The Best of Times is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, written by Ron Shelton, and starring Robin Williams and Kurt Russell as two friends attempting to relive a high school football game. Plot Jack Dundee is a banker obsessed with what he considers the most shameful moment in his life: dropping a perfectly thrown pass in the final seconds of the 1972 high school football game between Taft and their arch rivals, Bakersfield, which ended in a scoreless tie. Since that game, Jack has found it impossible to forget this event. He works for his father-in-law, The Colonel, Bakersfield's biggest supporter, who reminds him of the event almost daily. Thirteen years later Reno Hightower, quarterback of the fateful game, is now a financially struggling van specialist in debt to Jack's bank. His wife Gigi leaves him for the umpteenth time, citing their rut as the reason. She dreams of going to LA to get discovered. Using an oddly-sounding engine as an excuse to stop by Reno's garage so he can give it a temporary fix, Jack borrows an old car to visit a 'massage expert' on the edge of town. Darla listens while he laments that game, which he is convinced hangs over him like a dark cloud. She suggests he replay the game to be able to move on. Jack approaches The Colonel and proposes the rematch, and he accepts on Bakersfield's behalf. At home, his wife Elly tries to use emotional blackmail by depriving him of sex to get him to give up his plan to redo the game. It doesn't work, so he moves into the motel. As Reno is the greatest quarterback in the history of South Kern County and the only QB to wear white shoes, Jack tries to get him on board. At first resistant, he convinces him by helping him with reorganising his late mortgages. Reno and Jack together approach the local Caribou Lodge, who initially also resist the idea. Disguised as the Bakersfield mascot tiger, Jack goes through town defacing property and landmarks with tiger orange writing taunting messages. At the lodge they incite and convince supporters to re-stage the game. Jack and Reno's wives invite them to dinner at Jack's on Monday night, under the condition that neither sex nor football comes up. They struggle to find things to talk about, but are managing until Jack gets