Week Three: Bears at Colts Open Thread
I.
Always.
Like.
THE.
Chicago.
Bears.
Sidney Lumet is not a cinematic stylist; there is no signature, visual aesthetic attributable to his work. His camera is a collaborator in service of the story. This is one of the reasons he has not received proper consideration.
But to understand Lumet’s technique, per se, one must understand where he began as a director: live television. Throughout the early 50s, Lumet directed hundreds of live specials for shows like Playhouse 90 and Kraft Television Theater. These had minimal sets (often one), small budgets and tight production schedules. Lumet learned the craft of filmmaking – camera movement, lighting, handling actors – in what amounted to a cinematic bootcamp.
How does one show this? Lumet does it brilliantly in his must-read book, Making Movies:
12 Angry Men, Boris Kaufman, photographer. It never occurred to me that shooting an entire picture in one room was a problem. In fact, I felt I could turn it into an advantage. One of the most important dramatic elements for me was the sense of entrapment those men must have felt in that room. Immediately, a “lens plot” occurred to me. As the picture unfolded, I wanted the room to seem smaller and smaller. That means that I would slowly shift to longer lenses as the picture continued. Starting with the normal range (28mm to 40mm), we progressed to 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm lenses. (p. 81)
When you watch 12 Angry Men, pay close attention to what we in the sports world might call “the thirteen man” – the camera. (The film is available to stream everywhere but it’s free on Roku Channel and with your MGM+ and Criterion subscriptions.)
TRENDING: #Bears guard (#64) Nate Davis is COMPLETELY LOST ON THE FOOTBALL
FIELD(via @CNOtheCEO)
pic.twitter.com/6eXTMw5yOf— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) September 16, 2024
The Bears’ offense is a work-in-progress, and I’ve been trying to encourage folks to not expect this unit to be fully formed until round Thanksgiving. Training camp and the preseason are no longer functionally effective. (Just look at a lot of the offenses around the league.) It takes teams time, and the Bears come into this season with new players across the eleven. But there are certainly some concerning trends through two games, most notably their inability to run the ball. The run game was supposed to be a given for the 2024 Chicago Bears and it has been anything but. Is this a serious concern or are Tennessee and Houston two of the better defenses? We’ll find out in Indianapolis next weekend.
I.
Always.
Like.
THE.
Chicago.
Bears.
Evaluating a rookie quarterback after his first game is much like evaluating a limerick after the first line: nonsensical. (“What do I care if this guy is from NANTUCKET?!?!?!”)
Caleb Williams is going to have bad games. More bad games, I should say. He’s also going to have good games. And by the end of the season, one would hope the player in Green Bay come January bears little resemblance to the player at Soldier Field last weekend.
We must see progress, incremental yet noticeable progress. But I’m not going to be using this space to dissect every quarter, every drive, every snap of his rookie season. At the bye, with a six-game sample size, we’ll chart his progress. Then around Thanksgiving, we’ll chart it again. At the end of the season, he’ll have a body of work to analyze and a list of distinct issues to address this offseason. That’s how it works with rookies, despite the now cottage industry of former backup quarterbacks trying to earn their living analyzing every throw on social media. Rookies, man. They’re up. They’re down. They make special plays. They make dumb plays.
What do we hope for? That there are more ups than downs. That the special outweighs the dumb. That by the end of this campaign the organization is confident this is the guy. It’s not an exciting approach but it’s only prudent way to approach rookies playing this position.
Relevant Books:
Summary:
I.
Always.
Like.
THE.
Chicago.
Bears.
This season, I’m trying something different. Instead of using this space to randomly comment on culture, there will be a recurring theme: the work of Sidney Lumet. Lumet is one of America’s most prolific cinematic artists, and yet is dramatically underrepresented by the critical and academic communities. My long-term mission is to remedy that injustice, and I’ll be using this space to work through concepts, notes, etc.
There’s a poetry to this decision, as well. Lumet was born in 1924, making this his centennial. As my book on Lumet is still years from reaching the desk of a publisher, I’m thrilled to celebrate his 100th birthday right here on this little old blog Noah and I started two decades ago.
Below you’ll find the syllabus. Why am I publishing this? Because if you’re interested in taking a “class” on Lumet, this is your opportunity. There are fourteen films listed and each of them is rentable on one platform or another for a few bucks. If you want a thorough appreciation of a great filmmaker, and also to understand what we do in the Cinema Studies world, I welcome you to watch the films each week and follow along. And any questions you might have along the way, simply email me: jeff@dabearsblog.com.
Week 2: Lumet and The Group Theater
Week 3: Early Television Aesthetics and 12 Angry Men
Week 4: Stage Adaptations
Week 5: The Pawnbroker and Post-War Memory
Week 6: Fail Safe and the Cold War
Week 7: The Sean Connery Collaborations, or Lumet Abroad
Week 8: Serpico, Prince of the City, and the Police
Week 9: Dog Day Afternoon
Week 10: Network and Auteur Theory
Week 11: New York City in The Wiz
Week 12: The Verdict
Week 13: Garbo Talks in the Middle of Ronald Reagan
Week 14: Sins of the Father: Daniel, Running on Empty, and Family Business
Week 15: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Post-9/11 New York
Week 16: The Legacy of Lumet’s Seminal Book, Making Movies
Week 17: Final Thoughts and Bibliography
Join Robert and I for our Twitter Spaces Season Preview.
Saturday August 31st.
1 PM ET.
We’re taking your questions!
There is a selflessness to being a sports fan.
For a few hours each week, I allow my emotional existence to be impacted by a collection of individuals with whom I have zero personal connection. They don’t know me. They don’t care about me. To paraphrase a great Jerry Seinfeld bit, the only thing linking us is the laundry the fellas wear.
But emotions are only involved when there are expectations, and it’s been five years since I’ve had any expectations when it comes to the Chicago Bears. After sitting in the building and watching Cody Parkey shank away the 2018 season, Noah and I drowned our grief at the Lou Malnati’s bar. There was immense sadness, but that sadness was accompanied by hope. 2018 was a site to build upon, and 2019 would be the erection of a championship tower. I predicted the 2019 Bears to go to the Super Bowl, but Mitch Trubisky had other plans. (Those plans, it would turn out, were that he would play the quarterback position badly.)
Ryan Poles made two moves over this last week, trading for a pair of defensive linemen in Darrell Taylor and Chris Williams. To the outside observer, these would be considered minor moves, depth moves, backend of the roster stuff. But they struck me, symbolically, as the moves of a GM who thinks his roster is close to competing for a title. And I happen to think he’s right. The 2024 Bears have a terrific defense and the best collection of “skill” players in organization history. This is a team that should win double-digit games and be in the tournament come January. And one has to look no further than last year’s NFC playoffs to understand that every team in the tournament has a prime opportunity to play on the final Sunday.
