Foxcatcher, Delco Shines Again

Foxcatcher, Delco Shines Again Du Pont portrait

John du Pont’s official portrait in Foxcatcher sweats on display at his estate sale in 2011 for which he paid artist Hubert Shuptrine $100,000.

 

Delaware County, Pa. on Feb. 22 has a better than even chance of making another Oscar appearanceĀ  — Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for 2012 for Silver Linings Playbook — as Foxcatcher was a finalist for the Palme d’Or at the recently ended Cannes Film Festival.

The prize went to Winter Sleep, a Turkish film about class struggle (or something) in that country. Don’t expect it to compete for Best Picture.

Foxcatcher concerns the Jan. 26, 1996 murder of Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Shultz by John du Pont at du Pont’s Foxcatcher estate and training facility in Newtown Township. It’s based on the autobiography of Shultz’s brother Mark, who was also an Olympic gold medalist that trained at the estate.

I knew du Pont. I even have an autographed copy of his book Off The Mat, which was clearly created by an abjectly bored ghost writer granted unwise access to a list of cliches.

He was nuts. You would never believe his answering machine.

I did not know Shultz who had a reputation of being a decent family man who sent his kids to the local public school, Culbertson.

Hopefully, that comes through.

 

 

 

 

One thought on “Foxcatcher, Delco Shines Again”

  1. I have been told that some knowledgeable sources claim that du Pont actually wrote Off the Mat himself.

    I don’t want to claim authoritatively that he used a ghost writer as it was merely my impression.

    If he did write it himself it just makes you pity him all that much more.

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