Last night I attended a screening of ESPN’s E:60 Matt Harvey: The Dark Knight Rises.
After spending the winter goofing on All Things Matt Harvey Coverage, I found myself invited by ESPN to come to the screening. It took me about two seconds to decide I wanted to go.
Why?
I thought it would be lots of fun, and it was.
I dropped my grumpy old man twitter persona and channeled my Inner Darren and decided to have a good time. I approached this like I was going to a premiere of the latest blockbuster movie.
(Spoilers start now, although you probably know how the Matt Harvey story turns out).
The first act is wonderful. It’s big, bombastic, and produced like a Batman movie including the brooding fast violins in the background. It’s over the top, like Matt. I loved the production on it, and immediately thought of how much you guys are going to love it.
Acts two and three are more of your standard biography and more of a standard ESPN style documentary. The work done here is excellent, as you will see some photographs from Matt as a child that will make you giggle and I won’t spoil those here.
The final two acts, is Harvey as Namath, and back to the Batman style production. Matt loves the city, let’s everyone know he’s going to date models, and that he really doesn’t care what the Wilpons think. There’s also a line in here about the Mets being the team he is on now (I missed it, but my fellow attendees mentioned it), so when he comes out of the Yankees closet in 2019 just say “yeah, we know.” (Update, Neil Best has the line as “Right now that’s who I play for.”)
Harvey as Namath comes with Lupica as….me. Lupica and some audio clips from local radio shows say things like “12 wins.” So it’s nice that this isn’t all just Matt Harvey is awesome.
Matt as Namath does point out that none of his extra-curriculars interfere with his work, and that if he is working out from 8am-5pm and then goes to a hockey game with a lady friend, what’s the big deal. He also mentions that as long as he wins, nobody will care what he does. Good to see Matt understands how NYC works.
Overall, you are going to LOVE this. Great job by ESPN. The production is excellent (Media Goon will jump in and talk about that with all his camera-snobbery). It’s the kind of show we all wish regional sports networks would make.
This is a keeper. Record it. Let it gather on your DVR until the Blu-Ray comes out. The poster is super-sweet, we totally wanted to acquire one.
ESPN’s E:60 Matt Harvey: The Dark Knight Rises premieres Saturday at 7pm on ESPN and will re-air at around 10am Monday following their baseball triple-header.
(Shannon Shark was an invited guest of ESPN and totally sold out by attending a Matt Harvey event.)
Update- Goon here…Don’t need to do another post about this, so I will Hijack Shannon’s.. The production value of this piece is great.The camera work, the archive footage, the score all made this a fun watch. Some of the “filler” shots were beautiful also. Citifield under blanket of snow with the sun beaming onto it is a surreal shot. You guys are really going to enjoy it. Harvey gets it. I win, you’ll love me…I lose, I’ll have to dial it back.
