Small-town banker Robin Williams has never been able to live down the fact that he dropped an important pass during a crucial high-school football game. Likewise tainted for life is the team's star quarterback Kurt Russell, now a garage owner. Fed up with living his life under a cloud, Williams hits upon a brilliant idea: he will stage a rematch-13 years after the fact--with the members of the rival team. Trouble beckons when Williams' father-in-law announces that he's rooting for the opposition. Williams is determined to win, and in pursuit of that goal he pushes his former teammates to hitherto untapped brilliance. Directed by Roger Spottiswood,
The Best of Times
was written by Ron Shelton, future writer/director of such delightful sports films as
Bull Durham
,
White Men Can't Jump
and
Tin Cup
; it was Shelton, in fact, who directed most of
Best of Times
' climactic football game.