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Reviews:
Film.com:
In this accomplished, ambitious, and great-looking film the same lessons are
taught about tolerance and decency that have been learned from an array of
children's literature...The Basket boasts a talented cast and excellent production values.
Peter Coyote is convincing as the interesting new stranger in town, an honorable man who
may have a dark secret...
Boxoffice Magazine:
"Director Rich Cowan gets bravura performances from cast and crew, aided in no small
way by the gorgeous camera work of Don Heigh... The always interesting Peter Coyote is a
new teacher in a one-roomed school in the rolling farmlands of Washington state."
Dallas Morning News:
"Mr. Coyote delivers a strong, understated performance."
Sacramento Bee:
"'The Basket' may be a sugar-cured family film, but it has a certain
spunk to it as it quietly lectures on the senselessness of both war and
prejudice... Peter Coyote, actor and activist, has been making movies
for about 20 years now, but he's somehow remained ageless. If you
compare the performance he gave 17 years ago as Mary Steenburgen's
second husband in 'Cross Creek' - Martin Ritt's 1983 biopic of writer
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - with the one he gives in his latest film,
'The Basket,' you'll see he hasn't changed. He may even be utilizing the
same period wardrobe for the new movie. Maybe it's because his demeanor
and appearance make it easy for Coyote to slip into the past. He's
certainly the only contemporary actor who can get away with parting his
hair in the middle."
Los Angeles Times:
"The Basket holds a jumble of things. There's the Great War. There's opera.
There's forbidden love. And then there's this strange new game called basketball. It's a
lot, yes, but by and large, The Basket carries it off." (Read interview with Coyote by Susan King)
Seattle Times:
"Peter Coyote is shrewdly cast as an inspirational schoolteacher and basketball
coach."
San Francisco Chronicle:
"Peter Coyote has the plum role of a schoolteacher from Boston, who comes to this
provincial backwater - a rural suburb of Spokane - bringing new ideas, new games and a new
phonograph... Coyote is the best part of the show, bringing wisdom and authority to the
role."
Film Critic Robert Blatzer:
"Coyote is excellent in a role that could easily have been
overplayed, bringing a charm and sophisticated bite to his Conlon."
The Spokesman's Review:
"Heigh has a way of making wheat stubble look like something out
of an Andrew Wyeth painting...
And Coyote and Allen are consummate actors, their one scene together being the
film's high point."
Film Critic Steve Rhodes:
"Rich Cowan's 'The Basket" is a simple and poetic film whose
magic comes from many sources, particularly two beautifully understated
performances by Peter Coyote and Karen Allen."
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
"A couple of very pleasing performances and some truly wonderful
cinematography. Karen Allen lends a surprising gravity to the film with
her dignified yet completely natural portrayal of a conflicted
housewife. Coyote manages to come across as a weary yet amiable rogue
looking for redemption in the country’s backwater."
Peoria Journal Star:
"What's most amazing about 'The Basket' - more so than the virtual
absence of ''offensive'' material - is how unabashedly innocent its tone
is. The scenes in which Coyote narrates the opera are particularly
affecting."
Wilmington Star -News:
"Coyote (the Keys Guy who chased our little alien pal in E.T.)
delivers by far the most interesting performance in the movie."
Augusta Chronicle:
"Beautifully shot and featuring charming and understated
performances by Peter Coyote and Karen Allen."
Images
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Production Notes:
Fall 1998: Filming is being done in the Spokane, Washington
area. North by Northwest Productions has six partners - Rich Cowan,
Marc Dahlsrom, Dan Heigh, Dave Holcomb, Greg Rathvon and Dave Tanner. Up until now they
have limited themselves to commercials and industrial productions. However, now they've
laid out their mortgages on the line to turn this tale into a major motion picture. To
accomplish this, they have risked $1.5 million.
Filming began in late September but Peter arrived on location
October 4th for a two-week stay. He describes these filmmakers as "young, hip,
ambitious and real gamblers" and believes "they've written an interesting
script." The film is expected to be released to film festivals and possibly movie
theaters.
Outside scenes were shot
first, with only inside scenes left when the weather turned windy and dark clouds
threatened. The cast and crew stayed in the Tri-Cities, with a base camp about a mile from
the schoolhouse, which was carefully chosen by the director's father. He found that the
Neff family had the perfect place - a white, wooden storage shed which was originally a
schoolhouse. They left the exterior paint alone but added a porch, replaced the tin roof
with wood shingles and painted part of the interior. Family, friends and historical
societies provided the schoolhouse props except for the portrait of Woodrow Wilson, which
was found in the building.
