B-Sides: Trying to Make Money with a Foosball Film Was the Real Longshot
/may11/bsidess.jpg
If you’ve listened to the newest Foycast, then you’ve already heard me discuss in detail the 1981 obscurity Longshot – the world’s only foosball movie. Odds are you’ll never see this film, but in this B-Sides you can experience the magic of its title song and dramatic final shot.
In Foycast XIII: Marching into Madness, I dissected Longshot in more detail than probably anyone has in over 30 years. For those that haven’t listened, what we’re talking about here is a coming-of-age underdog sports flick based around the game of foosball. Yes, foosball. Someone actually made a foosball movie.
Longshot was directed by E.W. Swackhamer and starred past-his-prime teen idol Leif Garrett as a California dude who wanted to go to Europe with his best friend to become soccer players because they knew nobody in America gave a damn about soccer in 1981. But before they can go become Euro soccer sensations, they have to pay their way overseas, and to accomplish that, all they have to do is win the $50,000 National Foosball Championships in Las Vegas – or was it Lake Tahoe? To pay for the trip to the tournament, they first have to win a whole bunch of local foosball tournaments. When the friend breaks his hand, they recruit a tomboyish teenage foosball hustler who proves to be as big of a pain as she is a whiz at the game of table football.
Yes, this movie actually exists. Someone actually produced it and most assuredly lost money on it.
Leif Garrett provided a couple of songs for the soundtrack, but not the film’s title track, which is heard during the opening and closing credits and multiple times in between. The people who made Longshot must have really loved this song it gets so much airplay.
“Longshot” is performed by Marie Cain. I don’t know much about her other than her IMDB resume that tells me this may not be her last B-Sides appearance, having also performed songs for the films Repossessed and Aces: Iron Eagle III. Now enjoy her song from the opening credits of Longshot.
As an extra added bonus, I’ve also included a brief clip of the dramatic conclusion of the big championship game at the end of Longshot. Quite amazing how even when making a film about the silliest of games, the filmmakers still worked in the ultimate sports movie cliché: the slo-mo final shot.
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Rock out in the comments section below.
Categorized:B-Sides
