This film is about the creation of the Big East in 1979 and how the East Coast went from a relatively weak region in college basketball to the top in the mid-late 1980s to it unraveling by the 2000s to its recreation as a new league with only the original teams. The film is full of interviews, stock footage and the like and it's well made but also its focus is a bit unrealistic. After all, what eventually damaged this conference (with so many teams coming and going) is one of the biggest problems with college sports today. Who would have thought schools like Miami and Boston College would be in the ACC and Maryland would be in the Big 10, for examples?! So, despite the film's talk about traditions and excellence, it all boils down to money and what moves can, at least in the short term, bring schools more money. And the composition of conferences has been changing so quickly, fans cannot possibly keep up with who is in what conference and old rivalries are now disappearing.
Because this is NOT just a Big East problem, I think the film misses the mark. It also misses the mark in a few other ways. I agree with Demarco-2's review where he felt uneasy about the elitism of this particular film. When they talked about the introduction of West Virginia into the Big East, this was accompanied with banjo music and footage that looked almost like it was straight out of "Deliverance"!! This is vulgar and nasty--and shouldn't be tolerated. Additionally, the film misses the mark because the film has such a strong since of nostalgia but by the time the documentary was over, I didn't really care--and I think this is probably going to be the case with many viewers. Overall, interesting and worth seeing but not among the finer films in the ESPN series.
Because this is NOT just a Big East problem, I think the film misses the mark. It also misses the mark in a few other ways. I agree with Demarco-2's review where he felt uneasy about the elitism of this particular film. When they talked about the introduction of West Virginia into the Big East, this was accompanied with banjo music and footage that looked almost like it was straight out of "Deliverance"!! This is vulgar and nasty--and shouldn't be tolerated. Additionally, the film misses the mark because the film has such a strong since of nostalgia but by the time the documentary was over, I didn't really care--and I think this is probably going to be the case with many viewers. Overall, interesting and worth seeing but not among the finer films in the ESPN series.