Bingo Film

[Maren Ruminski]

Bingois a 1991 American family comedy film directed by Matthew Robbins from a script by Jim Strain. The film follows Bingo, a clever runaway circus dog who goes on a cross-country search to find Chuckie (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), a boy he befriended. Along the way, Bingo gets into various adventures with colorful characters. Bingo was portrayed by Lace, a female border collie adopted from a shelter.[1] Principal photography began on September 12, 1990.[1]

The film was released to theaters on August 9, 1991 by TriStar Pictures. It was a box office disappointment and received mostly negative reviews. The film is intended as a parody of boy-and-his-dog films and has elements of absurdist humor and dark comedy.[2]

12-year-old Chuckie Devlin is attempting to show off his bike skills to friends by jumping it across a river. Instead, he falls into the river and wrecks his bike. Bingo sees the unconscious boy and rescues him. The dog and the boy quickly bond, and Chuckie takes him home where he lives with his older brother Chickie, mother Natalie, and father Hal, a placekicker for the Denver Broncos. Chuckie hides Bingo away in a cabinet as his family does not want a pet.

Back at the warehouse, Bingo carries the bomb away from the site. Hal makes the field goal, and Chuckie watches, horrified, as the bomb explodes in the distance. Later, the boy awakens in a hospital, and his family takes him to a room down the hall where Bingo is recuperating. The room is filled with all the people and dogs that Bingo has encountered along his journey. Chuckie and Bingo celebrate their reunion, and the former asks his dad if he can keep the dog. After some encouragement, Hal gives in and says, "Sure, son. Just as soon as we have him neutered", prompting a nervous look from Bingo.

The film received largely negative reviews. Michael Wilmington of Los Angeles Times said Bingo is "a movie that shouldn't happen to a dog--or an audience, either. It's one more example of how witlessly even the most charming movie cliches can get deformed: a '90s-style 'Lassie Come Home,' transplanted to the era of 'The Simpsons,' 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'The NFL Today.'"[6] The Washington Times gave Bingo a half-star out of four, and deemed it "The Problem Child of pet pooch movies."[7]

Based on the children's song (which is sung interminably) and billed as an 'over-the-edge comedy,' Bingo tries to send up the boy-and-his-wonder-dog saga, with such bits as bickering parents...discussions about body odor and houses that are crammed full of NFL trappings, from Bronco lamps to Packer wallpaper. But director Matthew Robbins (Batteries Not Included) frequently resorts to mere absurdity. A particularly heavy bit of overreach occurs in the scene where Bingo testifies in court against the robbers, and then is pawprinted and railroaded to the slammer himself. The result is that, despite the star quality of Bingo the dog (the camera, as they say, loves him), Bingo the movie succeeds neither as a snappy spoof nor as a canine caper.[8]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "'Bingo' is a live-action film that has the manner of a cartoon. That it's never as funny as it should be isn't the fault of the human cast. Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., who plays Chuckie, and David Rasche and Cindy Williams, who play Chuckie's sometimes lunatic parents, are good farceurs."[9] He criticized the dog's performance as the sort "that indicates he has been trained within an inch of his life", and added that the film's comedy "comes through mostly in scenes that have nothing to do with Bingo, as when Kurt Fuller and Joe Guzaldo, as the dognappers, argue about the civil rights and responsibilities of felons".[9]

Hal Hinson of The Washington Post, one of few critics to give a positive review, called the film "a flat-out hoot".[10] He praised the script for "breaking off in weird directions" and said "Robbins directs the film with a straight-faced style -- call it the 'Green Acres' touch -- as if there were nothing at all unusual about a dog who dials 911 and barks out his message in Morse code".[10] Hinson concluded Robbins "holds true to [Bingo's] spirit of absurdist irreverence" and "gives us...something that can only be described as canine surrealism".[10]

The Hartford Courant wrote, "Part 'Lassie Come Home,' part 'Benji', part 'Baxter', this dog-road saga comes up with a few waggish twists, as it relentlessly parodies somewhat similar human quest movies. Mostly, though, this is a shaggy-dog misadventure, too dumb and cute for grown-ups, too tasteless and pseudo-sophisticated for family audiences".[11] Chris Hicks of the Deseret News said, "'Bingo' is somewhat inventive, but isn't written well enough to follow through on its ideas. And while rolling through a series of movie cliches, spoofing prison films, courtroom dramas, circus pictures, etc., there is a lethargy that wears down the audience."[12]

The Hollywood Theatre is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to entertain, inspire, educate and connect the community through the art of film, while preserving a historic Portland landmark.

