Take Down is a 1979 sports film released by the Buena Vista Distribution Company about an unqualified teacher who finds himself saddled with coaching duties after a small group of high school seniors form a wrestling team in a last-ditch effort to end a 9-year losing streak against a rival school.
Unusually, the film was acquired for distribution by Buena Vista and was not produced by Disney. This was Buena Vista's first such film since 1957.[1]
Plot[]
Ed Branish (Edward Herrmann), a snooty English teacher who finds his situation at Mingo Junction High School far beneath him and barely tolerable, flaunts his air of superiority over all, including his supportive wife (Kathleen Lloyd), by frequently spouting platitudes from literary masters to validate his often contemptuous viewpoint. His habit of having as little to do with his school as possible finally gets the better of him when his light schedule makes him the only staff member available to supervise the newly formed wrestling team. Cornered, he lashes out at the first student to cross his path - Nick Kilvitus (Lorenzo Lamas), a reserved 185 lbs. senior who's embarrassed by his near-poverty social status and who's also missed a lot of classes lately. No one realizes Nick's been filling in for his alcoholic father at a steel mill (hauling I-beams) when his dad's too drunk or hung over to show up (which is all too often, and which also keeps Nick busy at night fishing his embittered father out of bars - to be carried home (Fireman's Carry style) across town because they don't have a working car). Nick hopes he can make up the missed school work in Ed's class to graduate in Spring but instead gets a tongue-lashing on how he should be held back as an example of the consequences of laziness and irresponsibility. In turn Nick calls Ed a snob telling him that he is more interested in proving how smart he is instead of teaching. Fortunately, because of the wrestling team, both will cross paths again and discover they each have much more to them than what they were previously aware.
Cast[]
- Edward Herrmann - Ed Branish
- Kathleen Lloyd - Jill Branish
- Lorenzo Lamas - Nick Kilvitus
- Maureen McCormick - Brooke Cooper
- Darryl Peterson - Ted Yacabobich
- Stephen Furst- Randy Jensen
- Toney Smith - Chauncey Washington
- Salvador Feliciano - Tom Palumbo
- Boyd Silversmith - Jack Gross
- Nicholas Beauvy - Jimmy Kier
- Kevin Hooks - Jasper MacGrudder
- Scott Burgi - Robert Stankovich
- Lynn Baird - Doc Talada
- Ron Bartholomew - Warren Overpeck
- Vincent Roberts - Bobby Cooper
Production and Home Media[]
This was the first PG rated film released by Disney, five years before they launched Touchstone Pictures to expand into the "adult" market. However in reality, it was an independent production that Buena Vista Distribution Company acquired North American distribution rights to. The Black Hole in reality would be the first PG-rated movie produced by Walt Disney Productions.
Taft International Pictures would later acquire distribution rights to the movie internationally, and later saw a 1980's VHS release by independent distributor Unicorn Video.
Location[]
Take Down was filmed primarily at the old American Fork High School prior to being torn down. Matches at other schools included a scene at Murray High School prior to the renovation of the building which was completed by August 2003.
References[]
- ↑ "Disney Studio to Release PG Film It Didn't Make" (January 15, 1979).