Badmovies.org Forum

          This was apparently fairly groundbreaking in it's time for the way it deals openly with issues like race and people dying of cancer.  Those aren't taboo topics anymore , in fact, they are at the top of the list of what movies of the week type movies are usually about.  So it was a groundbreaking Hallmark moment,  sort of like how the Carpenters pioneered guitar solos in power ballads.   Billy dee Williams and James Caan are sort of like a comedy team, with Williams playing the straight man and Caan as a sort of more coherent George W Bush (circa texas governorship) type charming jerk.   They kind of overdue this element but 70's movies of the week were known for their rough / rushed edges if nothing else. 

                                The type of Cancer Caan's character Brian Piccolo had is apparently treatable today, which is too bad because it gives the movie at least half and more compelling aspect of it's story.  I found I had to play music while i watched in it just to keep the cheese at bay, but it's still worth seeing if a little underwhelming considering it's reputation as this great tearjerker monolith monster of a 70's tv movie.
                             


          here is Billy Dee Williams "touching speech".  that's what it's called.  you have to be touched by it by definition


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfI_HT39eeM

I love this movie . . . own the DVD . . . have seen it many times.  There was a remake a few years ago (I also have that DVD).  It isn't as good as the original, but it goes into much more detail about Brian Piccolo's cancer and how it kept spreading.

This is the only movie where it's ok for a man to cry, according to Al Bundy.

I'd add Babe: A little Pig goes a long way.

Try this for a triple feature:

* BRIAN'S SONG
* BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY
* SOMETHING FOR JOEY

Don't forget ERIC (1975)...

I DID forget ERIC!  Man, I haven't seen or heard anything about that movie in many years . . .

In addition, let's not forget DEATH BE NOT PROUD.