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This was ignored in the couple of years old Moneyball thread, so hope you guys don't mind me reposting this here 
I will start off by saying that Brad Pitt is definitely one of my favourite modern actors, he's not just a good looking decent talent, he is a fantastic actor who makes great choices in his films, with a good mixture of popular and less-popular, but great films, he's appeared in a very interesting bag of films since 2000 and as such as gained a lot of respect from me, apart from this I'm talking about Inglourious Bastards, The Tree of Life, Killing Them Softly, Burn After Reading, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, even Snatch. I haven't seen all of those films listed, but not many actors would have taken on such a variety of films and directors.
And speaking of great modern actors there's Philip Seymour Hoffman in a relatively small role as the team coach, Art Howe, his character doesn't have any 'spectacular' scenes but Hoffman offers a dislikeable character to contrast with the two we are cheering on, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, the latter proving he's not just some dumb comedy actor, excelling in this dramatic role. It doesn't look like Hill's great performance has gone unnoticed either, he recently appeared in the 2012 hit Django Unchained (albeit a comedic role) but perhaps even more impressively got the chance to work with Martin Scorsese in his upcoming film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
What makes Moneyball such a great film is pretty much a combination of what I have spoke about before, it's intelligent in the way the story is told in the fact that no baseball knowledge is required before hand, this is a film about humans and their lives, the choices they make, their jobs and responsibilities, we see a young economic graduate tell a number of ageing scouts that the job they've been doing for thirty years is wrong and we see the team coach being forced into decisions he would never make in his own mind with his job under pressure, even though he's not a likeable character, we can understand the struggle he faces.
Ultimately the film is a lot about the struggle and challenges people face in life, and as part of this we see flashbacks from Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) earlier life as a baseball player turned scout, his personal life and history plays a part in his character, each character has their own reasoning and motives for the decisions they make, the conflicting of characters and policies makes the film even more rewarding when we watch the strategy work. Emotionally the film works out like many underdog films that we have watched time and time before, except we're not cheering the underdog team, but the underdog 'belief', an idea that triumphs down to perseverance, with hard choices having to be made on the way.
The film works because it's a true story, when the underdog battles and triumphs we feel joy, and also sorry for Billy Beane who whichever way you look at it has changed the face of a sport entirely (at least in the context of the film, but I believe in real life too), there is a scene towards the end that acts as a brilliant metaphor for the accomplishment of Beane, Brand (Hill) and 'Moneyball' as an idea, where we see a player unknowingly score a home run as he struggles to complete his run, Beane is pessimistic and understandably so, we feel a personal triumph for his character who I felt a great connection and affection for during the film.
RATING:
Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)
It's about getting things down to one number. Using the stats the way we read them, we'll find value in players that no one else can see. People are overlooked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. Age, appearance, personality. Bill James and mathematics cut straight through that. Billy, of the 20,000 notable players for us to consider, I believe that there is a championship team of twenty-five people that we can afford, because everyone else in baseball undervalues them.
And speaking of great modern actors there's Philip Seymour Hoffman in a relatively small role as the team coach, Art Howe, his character doesn't have any 'spectacular' scenes but Hoffman offers a dislikeable character to contrast with the two we are cheering on, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, the latter proving he's not just some dumb comedy actor, excelling in this dramatic role. It doesn't look like Hill's great performance has gone unnoticed either, he recently appeared in the 2012 hit Django Unchained (albeit a comedic role) but perhaps even more impressively got the chance to work with Martin Scorsese in his upcoming film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
What makes Moneyball such a great film is pretty much a combination of what I have spoke about before, it's intelligent in the way the story is told in the fact that no baseball knowledge is required before hand, this is a film about humans and their lives, the choices they make, their jobs and responsibilities, we see a young economic graduate tell a number of ageing scouts that the job they've been doing for thirty years is wrong and we see the team coach being forced into decisions he would never make in his own mind with his job under pressure, even though he's not a likeable character, we can understand the struggle he faces.
Ultimately the film is a lot about the struggle and challenges people face in life, and as part of this we see flashbacks from Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) earlier life as a baseball player turned scout, his personal life and history plays a part in his character, each character has their own reasoning and motives for the decisions they make, the conflicting of characters and policies makes the film even more rewarding when we watch the strategy work. Emotionally the film works out like many underdog films that we have watched time and time before, except we're not cheering the underdog team, but the underdog 'belief', an idea that triumphs down to perseverance, with hard choices having to be made on the way.
The film works because it's a true story, when the underdog battles and triumphs we feel joy, and also sorry for Billy Beane who whichever way you look at it has changed the face of a sport entirely (at least in the context of the film, but I believe in real life too), there is a scene towards the end that acts as a brilliant metaphor for the accomplishment of Beane, Brand (Hill) and 'Moneyball' as an idea, where we see a player unknowingly score a home run as he struggles to complete his run, Beane is pessimistic and understandably so, we feel a personal triumph for his character who I felt a great connection and affection for during the film.
RATING: