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Coach Stock and Polly Hudson (Rachael Leigh Cook)

The other motif that works nicely in Season is baseball itself. More than just a sport that could have been swapped with anything else to make a similar movie, baseball is the unique spiritual center of this film. Like its forbear in Iowa baseball movies, Field of Dreams (which took place in 1989; was there a baseball love potion in the Iowa corn in the eighties?), Season tries to find in baseball metaphors for life. In one particularly memorable line, a character notes that baseball "is the only game on Earth where the object is to get home." And an affection for home—the state of mind rather than the physical place (which may not always be there)—is the heart of this film.

As the final season winds down and the climax escalates, the characters have every reason to feel glum as they face the reality of an "end of an era" (and the threat of a forever changed "home"). But instead they choose to fight on, as hard as they ever did—challenged by Coach Stock's question: "How do you want to be remembered?" And given the fickle nature of history and legacies in which statistics are broken and trophies accrue dust, perhaps the students' best response is this: we want to be remembered as a team that was strong to the end, never gave up, and finished well.

Talk About It

1. Why do you think sports is such a deep and important part of our lives? Are there, as this film seems to suggest, parallels between a sport like baseball and life?
2. What do you think motivated the main characters in this film? Were they trying to prove something to themselves? Or to someone else?
3. Compare this film to something like Friday Night Lights in which the ending is not quite so happy. Are the messages similar or different?

The Family Corner

The Final Season is rated PG for language, thematic elements and some teen smoking. This is a great film for families, with hardly any objectionable content and a great, uplifting message about determination and being passionate about finishing things well. There are a few profanities, and a scene or two of teenage smoking, but other than that this is a very clean film that parents and kids could enjoy together.

Photos © Copyright Yari Film Group

© Brett McCracken subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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