The Final Season is a baseball story, and quite a bit more. This is a film that can be enjoyed by the whole family, with multiple plot lines and messages that will speak to just about everyone.
At the front is the story of Norway, Iowa’s high school baseball team, The Tigers. These kids have been state champions for 19 consecutive seasons, and now they are about to be absorbed by a larger community’s school.
Their town has a population of a little over 500 residents, and for the most part they are as devoted to the team and the game as the coaches and the players. As one character states, “Norway IS baseball.”
Sean Astin plays Kent Stock the new coach who has to rally and inspire the team to play for one last season as the Norway Tigers and hopefully go out as winners of a 20th championship.
Mr. Astin is a wonderful actor who can make audiences really feel emotions through his subtle yet enormously skillful portrayals. He does not let celebrity get in the way of his work, and he is so believable as the strong but rookie coach who has some big shoes to fill, that we are cheering for him to succeed as much as we are for the team to win their last award.
With a cast of equally gifted and careful actors, Final Season is the type of movie that encourages the positive and good that can come from team sports, community endeavors and human attempts to do the right thing. The story is an old one, but that does not make it tattered or boring.
There are fresh faces in Final Season that hopefully will appeal to other fresh faces in the audience and provide role models more fitting than those that are seen most often on the big screen and all over the news.
Final Season is presented in widescreen format with a running time of 119 minutes. None of this is tedious or repetitive, as one might expect in the dramatization of a sports movie. The excitement levels are great, building and subsiding and yet moving toward the goal set early on.
In the background there are the multiple relationship stories, with topics such as revenge, romance, competition and grief. Each one of these is handled well, and from various points of view, so that all age levels are addressed.
The special features for this film are really special. We are given commentaries on the film from real life coaches Kent Stock and Jim Van Scoyoc, as well as filmmakers David Mickey Evens, actor Sean Astin, executive producer Carl Borack and producer Michael Wasserman. There are two featurettes, The Making of the Final Season and The Real Season: The Spirit of Norway.
It doesn’t matter if you are not a baseball fan, this movie is delightful, inspiring and a lot of fun.
The Final Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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