tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post6419290274259686106..comments2024-01-10T07:15:23.341-05:00Comments on Shawn's Blog: Robby Benson, a tutor, a basketball, and a red-hot pokerShawn Furyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793191424034185309noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-49249050588943171882014-11-17T14:18:23.931-05:002014-11-17T14:18:23.931-05:00I just stumbled onto this blog. Haha, One on One ...I just stumbled onto this blog. Haha, One on One was one of my favorites from the 70s when I was a teenager. I don't think anyone is trying to make Robbie Benson out to be the Jim Thorpe of his era, but I remember back in those days that he was highly respected as an amateur athlete and would compete in amateur and exhibition events. And in those scenes where Henry is doing all the ball handling, that's really him and not some stand-in. The guy could play. He couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, but he could play!Dobiannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-83571245624436752202011-08-16T21:18:31.522-04:002011-08-16T21:18:31.522-04:00And did I just write like 5,000 words on One on On...And did I just write like 5,000 words on One on One? Yes. And I'd only do that for a movie I enjoyed.Shawn Furyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17793191424034185309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-32638280349491755352011-08-16T21:17:37.131-04:002011-08-16T21:17:37.131-04:00Karen, Thanks a lot for taking the time to read an...Karen, Thanks a lot for taking the time to read and to comment. I appreciate it. <br /><br />Still, I'd offer up some friendly rebuttals:<br />* I actually like the movie. I wrote that it was a good film. I don't think it's as good as Hoosiers, which isn't really a controversial opinion, Reggie and Cheryl Miller's thoughts notwithstanding. If you took a vote of basketball fans and movie fans and asked them to choose one, Hoosiers would get a higher percentage of the vote than Kim Jong II gets in North Korean elections. That said, One on One...good film.<br />* I really didn't denigrate Robby's hoops skills much. I was comparing his character against the fictional Jimmy Chitwood (for all I know, Robby could kick the ass of the actor who played chitwood, although I sort of doubt that too, considering the jump shot exhibition the kid put on in the playground of Hickory). Henry's the one that struggled to adjust. Robby was probably a fine player. But the movie wasn't a biography. <br />* Red Auerbach's comment about rookie camp. I don't know, haven't read the stories, but the words publicity stunt come to mind. For instance, Garth Brooks has gone to spring training before but he's not going to be batting cleanup for the Padres. And even if Robby had gone to camp, I don't think he was going to be unseating Tiny Archibald for the Celtics.<br />* I don't know what Michael Jordan thought of Robby's playing skills but it's worth noting Michael Jordan did think Kwame Brown was the best player in the 2001 NBA draft.<br />* By the sound of it - surfing, running, hockey, hoops - Robby was sort of the Jim Thorpe of the 1970s. Since I never actually did see him in the Olympics, I remain skeptical. If I can make one comment on Robby's hoops skills, I can see him as a marathon runner. But marathon runners don't necessarily make great basketball players. He looks like a great runner. On the court, he looked like a 9th grader.<br />* As far as getting basketball right, I stand by my thoughts on the actual basketball scenes. The last three minutes of the final game are...a tad implausible. Which is fine. Even my beloved Hoosiers has scenes that look corny or ridiculous when compared to reality, it's a part of the movies. and as I wrote, they at least played it on a real court with 10 players. It's just that I've never seen a team score layup after layup by breaking the press in the final 3 minutes of the game, and yet that same team never calls a timeout when it squanders a lead. And the last 4 seconds take like 6 seconds, and end with a little lob that somehow travels practically half the court.<br />* Robby exposed amateur athletics before Sports Illustrated. That I can't go with. And is sort of absurd. Again, it does do a good job of showing those things, I was just saying that for viewers today who are so jaded by the stuff it wouldn't have the same impact as it did back then, which would have certainly been greater. But...SI was doing it long before then. Here's a story from 1954. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1128811/1/index.htm<br /><br />1956:<br />http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1131040/index.htm<br /><br />1957: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1132550/index.htm<br /><br />1961:<br />http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1072396/index.htm<br /><br />1963:<br />http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1074659/index.htm<br /><br />1963:<br />http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1074784/index.htm<br /><br />And countless more.<br /><br />Robby wrote a nice script. Bob Woodward, he was not.<br /><br />* And here, the final game. Hoopsters, judge for yourself the realism. "35 foot jumpers?" A guard's taking 35-foot jumpers? And look at this porous Western defense! Count the layups!<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpMCC2aP2AY&feature=related<br /><br />Anyway, thanks again for the comment Karen! I did enjoy the movie. But in the end, it's more about love than hoops.Shawn Furyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17793191424034185309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-19648890368425851792011-08-16T15:05:55.397-04:002011-08-16T15:05:55.397-04:00Shawn, this is what both you and i get for me havi...Shawn, this is what both you and i get for me having Robby Benson on my google alert:<br /><br />Robby wrote the Warner Bros. basketball classic ONE ON ONE (1977) at 18 years old, not only to expose the issues surrounding the inequities in ‘amateur’ college athletics, (he was the first to do that -- years before Sports Illustrated wrote their first article about it), but Benson wrote One on One because HE LOVED TO PLAY THE GAME. <br /><br />FYI: Benson’s basketball skills at the time were lauded by everyone from John Wooden to Red Auerbach (Robby was offered a spot personally by Auerbach for Celtics rookie camp) to Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Bradley, Doug Collins, Michael Jordon, and scores of other top college and NBA players and coaches through the years. <br /><br />Just last year in Feb. 2010 when Reggie Miller was doing press at Sundance for the documentary Winning Time, journalist Peter Travers asked him which Hollywood film got Basketball right? Miller answered: Robby Benson's One on One.<br /> <br />(Not Hoosiers. BTW Miller's record-holding bball playing sister Cheryl also raved about Robby's playing and how about One on One inspired her years ago in another round ball documentary. Guess they 'got' Robby bball talent in the Miller household.)<br /><br />Cast as the surfer in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Robby had to buy out his contract when Warner’s gave his script for One on One the green light.<br /> <br />As an actor/athlete Robby Benson was the real thing. (Billy Mills — the only USA 10,000 meter Olympic Gold Medal winner, personally chose Robby to portray him in Running Brave. Watch the Olympic race -- Robby was a real marathoner, running with world class runners in the film). <br /><br />Shawn, I know you might be bored in hot NYC in August...love it or hate it -- from the '70's and with those cute shorts they used to wear, it's hard to not feel it's dated -- but don't trash Robby Benson's ball handling talent.Karen Marienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-44502149683101820162011-08-16T10:30:10.350-04:002011-08-16T10:30:10.350-04:00Ice Castles! Yeah, have thought of watching that, ...Ice Castles! Yeah, have thought of watching that, but...well, haven't. But I can see Robby Benson as a figure skater, more than I can see him scoring 40 points in a game. Was the song Through the Eyes of Love? Did you and Steve go to the Fulda lake to recreate the movie?<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeI068uxA6UShawn Furyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17793191424034185309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5989686599261374855.post-53051776721093268632011-08-16T07:48:27.021-04:002011-08-16T07:48:27.021-04:00I can borrow you "Ice Castles". I have ...I can borrow you "Ice Castles". I have it on VHS in a box in the basement. Steve and I had a song from it for our wedding. hee heeMarynoreply@blogger.com