The Big Green
by MikeM

 Call me a silly little sap, but I have watched this movie, The Big Green, about 20 thousand times this weekend. This was easy, as I have a 4 year old and you KNOW how they are with movies...J Somehow, in raising two other kids (18 and 14 now) I missed this film.

Have ya seen it?

I have to sit here and admit that I have a hot lump of joy in my heart every time I watch this silly Disney flick. I almost damn near have tears.... Good ones.

The story goes something like this:

An English woman comes to the very small town of Elma, Texas as an exchange teacher for a short time, and inherits a very unruly bunch of kids.

This new teacher decides that the best way to get her students' attention is to introduce them to soccer.......

Steve Guttenburg is the local Sheriff Guy, and he obviously has an eye for her. (And I would not blame the dude for that....) He helps the teacher form a soccer team out of the unruly and directionless young'uns.

They call their home field "The Big Green" and this name is adopted as the team's new name, complete with a green spray-painted goat Mascot named Ernie....

The rest is a joyous, and yes, predictable history..... Hollywood and all that.....

 BUT!

I quickly realized I was watching much more than a mere movie.

I was watching a mythical world that I REALLY wished to exist as real. Right now.

We have here in this flick the plot standards: the good guys, the foreign catalyst, the bad guy and his minions ...we have the races, Asians, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics... we have culture clash, and we have illegal aliens from Mexico. We have the dysfunctional families, the poor, the IRS auditor and his attitude, and we have the poor and we have the twins and the drunk down-and-out father who finally gets his act together for his daughter.

We have sports competition at it's finest level: the Learning level. Where it is still FUN and not a JOB.

We have lessons in losing gracefully, and celebrating a good win with dignity.

Man I wish I lived in this world.

You know, though......?

Ya know what was NOT in this movie?

Not even ONCE, and not even hinted at?

Religion.

Churches.

God. Of any kind and anywhere. Not even ONE shot of a steeple anywhere.....

You see.... The makers of this film somehow chose to give us a great and happy story and leave the "GAWD" part out.

I reallyreallyreally like that.

It was unnecessary, after all.......

What I get from this silly and sappy feel-good kid's movie is that we can direct our own lives and improve ourselves and all this on our own as a Human Family and without a mystical and mythic God of some sort.

I wish I could be as much a change for good as this English teacher. I wish I lived in Elma, TX and the world made more sense.

I wish I could play a soccer game in the rain and mud with my kids and the team and all their parents....

 

One thing I know for damn sure:

I and a few other billion of folk live on this "Big Green" planet.

The BIG GREEN.

This small movie is a decent reminder that WE make the difference on this playing field of life and NOT a GOD of some flavor. It reminded me to get my ass in gear... to make a difference.... To become a catalyst for good change and stop being a plow that is pulled....

I need to try harder to be an English school teacher with long blonde hair I suppose.....

I'd write more, but.....The Big Green is down by two again, and have possession ...

MikeM

 

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