Game 6

Game 6
Directed by Michael Hoffman
Produced by Griffin Dunne
Amy Robinson
Bryan Iler
Written by Don DeLillo
Story by Don DeLillo
Starring Michael Keaton
Griffin Dunne
Shalom Harlow
Robert Downey Jr.
Music by Yo La Tengo
Distributed by Kindred Media Group
Release dates
  • January 2005 (2005-01) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • March 10, 2006 (2006-03-10) (United States)
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $129,664

Game 6 (stylized as Game6) is a 2005 American film directed by Michael Hoffman, first presented at the Sundance Film Festival, released in the United States in 2006, and starring Michael Keaton. It follows a fictional playwright, Nicky Rogan, on the day he has a new stage play opening which is also the same day as the sixth game of the 1986 World Series is played. It realizes a 1991 screenplay by Don DeLillo, with a soundtrack written and performed by Yo La Tengo.

Plot

Nicky Rogan has written several plays and has achieved success. It is now opening night of his latest effort, and all around him assure him that this one will be the best yet. But as opening hour approaches, Rogan falls prey to doubts and fears, egged on by another playwright whose last work was trashed by the local newspaper's new drama critic, Steven Schwimmer. He eventually lets those fears drive him to adopt a resolve to kill the critic (who he assumes will also trash his play), and he procures a handgun with which to perform the deed.

Instead of attending the play's opening night Rogan spends the time in a bar, accompanied by a lady cab driver and her grandson; earlier in the evening the lady misidentified Rogan as a local small-time hoodlum, and Rogan does not correct her misidentification.

They watch the most crucial Game 6 of the World Series playoff between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. The Sox had won 3 games and could clinch the title by winning Game 6, but Rogan, a lifelong Sox fan, knows how easily they can lose when they should win. He spends the evening waiting for the inevitable, even though the Sox are ahead most of the time. When the inevitable does occur (due to an unexpected pair of errors at the end of the final inning), he snaps, and heads out to take out his rage on the newspaper critic.

He not only finds the critic, but finds him in the early stages of deflowering the playwright's daughter. He begins firing wildly, but is finally calmed when he learns that the critic is equally devastated by the Sox's loss. They end up together, watching an interminable rerun of the final error on a small television set in the critic's apartment.

Cast

Production notes

The film was made as an independent effort, largely as a labor of love, with all the "name" players working for little more than scale (Keaton's salary was $100/day, for instance). Filming was completed in 20 days, and the filming budget was $500,000. Most of the filming occurred in New York City.

Reception

Based on 38 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of critics gave Game 6 a positive review, with an average rating of 5.9/10.[1] Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half stars, describing it as "a writer’s film if there ever was one”.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Game 6 (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  2. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (2009), p. 511. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. ISBN 1-101-10660-3. Signet Books. Accessed May 9, 2012
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