A "G"-rated movie that is not animated comes around about as frequently as Halley's Comet. The Pistol, a biographical story about a year in the life of the late basketball superstar "Pistol" Pete Maravich is squeaky-clean in terms of content (no nudity, profanity, violence, etc.) because that's how Maravich wanted it. Once you get past the opening credits and initial scenes, which are sugar-coated and backed by enough orchestral strings to stock Heaven, The Pistol is basically Rocky for kids. Adam Guier holds the film together as the young "Pistol" Pete; his acting is remarkably natural, and his handling of a basketball just plain remarkable. The odds against Maravich are suitably monumental: as an 8th-grader, he dreams of starting on the varsity team. And the relationship between the father Press Maravich (Nick Benedict) and son is nostalgically idyllic if occasionally cloyingly sentimental. Ultimately, The Pistol succeeds because it reworks a tried-and-true formula: the struggle of the underdog. That these stories are usually highly manipulative is quite beside the point. Watching the diminutive Guier weaving his way through a forest of giant-legged seniors on the basketball court completely disarms the critical faculties of the viewer, as it is meant to do. The Pistol does not achieve much in the way of depth with its characters, but nobody will care. We love to see the American Dream being played out on the big screen. It's one of our most enduring fantasies. Recommended. (R. Pitman)
The Pistol
color. 104 min. SVS, Inc. (1990). $89.95. Rated: G Library Journal
The Pistol
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