The one movie David Harbour is desperate to remake: “I would love my version of that”
He might be best known for his exploits on Netflix, but David Harbour has made his presence felt on the big screen, too. He joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow as Red Guardian, the slightly wishy-washy Soviet version of Captain America. Early in his career, he had small roles in War of the Worlds, Brokeback Mountain, and even Quantum of Solace. He even played Santa Claus once in a comedy horror called Violent Night.
Video game fans will remember his 2023 movie Gran Turismo. Based on the racing series of the same name, this Neil Blomkamp joint was inspired by the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough. Played by the criminally underrated Archie Madekwe, Mardenborough went from playing the games on his console to actually racing the cars around a track. Harbour plays Mardenborough’s trainer in a film that was described as a combination of Top Gun and Rocky to it. Unfortunately, critics didn’t agree.
The film received middling reviews, with many outlets decrying it as middling. There was particular outrage surrounding the depiction of Mardenborough’s real crash at the Nürburgring, which resulted in the death of a spectator. Harbour wasn’t excited by the lack of enthusiasm for the finished product, though. He was just happy to be a part of one of his favourite genres.
“[Gran Turismo] is very moving in the way that those sports, wish fulfilment, underdog stories are,” he told MovieWeb while on the press circuit. He then gives an example. “I’ve always loved Hoosiers, ever since I was a kid. And I’ve been – I would love to make my version of that, Gene Hackman’s Hoosiers.”
Released in 1988, Hoosiers is a sports drama set in the world of high school basketball. Hackman plays Coach Norman Dale, the new man in charge of a small-town team. It follows a very simple formula. The coach arrives in town; he initially clashes with their small-town values; they gradually get better over time; there are setbacks; they come together in the end to win the big game. It’s nothing you haven’t seen a million times before anywhere else, but there’s something about this combination of familiar ingredients that just works.
It’s got Gene Hackman in it for starters, who couldn’t give a bad performance if he tried. The cast also includes Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper, the latter of whom was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Though some prominent figures aren’t fans – Gene Siskel famously thought it was overly sentimental – it is widely regarded as one of the greatest sports movies ever made. It was even preserved by the US National Film Registry in 2001, one of the highest honours in the movie world. Makes it even more unfortunate that Hackman only did it for the money.
The odds on Gran Turismo joining Hoosiers in the pantheon of sports films are ludicrously long, but at least David Harbour’s heart was in the right place while making it. He just wanted to emulate one of his favourite films, and can you really blame him for that?
