Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as
an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25
years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach.
Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration
for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game
winning streak in 1974."
Compiled with
more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach.
Click the Book to read
the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book
that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.
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Once (4/10)
by Tony Medley
With music that struggles
to achieve mediocrity and a bland story of an unnamed street singer
(Glen Hansard), this is a film in which the protagonists, struggling,
marginally talented musicians, never have to face rejection. Even The
Beatles were rejected. If world class talents like The Beatles faced
rejection on the road upward, how is it believable that people creating
such bland music as these wouldn’t be constantly rejected? But in this, the guy goes from the street to
recording his songs and then on into London, without ever hearing the
word “no” except from girl.
The guy is a busker,
singing on the street for donations, when an unnamed beautiful girl (Marketa
Irglova), a Czech immigrant , hits on him out of nowhere. He’s not
originally interested, but she persists and they strike up a friendship.
She plays the piano. He plays the guitar and sings. They hang together
and put together a band and a CD. Do they get together at the end? Does
he end up like The Beatles? Does anybody care?
There is, however, a
telling commentary on the inscrutability of the female psyche, at least
from the male point of view. Girl hits on guy out of nowhere, and
perseveres in face of an initial rebuff. She goes up to his apartment,
but then is horribly offended when he politely asks if she wants to stay
for breakfast, as it were. Any normal male who is pursued by a lovely
young woman would believe that if he didn’t make a move she would be
offended, and would hardly ever think that his polite advances would be
so severely rebuked, especially after she followed him into his abode.
She could have rejected him with consideration for his feelings, instead
of trying to make him feel guilty for making a proposal she seemed to be
soliciting. What do women want, anyway?
Another problem is the
thick Irish brogue, which is often indecipherable. I kept having to ask,
“What did s/he say?” Subtitles would have been a welcome addition.
What makes this film dismal
is the dirge-like music that’s thrust upon us. I estimate that half the
85-minute running time is Hansard singing slow, beatless, non-melodic
mournful songs. Why is it that directors who can work with great music,
like that of Edith Piaf and Johnny Cash, ignore it for the story while
directors with poor music, like here, make us listen to every beat?
John Carney, who wrote and
directed, is lucky he’s got two attractive actors like Irglova and
Hansard. It’s his misfortune that their music (Irglova and Hansard
apparently wrote the songs they perform) isn’t Simon & Garfunkel.
This might have been a
sweet love story, but it isn’t. It’s a concert around a weak story and
script. I don’t know why this film has gotten such a terrific buzz. So
far critics have loved it. I missed the screening, so saw it in a
theater with paying customers and when it finally ended, those in the
audience couldn’t wait to exit. There won’t be much buzz from my
audience, and it was in a large theater with what I estimate at 90% of
the seats filled.
May 27, 2007 |