Fifty to 70 people were on set for 11 hours every day. Some were from Los Angeles, but
most were from Washington and Idaho. Costuming was reminiscent of Little House on
the Prairie. The boys' trousers were held up by suspenders. The girls wore skirts
and blouses of calico fabric, covered by pinafores. Coyote's costumes include a gray suit,
vest and suspenders.
Excerpts from Spokesman-Review, 5/30/99:
"Cowan and four other North By Northwest Productions staffers just finished a
two-week trip to France's Cannes Film Festival, where they did their best to market The
Basket for foreign distribution. And they had some success. While The Basket
has yet to score a distribution deal in the United States, Cowan et al have managed to
negotiate, so far, some nine or 10 international agreements - meaning that The Basket likely
will be seen in such exotic locales as Turkey, Israel, Greece, Poland, etc.."
"The film was even shot locally, mostly near the small town of Lamont, Wash.
(which is south of Sprague). A schoolhouse that figures prominently is north of Pasco, and
other sequences were shot in downtown Spokane - including the film's climactic basketball
game, which was played in the Masonic Temple."
"The Basket is set in 1918 in Waterville, Wash. Peter Coyote stars as
Martin
Conlon, a schoolteacher who has brought from back East a couple of passions - one for
opera, the other for a strange new game called basketball. His story is contrasted
with that of the Emery family, whose eldest son has returned from World War I missing both
a leg and the will to live. No wonder the family matriarch (Karen Allen of Raiders of
the Lost Ark fame) is caught between her moody husband and the young German boy and
girl (Seattle actors Robert Karl Burke and Amber Willenborg) who have emigrated and now
live with the town pastor."
"Conlon has trouble connecting with his new students, until he begins to tell them
the story of an opera called The Basket. It is a mythical piece, and it
boasts an anti-war subtext. But all Mr. Emery can hear is the German language that the
singers are using. It enrages him and other area residents. To calm everyone down,
and to help the town purchase a piece of farm machinery that it desperately needs, Martin
proposes a basketball game - against the unbeaten Spokane Spartans. Farm boys must learn
the finer points of a two-handed set shot while mastering the mechanics of what may be the
first zone defense in history. And then there's the question: Will the German boy get his
chance to play?""
"The final thing you need to know about Rich Cowan is this: He doesn't care if The
Basket ever plays theatrically in this country. 'It's nice to hope for a theatrical
release when you make movies at this budget level (Cowan estimates the film cost $3
million to date),' he says, 'but I don't think you should assume that. If you make five
movies, I think one might pop and go theatrical. But you should always make the assumption
that you're gonna have a television deal, on HBO or Showtime or something.'''
The Spokesman-Review, 8/8/99:
"On August 20, Spokane will host the first true commercial run of the locally made
film, The Basket, the Karen Allen-Peter Coyote movie about a World War I-era
teacher, who teaches his students about basketball and tolerance. The film, made
last last summer by North by Northwest Productions in Spokane, has already been screened
at several film festivals, including Seattle and Cannes. Yet thanks to the new River
Park Square AMC theaters, The Basket will finally get a place in the 'plex.
It will open during the theaters' grand opening and continue for at least a week.
'After that, they will evaluate it like any other film,' said Rich Cowan, the
producer and director. If it does well, it may be picked up by other AMC theaters.
If not, 'we'll sell it to one of the networks as a TV movie,' said Cowan."
"The
Basket is the story of a mysterious schoolteacher named Martin Conlon who comes to
a small rural Washington town. While there, two German war orphans (WWI) arrive and cause
tension since several people from that town have been wounded. Martin teaches the school
kids the brand new game of basketball and challenges the team from Spokane. Along the way,
we find out that Martin is an ex-gambler when an old partner (Joey Travolta) shows up,
fresh from jail and demands his cut from an old job. The film is being made by a small, local advertising company
called North by Northwest. In their own words, 'We already had the cameras, editing bays,
trucks and all, why not?' They've made six films so far, five directed by Joey Travolta
(John's brother), who is in this one playing my partner, as is John's sister Ellen, who
plays the town gossip. They've lovely people, have all worked together for years, and the
shooting goes quickly and pleasantly."
...Peter Coyote
[ The
Official Peter
Coyote Web Site ]
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