If unfamiliar with the horse-trading that takes place during the nationally televised draft process, best watch the Welcome to Primetime feature which describes what the hell is going on.

The draft was devised by the NFL in the 1930s to even up the talent pools and to keep teams semi competitive. The worst teams from the previous year gets the first picks from the college players making the move into the NFL with all the golden lolly that goes with it.

The NFL is quite a socialistic organisation at heart in the sharing of profits, which sounds kind of weird. This podcast from the excellent Econtalk is a great comparison between baseball and US football for the sports fans:

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/08/roger_noll_on_t.html

Again, one for the sports fans AND students of economics!

Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner chill out in Draft Day.

Anyway, the draft process has been fine-tuned into a dramatic few days of tensions done in 10 minute bursts when a team can make its pick or trade for other players. It makes for a lot of worried people talking via phones with other worried people.

Director Ivan Reitman has turned what could have been a yawn-fest into something with enough drama and humour to keep even the least sporty people engaged.

It could be said to be a much tauter Jerry Maguire but it has the more authentic feel of the Aussie rules movie The Club as a behind the scenes view of sports and the industrial scale of modern operations.

For film buffs the hour-long, making-of extra is an excellent effort which covers all areas of the movie’s development, shooting and post production with a minimum of actor-wank.

One of the things which becomes noticeable is the groundbreaking use of split screens techniques devised by Jenny Lee and Gareth Smith where bits of actors from one screen intrude, or sometimes completely cross over another screen.

Sam Elliott and Kevin Costner with a rather static example of the new split screen designs used in Draft Day.

It was devised to turn what would have been a movie with a lot of phone chats into a much more lively piece and works superbly. It can be a little too obvious at times which detracts from the actual conversations but it is a breakthrough technique with a real comic book feel.

There’s a top cast with Denis Leary, Frank Langella and a brief appearance from Sam Elliot plus, for the true fans. lots of NFL players and commentators. And Costner is good. It’s no Bull Durham but it is in its way another hymn to the pointless glory of sport.

But it is worth your while. Just watch the Welcome to Primetime thing first.

Bonus stuff: A key part of Draft Day is the investigations that teams do into their prospective signings. Picking an NFL quarterback means paying millions to get someone who could be a bust. This Malcolm Gladwell is a fascinating insight into the task of picking a good QB AND working out what makes a great schoolteacher:  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/most-likely-to-succeed-2