Helen and Colleen mine the depths of the 1991 film Bingo, a truly horrible film that took us to new levels of awfulness. This movie chronicles the journey of a dog named -- you guessed it -- BINGO! And they will remind you of this by saying his name or singing the bingo song every five minutes. Then towards the end there's some unhinged singing and a discussion of Yahtzee and how it got it's name, as well as U2 randomly.

Director John Badham evidently does, and feels we do, too. Nevertheless, within the limitations of a baseball ambience that is regrettably incidental rather than integral, Badham has wrought an interesting episodic film whose real concern is the black self-image two decades before the major civil rights decisions of the Fifties. The focus is intra- rather than interracial, with various approaches to blackness epitomized in a series of character-types: Sallison Potts is the black businessman, an imitation white man who exploits his fellow blacks for profit; Charlie Snow is the racial neurotic, trying to pass for anything but black; Leon Carter is the uncompromising black man, who reads DuBois, speaks of seizing the means of production, and keeps an eye out for exploitation from any direction; Bingo Long is the fulcrum who balances Carter with Snow, willing to compromise (he accepts the initially humiliating idea of dancing into town on the day of the game, quickly turning the strut into a sort of trademark for his team), ready to play his team against white teams in a time when other blacks fear to do so, equally ready to use nigger-charm to avoid tension and violence with the white teams, and capable of sacrificing anything to avoid falling into the capitalistic-exploitive frame of mind against which he has rebelled.

THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS AND MOTOR KINGS

Direction: John Badham. Screenplay: Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, after the novel by William Brashier. Cinematography: Bill Butler. Production design: Lawrence G. Paull. Editing: David Rawlins. Music: William Goldstein. Production: Rob Cohen.

The players: Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor, Rico Dawson, Sam Brison, Jophery Brown, Dewayne Jessie, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Alvin Childress, Carl Gordon, Emmett Ashford.

Stories from baseball's rich history are constantly being added to keep you connected to the game you love. Our stories explore the game on the field, its legendary contributors and baseball's impact on American culture.

Bingo Long was roughly based on a 1973 novel by William Brashler, who also authored books on Josh Gibson and on the history of the Negro Leagues. The novel was re-published in 1993 with a scene from the movie on its cover.

In 1939, Ebony Aces star pitcher Long finally rejects the treatment of his team owner, Sallison Potter (played by Tony Award winner Ted Ross), and goes off on his own, creating a team of fellow Negro Leaguers to play a variety of local teams, including a number of white teams. Crowds flock as Long and his squad, attired in colorful uniforms, perform various choreographic routines as they make their way through the towns. They adopt a number of comedic stunts to appease fans whose home teams were just beaten.

While Bingo Long helped jump start the film careers of Williams, Jones and Pryor, it also allowed a diverse audience to get its first brief peek at the exuberance, independence, and sometimes tempestuous nature of African-American baseball in the 1930s.

One Earth Film Festival is the Midwest's premier environmental film festival. We showcase top-issue, thought -provoking environmental films and lead audiences in interactive post-film discussions focused on solutions. One Earth Film Festival is a production of Green Community Connections.

The gallery will open on April 10th with an exhibition entitled Bingo by Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978). This will be the third exhibition of the artist's work at David Zwirner, the primary representative of the estate since 1998. On view will be work relating to the artist's 1974 project: three building fragments from the original house cutting; photographic works; and a film entitled Bingo X Ninths, which documents the progression of the project. Bingo is one of Matta-Clark's few surviving sculptural cuts existing today; most of his projects were demolished with the rest of the buildings.

Bingo began with a telephone call to the Niagara Falls Planning Commission in August 1974, allowing the artist to use a typical two-story, red-shingled house at 349 Erie Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York. Under contract with the city, the artist had 10 days to complete the project before the scheduled demolition of the structure. Matta-Clark chose to divide one side of the house into nine equal five-foot by nine-foot sections. Eight segments were removed from the structure one-by-one, leaving the center of the nine-part grid intact. These segments were taken to Artpark, seven miles away in Lewiston, New York, as part of a program of the Natural Heritage Trust. Originally named "Been-Gone by Ninth," Matta-Clark titled the project Bingo in reference to the typical American church function he felt was common in Niagara Falls. He echoed the gridded game card by removing panels from the grid he cut into the house.

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