The Natural (1984)

This is one of my favourite movies of all time. An excellent story, great music and emotive cinematography. The shot of Wilfred Brimley sitting in the shadows, illuminated by nothing but sparks, finally realising his dream is simply wonderful and moving. Robert Redford is characteristically brilliant as is the cast supporting him.

Fmovies: ****SPOILERS**** Wanting to be a professional baseball player since he first picked up a baseball as a little boy Roy Hobbs, Robert Redford, was on his way to becoming one when he was shot and almost killed by a unstable young woman fan whom he met the day before on a train traveling to Chicago where he was to be signed to play for a major league team.

With all of his hopes of becoming a major leaguer dashed and a faded memory at 19 Hobbs, 16 years later, now at the age of 35 is back from playing a year of semi-pro ball to play in the big leagues and see if he still has it as a middle-age rookie and if he can make the team. Playing anywhere he's needed, on the bottom-dwelling New York Knights, and hoping against hope that the manager Pop Fisher, William Brimley,will put him in the lineup. Pop does reluctantly only to find out that Roy was heaven sent to not only win the pennant for the Knights but to save him from being brought out by a bunch unscrupulous shysters and gangsters from his share of stock he has in the team.

At times corny but still very moving story that despite its unbelievable plot is based on a true story that's almost as incredible as the movie itself. On the evening of June 14, 1949 Phillie first baseman Eddie Waitkus was gunned down in his hotel room by a crazed female fan and admirer. Waitkus with a bullet in his gut was left almost bleeding to death with his future as a professional baseball player non-existent. In only a year Waitkus came back, literary from the dead, to guide the Phillie "Whiz Kids" to the 1950 National League pennant! The "Whiz Kids" Won it on the last day of the season, like Roy Hobbs' Knights did in the movie, against the heavily favored Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

A real crowd pleaser with Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs out to prove to himself, as well as the sports world, that he still has what it takes to be a professional baseball player and comes across his old girlfriend Iris, Glenn Close. Iris unknown to Roy had and is raising his 15 year-old son Ted, Robert Rich III.

The movie "The Natural" has Roy torn between sweet and caring Iris and party girl and gold-digger Memo Paris, Kim Basinger,who together with the sleazy owner of the Knights Judge Prosky and big time bookie and gangster Gus Sands, Darren McGavin, wants Roy to throw the final game with the Pittsburg Pirates. This in order to put out Pop and make a killing betting against the heavily favored Knights.

Playing his heart and guts out Roy's past injury comes back to not only haunt but possibly kill him as his stomach wound opens up causing him to miss three games that the Pirates won. With the pennant on the line Roy, despite orders from his doctor not to, returns for the final do or die game at Knights Stadium and ends it, and his career, with a hot and sizzling Forth of July explosion on a cool windy and lighting struck October evening.

Predictable but still heart-lifting and exciting movie "The Natural" ranks right up there with the best baseball, as well as sports, films ever made. "The Natural" both beautifully and touchingly shows how the human spirit can overcome every obstacle that's thrown in front of it, natural or man made, when it frees itself from all the fears and negativity that's around it.

This is another one that I recently re-watched on cable. I must upgrade my collection to include the DVD. Of course, there are reviews which will attack its sentimentality; get over it!! It amazes me that so many film goers can't view a movie with a positive and sophisticated charm without rolling their eyes or sticking their finger down their throat. (As if we don't have enough coarse, angry, 'edgy' films in release already.) I don't mind Redford's Joe Hardy-like ability one bit, because success- for all of his skill and talent- still doesn't come to him easily. He must suffer a physical tragedy, be elusive with his greedy contemporaries, and finally deal with the past, which he spends the entire movie trying to hide. The one nitpick I have with the whole film was the painfully obvious soft-focus photography used to disguise Redford's age. It isn't so bad in the first reel when he's supposed to be a teenager (and the camera shoots him in silhouette and at length), but later, when he's supposed to be between 36 and, say 40, he just *isn't*. Glenn Close is radiant as his love from childhood, and shines in a memorable scene when they are first reunited at one of his games. After he goes into a foreshadowed slump, it is the arrival of Close (angelically back lit, and whose presence he senses even before seeing her) that brings him back to winning. Singularly gorgeous.

The Natural fmovies. That's how I personally summed up this movie when I first saw it. And what better place to couch a fairy tale than in a milieu with real legends like Ruth and DiMaggio and Mantle ... or fabulous ones like "The Whammer" and Roy Hobbs. The story of a man playing the game they way it SHOULD be played, wishing while injured that his father could have seen him, and coming through in the clutch for his father, his lady, and his son. Beautifully shot by Caleb Deschanel, this isn't just a movie, this is ARTWORK.

And who could forget the soundtrack written by Randy Newman, which has found its way into virtually every sports show on the tube at one time or another. Without a doubt, his best handiwork.

One of my all time favorites. Everything about this movie appears authentic. From the time period, to the baseball scenes. These guys really look like a baseball team.

Redford is low-key and stoic, but he hits just the right note for the character. Everybody else, especially Robert Duvall and Wilford Brimley, are fantastic.

A touching story, without being hokey. You get the feeling you are watching something mystical and magical along with all the characters in the movie, and it is played with just the right note.

Thrilling and inspiring. A well-made, well-acted film.

I can't ever forget the first time(s) I saw The Natural. I was a member of the Directors Guild of America and there was a screening at the DGA. I love screenings of films about which I know nothing! And at the time I hadn't read the novel, really didn't know anything about it. I knew Barry Levinson and liked his work, and Randy Newman was, of course, a god. I just wasn't ready for it! Tears were streaming down my face from the beginning. The music would play and the waterworks would commence! It felt organic, not intellectual. It just "was". The only other film where I had that experience was, you guessed it, "Field of Dreams", another screening. When he asked his Dad if they could play a little catch, I lost it. The people I was with got up and slowly moved to other seats. But back to the Natch. I love it when a film subsumes reality, and every time I hear the theme at a "real" ball game, I smile. From time to time I'll put on the DVD to watch a scene, and I invariably end up watching the whole thing! If you haven't seen this film, you simply must!