Crooked Arrows: First Ever Sports Comedy Featuring Lacrosse
Don’t ask me why, but it appears that the relatively obscure Canadian sport of lacrosse is coming to the big screen, courtesy of the producers of Bio-Dome and the director of American Pie Presents Band Camp! If that doesn’t sound like a disaster in the making, I don’t know what is! Still, I must admit that I’m kind of curious to see whether or not such a thing actually has an audience. I know lacrosse isn’t limited only to Canada, but it’s certainly nowhere near as popular as hockey — and even hockey films are a hard sell in the U.S.
In case you aren’t familiar with the sport, it has its origins in Native American traditions. Players use sticks outfitted with netting at the end to throw a rubber ball into a net. Director Steve Rash is part Cherokee himself, and the movie will be set in an upstate New York reservation. The story centers on a guy who puts his dream of building a casino on hold in order to coach a team of misfits from the local Native American high school to take on the prep school league. Could this finally gain lacrosse some mainstream attention? Various lacrosse leagues are banking on it, since organizations like Major League Lacrosse and the National Lacrosse League are coming on board as sponsors. I don’t know, something tells me a Hollywood comedy is not the best way to introduce a sport to the masses. Then again, at least it’s not Men with Brooms.
Comments (8)
For a tagline, they can use the t-shirt I saw in college: “It takes a quick stick to penetrate a tight crease”.
Posted by TimInKansas on March 18th, 2009are you insane lacrosse is amercian and very popular
Posted by jow bob on April 22nd, 2009lacrosse is very popular in the U.S. dont be retarded. get a brain you fucking retard. its popular from the carolinas all the way up through michigan
Posted by matt holtz on July 5th, 2009Lacrosse isn’t American…..Native American yes, Ojibway, yes….making it more Canadian than American.
Posted by Tomas on July 5th, 2009FYI: Canada Post will be releasing a set of postage stamps on August 10, 2009 celebrating Canadian Inventions: Sports. The four sports being commemorated are basketball, five-pin bowling, ringette, and … lacrosse. According to Details Magazine published by Canada Post:
“When French explorers were first introduced to the native ball and stick game, baggataway, they called it ‘la crosse’ for the stick’s resemblance to a bishop’s crosier. Europeans began playing the game in the 19th century, but rules were not standardized until lacrosse goalkeeper George W. Beers published the first set in Montreal in 1867. In 1994, lacrosse was declared the national summer sport of Canada.”
BTW, Americans can be credited for spreading the sport to Japan. I highly recommend the lacrosse / martial arts film, “Shaolin Girl.”
Posted by Reed Farrington on July 5th, 2009Lacrosse, one of the oldest team sports in the Americas, may have developed as early as the 12th century, but since then has undergone many modifications. In the traditional Native American version, each team consisted of about 100 to 1,000 men on a field that stretched from about 500 yards to a couple of miles long. These lacrosse games lasted from sunup to sundown for two to three days straight. These games were played as part of ceremonial ritual to give thanks to the Creator. The modern Ojibway verb ‘to play Lacrosse’ is baaga’adowe (Baggataway) [really means to bump hips Wiki is wrong on this.]
The French Jesuit missionary, Jean de Brébeuf, saw Iroquois tribesmen play it in 1637 and was the first European to write about the game.[6] He called it lacrosse. Some say the name originated from the French term for field hockey, le jeu de la crosse.[7] Others suggest that it was named after the crosier, a staff carried by bishops
However the famous George Catlin watercolor of “Ball-play of the Choctaw–ball up” circa 1834-1835. Depicting my great-grandmothers tribe is perhaps the most famous early depiction of the sport. n. b. Choctaws where native to Alabama-Mississippi area; later to be forcibly removed by old dick head Old Hickory Andrew Jackson. Therefore the game is prevalent in the North Americas. . . hardly obscure and hardly strictly Canadian.
Lifted from Wikipedia except as noted and comments about Choctaws and dickhead.
Posted by Kalitor on July 22nd, 2009ummmmmmmmmmm………. lax aint obscure its the fastest growing sport in the U.S.
Posted by Nick on September 21st, 2009I’m giving this two thumbs down. Indian reservation?
Posted by Siskel and Ebert on September 22nd, 2009Leave a Reply