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Now then, I was always a fan of sports. And apart from that, I was always a fan of cinema. So taking into consideration that I will never become a pro sportsman, and that I will never get involved in the cinema industry, I am relegated to watching...(drum fill)...sports films.
Yes, I know that was the candidate for the worst paragraph in history, but I basically wanted to say : I love sports films. All sorts of them. Baseball, football, soccer, hockey, boxing, basketball...I mean, as long as it has that _great_ last shot/kick/punch/whatever which sends shivers down your spine, I'm up for it. And even when there are no great last bits...I'm still up for it, as long as at leat one third is dedicated to sports scenes.
Over the years I have hunted down, bought, rented and downloaded all the sports films I was interested to. And now, I'm going to make a solid effort in trying to encapsule all of that in a couple of gargantuan posts.
It's a home run !
We start with baseball. Being the great American tradition that it is, baseball has spawned a number of great, good...and less than good films. First of all, I'd like to say a word or two about Bull Durham. I think it's severely overrated. Yessir, maybe the acting was decent and from the artistic point it was OK, but as a baseball film...it's bland. Blander than a hot dog without mustard. The reality factor is tossed out of the house from the very first minute, since the producers pulled a Beverly Hills 90210 and hired a bunch of 25-30 year olds to play minor leagures (who are supposed to be in late teens, early twenties). Granted - there are people who spend a century in the minors, but this is a full team of old codgers, and "next best baseball talents" with receding hairlines. Everyone - apart from Costner, whose character is supposed to be old - sticks out like a sore thumb...especially the irritating character of Nuke Laloosh (Tim Robbins was pushing 30 at the time, and he was playing a 20 year old pitcher phenom !). Also, for a film which is supposed to make you feel the "authentic love for the game", it fails. There are NO emotions whatsoever, and instead of gelling together, the two main characters - the dickheaded Laloosh and icy Davis (Costner) - just bounce off each other. Baseball is truly in a sorry state if this is its best portrait. But not to dog this film totally, the baseball scenes are okay, and it's also a great source of quotes (that "meat" catchphrase sticks with you for a long time).
The TV-made film about the 1961. home run race between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle - 61* - is the baseball film you want to watch. Made for TV by a lifelong Yankee fan Billy Crystal, this is a phenomenal record of one of the probably most underrated sportsmen ever, and his fight to gain credibility while being shelled from every direction...because he's good. Made to the most delicate details - lockerrooms are apparently a real replica of 1961. NY Yankees - this film rides some strong performances from the lead duo, Barry Pepper (Roger Maris) and Thomas Jane (Mickey Mantle), who not only do a great Bronx Bomber duo - heck, they even look like Maris and Mantle ! A carefully crafted gem of a film, this one will surely appeal to a broader audience. And you really get to sympathize with Maris - when he smashes the number 61 out of the stadium and finally gets his due props, you feel like you're in the crowd, cheering for him. Great, great stuff.
There are more baseball gems scattered around. First of all, The Natural with Robert Redford. Who can forget him smashing that homer straight into the scoreboard ? And his patented bat ? Ahhh...The Rookie is a true story (albeit heavily embelished) about a guy who never gives up his dream of pitching in the major leagues and finally makes it at the ripe age of 30-something (more close to 40 from what I remember). Contrived and corny, but it plays the right strings from the start, and the memorable finale will make you reach for tissues. Dennis Quaid excels in the role of the science teacher turned pitcher, and he has strong support from Australian Rachel Griffiths, who sounds like she was born in Texas in this film. Eight Men Out is a great piece of baseball history, delving into the infamous "black sox" scandal which shook the baseball world in 1919., after eight members of Chicago White Sox intentionally tanked in the World Series for money. Directed by John Sayles, this film definitely has it's good moments, although it can get a bit boring for the non-fans. Mr. Baseball is a humorous account of a washed out big leaguer (Tom Selleck) who goes to Japan and struggles to fit in the new surroundings, while For the love of the game is a failed attempt to recreate the Bull Durham popularity - a story about a retiring pitcher (Kevin Costner, again) who contemplates his life during his last outing, a picturesque perfect game in the last game of the World Series, it tries to achieve epic proportions but just drags too long and the pace is horrid. Comrades of Summer, a 1992. TV-made comedy about the American coach who takes up coaching a Soviet Union baseball team, is another fine little baseball film, and Major League is another lightweight baseball comedy (just steer clear from the sequels). You can enjoy more all-around family fun with Rookie of the Year, a story about a kid who develops a really strong pitching arm and starts pitching for the Chicago Cubs, and The Bad News Bears, a hilarious account of a canny old alcoholic coach (smell a stereotype ?) played by Walter Matthau who is now coaching a bunch of misfits in the minor leagues (again, the sequels are inferior). Clever people will notice I was intentionally avoiding mentioning Field of Dreams. Well, I avoided it because of its serious shortcomings in the field of...nah, bollocks, I just forgot it at the beginning of the text, that's all. From the "Costner baseball trilogy" this one is definitely the finest for me, with a farmer who is instructed in his dreams to build a baseball diamond...nice performance by Ray Liotta. Finally, I'll round this one up with the mention of A League of their Own, a film depicting one year of the female baseball championships during the world war II.
I probably forgot more than enough baseball films...and a couple spring to mind now, ie. Babe, Bang the Drum Slowly, Cobb etc. ... but I leave that to further discussion.
