Madison

I was waiting to see this movie since I heard about it, in Madison. I was a bit disappointed at how hokey it is, but at lease I can enjoy the scenery. You sure get to know the 421 bridge *G* and I loved seeing those riverfront scenes because I've been there many times.

I am in Madison on the first week of April most years, for a hot pepper festival at the Thomas Family Winery. I love these old Ohio River towns.

In the lodge at Clifty Falls State Park (on the west edge of town), they have another Miss Madison on display, a much smaller boat, I think from the 1940s or 1950s, with a Crosley engine.

Oh, one other thing - when the father and son go into the cavern, that's an unfinished railroad tunnel in the Clifty park, you can walk through it. Bring a lantern, you'll look funny walking the trail with it in the daytime, but it will be handy in the tunnel...

I just saw this film at Sundance 2001.

A feel good movie that's honest. The treatment is respectful and moving. The acting is very good, production value is very good. Good casting. It really captures the essence of the struggles of life along the Ohio in the middle of the 20th Century.

I look forward to seeing it again during the theatrical release.

I'd like to first address the folks who haven't seen the film and are unfamiliar with it, or its topic...

This sleeper film, as noted, is based around the true story of an under-dog hometown racing boat team that tried to win the "big one" against long odds in front of their home crowd. But the boat, the effort required to make the race happen, and the race itself is really secondary to the relationship between a 10 year-old son (Jake Lloyd) and his father (Jim Caviezel) as the demands of work, family, the sense of civic duty and the boat begin to pull the relationship, as well as his marriage, apart under a great deal of stress.

Some have criticized this film as a formula driven "feel-good" sports film, and I suppose that this is true to a point. However, the acting is very believable and heart-felt. In fact, I think the emotion that Lloyd exhibits in the film is far superior to the rather wooden appearance he later made in Star Wars as young Anakin. Caviezel also does a great job as Jim McCormick, the father and husband who finds himself thrown into situations not necessarily of his choosing.

The cinematography definitely conceals the low-budget nature of the film. Filmed in the "where it really happened" location of Madison, Indiana, "Madison" definitely shows off this visual gem on the Ohio River as well as its surrounding country side and wide vistas of the river valley.

The film was shot and then set on a shelf for about five years. I was tickled to see that it at least was allowed distribution to the general public via DVD.

This film will fill an evening of family entertainment and allow you to see a fine performance from two actors before they went on to add their talents to two block busters: The Passion, and The Phantom Menace.

OK, part two... This is for the fans of the sport featured in this film that have been critical of the way things are portrayed in the movie. Two words: Lighten Up. I've been a sporadic fan of the Hydros, my in-laws are from the Madison area, and I had the fortune to be at the 1971 Madison "Gold Cup" race (granted I was seven at the time) and remember the hoopla surrounding the race (I also still have my admission badge). Despite all of the carping about the dramatic license taken with the story line, the fact remains that the core of the film is true. People looking for a documentary on the Miss Madison of 1971 should look elsewhere.

This film is hardly the first non-fiction related sports event that has been "re-worked" for the big screen. Take a look at any informed fan's review of their favorite past-time as presented in the cinema and you'll find plenty of the same: "XYZ batted left-handed, but was a 'righty' in the film", "They didn't really play XYZ in the final game", "They got the score wrong", "The fuel those race cars use burns flameless", "They spliced footage from different locations together during the scenes of the game", "They didn't use that type of equipment back then", etc., etc., etc. Here's a newsflash people: Movie-goers that aren't passionate about your favorite sport don't care. That's right, read that again... "They don't care." They want good "entertainment". Sure it's nice if all the facts are dramatic enough to make it to the screen, but don't be surprised if you see a "blow-out" turned into a "nail-biter", or a plot twist or two thrown in for effect. Don't get all bent out of shape and let it ruin your enjoyment of the film. People aren't going to think "Madison" is a fraud if they learn, among other things, that a P-51 was never parked in the courthouse square in Columbus in 1971. Nor to they care what the APBA calendar looked like that year.

At least the plot and acting in "Madison" are great. My number one sports passion is open-wheel Champcar racing and when "Driven" came out, not only was the film full of technical inaccuracies and impossibilities, the plot and acting stunk. Now THAT was an embarrassment to that form of racing! Finally, considering that Jim McCormick's son, his widow, and many others were more than happy with the treatment that "Madison" gave to the U-6 of 1971. If they are OK with it, then why can't you be too? If nothing else, it gives people a peak into the world of something they might never have heard of before: unlimited hydroplane racing. It might actually be good for the sport… For example, I now have a pretty good idea where I'll be come next 4th of July weekend. Sitting on the banks of the Ohio, eating one of my mother in-law's ham salad sandwiches, while watching the hydros pass under the Madison-Milton bridge sounds pretty good right now!

Not yet, anyway. Motto: keep the smaller venues in play. Unapolegeticaly old fashioned and drenched heavily in the spray of cinematic clichés, this time capsule of a family drama clicks on all cylinders. I, however, might be a wee bit biased. I think I saw the Gold Cup Hydroplane Race depicted here on "Wide World of Sports," back in 1971. I was eight. It's one thing to recall the first moon landing, and another thing, entirely, to recall a long ago boat race in Indiana. I must be nuts. But it does create an odd, nostalgic feeling for me. The young boy, played by the kid from the new Star Wars films, emotes excitement well, but is lacking in conveying sorrow or remorse. He does, however, have a nifty Schwin bike: high handle bars, banana seat, and a sweet gear shift. Watching him peddle that two-wheeler through Madison, the Grass Roots blasting on the soundtrack, stirs memories from anyone who was around that boy's age, back then. Like me. The underdog "Miss Madison" team from the small, backwater village of Madison, a location the racing circuit wishes would gracefully fade away, somehow pulls it all together to compete in the big race. Along the watery way, the team suffers through a lack of funds for repairs, blown engines and the death of a skilled driver. It's all quite routine--but, ultimately, well done. The movie had the misfortune of spending four years on the studio's misfit shelf. Fitting. It's better than that. So crank up the air conditioner full blast and enjoy the final blow out.

This turned out to be a "sleeper," a good film that few people have heard of, I suspect, outside of Madison, Indiana. Being in an area that used to host hydroplane races, it intrigued me. I also usually enjoy movies that star Jim Caviezel.

Mainly, this was a nice film with a feel-good David vs. Goliath story based on a real-life occurrence back in 1971. It involves the sport of hydroplane racing, meaning extremely fast boats raced in different bodies of water around the USA. A town nearby where I live used to have these, but I haven't heard of them in decades.

Anyway, this story takes place in a small Indiana town that was on the skids by 1970 but plants closing all the time and people moving elsewhere. The hopes of its boat, "Miss Madison" also seem to be about lost until, as fate would have it, the town is awarded the opportunity to host the "Gold Cup," the biggest event of the sport.

A string of failures, followed by new disasters, include the death of the pilot, near-death of another one and the boat being just about totaled in the process. How the town - led by former racer "Jim McCormick" (Caviezel) - can raise the money to resurrect the town, the boat and the driver himself, are all shown here. McCormick not only has to pull off several miracles but also try to win the support of his wife and son, who have had their fill of disappointments with this sport.

The film winds up being a sports movie and a drama about a family, a team of workers and an entire small town trying to pull together and beat tremendous odds. I have to use two clichés here: it's a heartwarming story and, yes, it's a good family movie. You don't have to worry about offensive material. It reminds me, in spots, of a made-for-TV movie. It kind of plays old-fashioned corny but in a way that makes you glad you watched it.