Madison (film)

Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River, has sponsored powerboat racing since 1911 and began holding an annual race called the Madison Regatta in 1929. Beginning in 1954, the race became affiliated with the American Power Boat Association, held annually in July. Though Madison has a population of only 12,000, the Regatta maintains its place in the Unlimited hydroplane American Boat Racing Association series, whose other races are in Seattle, Kennewick, Detroit, San Diego, and Doha.

The Regatta regularly draws about 70,000-100,000 people and is a tremendous source of pride for residents of the town. Also significant is that Madison has the world's only community owned unlimited hydroplane, Miss Madison. The boat was traditionally near the bottom of the circuit. In 40+ years of racing, U-6 (its number regardless of its name) had won just six races before 2005.

One of those was an upset in the 1971 Regatta, which is the basis for the movie. Making that victory even sweeter was that it was also for the APBA Gold Cup.

Caviezel's character, Jim McCormick, was a real-life veteran racer and boat owner who drove Miss Madison in 1966 and 1969–71, then raced his own boat until seriously injured some years later. Many of his actual seven-man pit crew, including Harry Volpi, Bobby Humphrey, and Tony Steinhardt, were also portrayed in the film, while Steinhardt himself appeared as a fan in a cameo.

With Jake Lloyd's retirement from acting in 2001 (he completed filming his scenes the previous year), Madison stands as his final film to date.

• Jim Caviezel as Jim McCormick
• Jake Lloyd as Mike McCormick
• Mary McCormack as Bonnie McCormick
• Bruce Dern as Harry Volpi
• Paul Dooley as Mayor Don Vaughn
• Brent Briscoe as Tony Steinhardt
• Mark Fauser as Travis
• Reed Diamond as Skip Naughton
• Frank Knapp Jr. as Bobby Humphrey
• Chelcie Ross as Roger Epperson
• Jim Hendrick as Himself
• John Mellencamp as Narrator (adult Mike McCormick)
• Brie Larson as Racing Girl 2
• Carl Amari as Jake the Banker

Filmed in 2000 and completing post-production in 2001, Madison was selected to be the opening film at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Playing to a standing ovation at Sundance,[1] it was picked up for distribution by a company that went out of business, unfortunately stalling the releasing. On April 22, 2005, MGM released it worldwide, becoming the last film ever released by MGM as an independent company.

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 28% approval rating with an average rating of 4.41/10 based on 32 reviews. The website's consensus calls the film, "A predictable and heavy-handed sports drama."[2] Metacritic assigned a score of 43 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3]

• Madison at IMDb
• Miss Madison: The Gold Cup Champion by Fred Farley, actual story of the 1971 Miss Madison