Eighty for Brady

I watched a movie called 80 For Brady a few days ago. While it was a fairly light movie, humorous, and even a bit sappy, I thought it interesting on a couple of fronts.

First, other than Tom Brady and some other football players, the main characters were all octogenarians (except for one) on screen and in real life, and the 4 main characters were all women. While there have been more films with older women lately, there are far less than those with older men.  Hollywood has long had a problem with portraying mature women in rolls other than as suffering some type of debilitating disease, physical and mental, while roles for older men, while sometimes acknowledging their age, often pursue themes that are meant to counter the perceived limitations of older men, sometimes even portraying them with surprising (to the antagonists of the movie) physical and mental abilities.

For this film, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Sally Fields, and Jane Fonda, are presented through the lens of issues that older women face, loss of husband, less energy, past and current sickness, but are also accorded traits that are not associated with the elderly. Fonda's character still falls in love too fast, Moreno's character is a poker wiz, Fields' character can win a buffalo wing eating contest featuring very hot sauces. And they can all still dance. 

But this is not to say they are super women. Fields' character loses the Super Bowl tickets, Tomlin's character fears calling her doctor for test results for fear of hearing a cancer diagnosis, and all 4 women party like there's no tomorrow the night before the big game, but struggle to get moving the next morning. They are still elderly, just not decrepit.

One of the side stories of the flick is that it is clear that Sally Fields' character has tolerated a bias in her chosen field, has settled for the accolades that women are sometimes granted by men in a male-dominated field, is clearly the smarter and more confident of the two, her husband and herself, but has accepted the slights, has worked in the background even though she could have done more. 

I imagine it reflects the experience of a multitude of generations of women, especially in the 20th century when women were finally allowed to seek advanced degrees and attend the better colleges, yet still were denied opportunities in the work world. When I think of all the wasted energy, lost ideas and accomplishments that didn't happen because of men's insecurity and arrogance, it is heartbreaking.  Our society has advanced in a big way, but still not far enough.

Full disclosure, as a Philadelphia Eagles fan, the New England Patriots are not a team I cheer for, especially considering how they cheated us out of a Super Bowl win in 2004. But I do admire Tom Brady, must grudgingly accept that he is, if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest football quarterbacks in history. That being said, his role in this movie did enhance my admiration a bit, even if just from the standpoint that, for all we actually know about the person, Tom Brady, we do know that he believes in the power of positive thinking.

It is this power, this never say die attitude, that propelled Brady from a 6th round afterthought draft pick to being thrust into the quarterback job due to an injury to the starter, to winning the Super Bowl in his first year, which is when the women began following football one Sunday afternoon when their remote stopped working. 

It is also this positive thinking that helped the Tomlin character battle and push back her cancer scare in the years following that fateful Sunday. And finally, it is this keep fighting frame of mind that proves pivotal in the end of the story.

For those of you who do not follow football, Super Bowl 51 between New England and Atlanta was a blowout for the first half and by the middle of the 3rd quarter, Atlanta led by 25 points. It is then that the ladies broke into the coordinator's box and Tomlin gave Brady the inspirational speech that propelled the Pats to the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, and an eventual win in overtime.

Now, of course, that is the Hollywood version as depicted by the movie, but a true story in terms of the game. Afterwards, in the celebration of the locker room, Brady thanks the Tomlin character for her words, but also conveys his admiration for her, as she had included parts of her story, her cancer story to him and how she had faced adversity head on, just as he always did on the field. Brady, in the movie, knew that her battle, her real life battle against cancer, was far more important than winning a game, even the Super Bowl.

And that is the rub. We all know that it is the real life battles against disease, depression, sudden loss of family, and even the daily ups and downs that are the most important parts of life, yet we continue to funnel far more money towards sports and entertainment, and not enough towards education, medical research and better health outcomes. 

The end of the movie teases you at first, into thinking that the Tomlin character may have passed when the film resumes 3 years after that Super Bowl comeback, but prefers a truly happy ending where all the women are still together.

Would I have preferred a sad ending where the 3 women still watch football together without their fourth friend? Perhaps, since that is the reality of aging friendships. Positive thinking should never be diminished in its power to keep us active, alive, vibrant, but should not be misconstrued as a panacea for death.

Like all inspiring movies, 80 for Brady teaches us that material possessions, athletic fame, even success in one's chosen field should be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.  We are presented with this lesson over and over again, yet still spend far too much of our time seeking transient rewards, and anguishing over who has the most and better toys.

Great athletes, great athletic feats are fun to watch. Someone who goes through chemo for a year, loses her hair, struggles to accomplish everyday activities is far less fun, but far more impressive. It is in the shadows of the everyday battles that occur in our homes and hospitals and treatment centers that real determination is demonstrated and it is there that real inspiration can be found.