Personal baseball film top 3 :
1. 61*
2. The Natural
3. The Rookie
Honourable mention : A League of their Own
Yes, I know that was the candidate for the worst paragraph in history, but I basically wanted to say : I love sports films. All sorts of them. Baseball, football, soccer, hockey, boxing, basketball...I mean, as long as it has that _great_ last shot/kick/punch/whatever which sends shivers down your spine, I'm up for it. And even when there are no great last bits...I'm still up for it, as long as at leat one third is dedicated to sports scenes.
Over the years I have hunted down, bought, rented and downloaded all the sports films I was interested to. And now, I'm going to make a solid effort in trying to encapsule all of that in a couple of gargantuan posts.
It's a home run !
We start with baseball. Being the great American tradition that it is, baseball has spawned a number of great, good...and less than good films. First of all, I'd like to say a word or two about Bull Durham. I think it's severely overrated. Yessir, maybe the acting was decent and from the artistic point it was OK, but as a baseball film...it's bland. Blander than a hot dog without mustard. The reality factor is tossed out of the house from the very first minute, since the producers pulled a Beverly Hills 90210 and hired a bunch of 25-30 year olds to play minor leagures (who are supposed to be in late teens, early twenties). Granted - there are people who spend a century in the minors, but this is a full team of old codgers, and "next best baseball talents" with receding hairlines. Everyone - apart from Costner, whose character is supposed to be old - sticks out like a sore thumb...especially the irritating character of Nuke Laloosh (Tim Robbins was pushing 30 at the time, and he was playing a 20 year old pitcher phenom !). Also, for a film which is supposed to make you feel the "authentic love for the game", it fails. There are NO emotions whatsoever, and instead of gelling together, the two main characters - the dickheaded Laloosh and icy Davis (Costner) - just bounce off each other. Baseball is truly in a sorry state if this is its best portrait. But not to dog this film totally, the baseball scenes are okay, and it's also a great source of quotes (that "meat" catchphrase sticks with you for a long time).
The TV-made film about the 1961. home run race between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle - 61* - is the baseball film you want to watch. Made for TV by a lifelong Yankee fan Billy Crystal, this is a phenomenal record of one of the probably most underrated sportsmen ever, and his fight to gain credibility while being shelled from every direction...because he's good. Made to the most delicate details - lockerrooms are apparently a real replica of 1961. NY Yankees - this film rides some strong performances from the lead duo, Barry Pepper (Roger Maris) and Thomas Jane (Mickey Mantle), who not only do a great Bronx Bomber duo - heck, they even look like Maris and Mantle ! A carefully crafted gem of a film, this one will surely appeal to a broader audience. And you really get to sympathize with Maris - when he smashes the number 61 out of the stadium and finally gets his due props, you feel like you're in the crowd, cheering for him. Great, great stuff.
There are more baseball gems scattered around. First of all, The Natural with Robert Redford. Who can forget him smashing that homer straight into the scoreboard ? And his patented bat ? Ahhh...The Rookie is a true story (albeit heavily embelished) about a guy who never gives up his dream of pitching in the major leagues and finally makes it at the ripe age of 30-something (more close to 40 from what I remember). Contrived and corny, but it plays the right strings from the start, and the memorable finale will make you reach for tissues. Dennis Quaid excels in the role of the science teacher turned pitcher, and he has strong support from Australian Rachel Griffiths, who sounds like she was born in Texas in this film. Eight Men Out is a great piece of baseball history, delving into the infamous "black sox" scandal which shook the baseball world in 1919., after eight members of Chicago White Sox intentionally tanked in the World Series for money. Directed by John Sayles, this film definitely has it's good moments, although it can get a bit boring for the non-fans. Mr. Baseball is a humorous account of a washed out big leaguer (Tom Selleck) who goes to Japan and struggles to fit in the new surroundings, while For the love of the game is a failed attempt to recreate the Bull Durham popularity - a story about a retiring pitcher (Kevin Costner, again) who contemplates his life during his last outing, a picturesque perfect game in the last game of the World Series, it tries to achieve epic proportions but just drags too long and the pace is horrid. Comrades of Summer, a 1992. TV-made comedy about the American coach who takes up coaching a Soviet Union baseball team, is another fine little baseball film, and Major League is another lightweight baseball comedy (just steer clear from the sequels). You can enjoy more all-around family fun with Rookie of the Year, a story about a kid who develops a really strong pitching arm and starts pitching for the Chicago Cubs, and The Bad News Bears, a hilarious account of a canny old alcoholic coach (smell a stereotype ?) played by Walter Matthau who is now coaching a bunch of misfits in the minor leagues (again, the sequels are inferior). Clever people will notice I was intentionally avoiding mentioning Field of Dreams. Well, I avoided it because of its serious shortcomings in the field of...nah, bollocks, I just forgot it at the beginning of the text, that's all. From the "Costner baseball trilogy" this one is definitely the finest for me, with a farmer who is instructed in his dreams to build a baseball diamond...nice performance by Ray Liotta. Finally, I'll round this one up with the mention of A League of their Own, a film depicting one year of the female baseball championships during the world war II.
I probably forgot more than enough baseball films...and a couple spring to mind now, ie. Babe, Bang the Drum Slowly, Cobb etc. ... but I leave that to further discussion.
Personal baseball film top 3 :
1. 61*
2. The Natural
3. The Rookie
Honourable mention : A League of their Own
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That's when he's pissing off the other team's goalie. Classic.