Rewrites and Cul-de-Sacs

The Bad News Bears (1976)

The screenplay was written by Bill Lancaster (son of actor Burt Lancaster) whoi drew his inspiration for the film from his experience playing Little League baseball with a leg crippled by polio. "We were a terrible team. Truly horrible." he said.

Tatum O’Neal’s father, actor Ryan O’Neal, had previously prevented his 11-year-old daughter from accepting any lead roles until the age of 16, after her debut performance in Paper Moon where she won an Oscar and he didn't even get nominated. However she was offered (a then staggering sum of) $350,000 with eight percent of net profits, and Ryan relented.

Director Michael Ritchie had to shoot double the amount of film he had expected to (more than his previous two movies combined) because of the difficulties in controlling the large cast of children, who often went off script and swore way more than they were supposed to. Walter Matthau and Ritchie frequently mentioned the children’s proficiency in the use of foul language, particularly that of Tatum O’Neal.

Paramount, concerned that the baseball aspect of The Bad News Bears would not be easily understood by many foreign audiences, added a five-minute animated baseball primer at the beginning of the film. It was dubbed in five languages and featured characters that resembled the cast members of the movie.

Floyd Pepper was dishonorably discharged from West Point because he turned "Taps" into "a jazz odyssey."

Source:

...Nonetheless, whether he does or not... he will still die, like all the rest of us, regardless of who may be at his bedside, alone in his head: alone. By himself. No one there to mitigate the pain, to be telling him how important he is, to make what's happening okay in any way whatsoever. He will cross the bar alone. And there is nothing he can do to stop it.

Nothing he can do with the science we have in this day and age will change that. Nothing invented in the next twenty, thirty, *fifty* years, will change that.

Is he a schmuck? Yes. Is he vastly wealthy and powerful (in the in-this-life mode) beyond the dreams of almost all of us? Yeah, sure!

Will it avail him at the moment when, eventually, beyond any ability of his or those he's paid to keep it running, his breath stops? NOPE.

...The comfort associated with this may be a bit on the chilly side. But (leaving aside folks' personal beliefs about what happens on the far side of the Last Breath) all his personal bullshit in the physical world will swiftly come to nothing.

Let's wait our time. I may not see it: but some of you will, and will be able to say, "Well THAT's over, finally."

(sigh)

AI also more often avoids subplots and fails to play with time jumps and flashbacks. The systems overwrite passages about the body and senses. “Where a human author might write that a character ‘felt afraid,’ AI renders fear as a tightening chest, cold sweat, and dimming lamplight,” the study said. Humans also spin more complicated narratives involving more characters and locations than AI can handle. Humans also reference other works of fiction, specific people and places in a way that AI struggles with.