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Summary: a great baseball story
Review: this is a very good baseball movie. It tells alot about the "19 black sox scandal. It gets a little boring sometimes though like when the gangsters are talking. My friend's dad was in it. He played the first base umpire. I would recommend this move to people who like baseball movies.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great film about a lousy series
Review: This is by far the greatest baseball movie I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot being an baseball fanatic. The 1919 series is a favorite of mine with so many great players, controversy and when baseball was about the game and not money. This film depicts the players in a light that shows them how they were. All in all there is nothing I didn't enjoy about this movie except for the fact that the event actually took place and tarnished baseball's clean name and that of the innocent "Shoeless"Joe Jackson.
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Summary: What a Movie!
Review: This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It puts many baseball movies to shame. Some people might not see it as funny but one must look at it for a reason. Maybe...how the coach would feel and how some of the ball players that weren't in on it feel. This just gives you a true idea of what some ball players go through as well as other sports players go through, football and basketball expecially. A great movie to watch for a classroom setting.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Movie but...
Review: This is one of the great baseball movies and I own it on VHS. It's because of this that I will not buy this edition of the DVD. There are no extras, no commentarys, no documentaries, nothing. I already have the movie, why buy it again if they don't offer more. I will wait for a special edition to come out one of these days and then they will get my money. The movie deserves 5 stars, but the DVD only gets 3.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Movie but...
Review: This is one of the great baseball movies and I own it on VHS. It's because of this that I will not buy this edition of the DVD. There are no extras, no commentarys, no documentaries, nothing. I already have the movie, why buy it again if they don't offer more. I will wait for a special edition to come out one of these days and then they will get my money. The movie deserves 5 stars, but the DVD only gets 3.
Rating:
Summary: MASTERFUL. GREATEST BASEBALL FILM EVER
Review: This is the best baseball movie ever made. I'm even a Reds fan and I felt bad for the Black Sox. Superb performances especially from John Cusack and David Strathairn. John Sayles once again proves why he is one of the greatest filmakers working today. Wonderfully written and acted.
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Summary: John Sayles: America's best storyteller & America's pasttime
Review: This is the best baseball-related movie ever made, and one of the best movies ever made about America and Americans. John Sayles is the best filmic storyteller perhaps ever (see also 'Lone Star', 'Matewan', 'Passionfish', etc), and everything about this movie -- the pace, the feel, the events, the performances, the themes, the questions raised -- is compelling. This is a movie worth watching repeatedly. While the baseball in it is correctly depicted (e.g., Joe Jackson is LEFT handed, unlike in the treacle 'Field of Dreams'), this film is no more "about" baseball than 'Gone With the Wind' was "about" the Civil War.
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Summary: Great look into the White Sox world series of 1919
Review: This movie examines the role of the Chicago White Sox in the famous White Sox world series scandal of 1919. I thought it was one of the most appreiciated baseball movies of all time. It deals with the corruption of gambling in sports and the temptations that this particular group of athletes had in throwing the world series. Watching this movie helped me understand why sports betting, for the most part, is the major corporation it is today. John Cusak is wonderful as Shoeless Joe, one of the White Sox who does not want to go along with the scheme. This movie is very detailed: we get an inside point-of-view from the audience, mob, player and player's wife's perspective. It is a look at the conscience of the White Sox players who must either "sell out" and throw the World Series to make the extra buck and keep the sports sharks off their backs, or keep the integrity of the game intact by giving their all on the field and denying the prospects of more money. I recommend this movie not only for baseball fans, but all movie junkies. It examines many of the sports issues that we deal with today, such as corruption, integrity of the sport, and gambling.
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Summary: More Than Great Baseball Movie--Excellent Human Drama
Review: This movie has it all and is even better than The Natural. Let's not even talk about the syrupy, overindulgent Field of Dreams. Eight Men Out tells a great tale--through an excellent script, directing and acting. The great soundtrack, along with the set design and subtle lighting, beautifully paint the picture of a gritty 1919-20 Chicago. What I like most about the film, though, is it truthfulness in its portrayal of Sox third baseman Buck Weaver--the Ginger Kid, who fought right up until his death to clear his name--he was not a part of the conspiracy.
Rating:
Summary: Field of stolen dreams
Review: This saga, based on the Eliot Asinof book about the scandal involving eight Chicago White Sox players who sold the 1919 World Series is quite simply the best baseball movie ever made. Everything clicks, starting with a blue-sky-and-white-clouds ragtime score that accompanies the opening credits, speeding up to follow the two Chicago urchins who run through the South Side to see the pennant-clinching ballgame at Comiskey Park. The older one, Pee Wee, is a newsboy who earned the money for the tickets by hawking newspapers; the younger one, Bucky, wins the audience's heart by the plaintive way in which he announces, "We're going to see the Sox!" What they witness sets the tone for the rest of the movie. As they make their way to their bleacher seats, two guys sitting in front of them are making book on the outcome. Something causes them and the rest of the crowd to leap to their feet and cheer - the taller adults blocking the view of the smaller boys. And the tone has been set: the adult world, particularly the shadier side of it, will intrude upon their boyish faith in the Sox. Pee Wee will ultimately approach Shoeless Joe Jackson and plead "Say it ain't so, Joe", though he's too tough and worldly to say it with tears in his eyes, as legend would have it. The score takes on a more sinister tone when the camera shows two men in dark suits discussing cryptically the approachability of various players. When they focus on ... first baseman Chick Gandil (Michael Rooker), Gandil swings and ticks a ball into the stands, causing the crowd to appropriately yell "Foul!" in an engaging bit of symbolism. Gandil was indeed one of the ringleaders behind the plot to fix the Series. As the Asinof books points out, it was actually the players who approached the gamblers, but Hollywood can be forgiven for this lapse. As Sleepy Bill Burns (Christopher Lloyd) and Billy Maharg (Richard Edson) scrutinize the players, we are also introduced to Shoeless Joe Jackson (D.B. Sweeney) answering taunts from teammates and fans about his illiteracy the only way he knows how - by whacking a triple. Yes, from the left-hand side of home plate, unlike in "Field of Dreams" which mistakenly portrays him as RIGHT-handed. There's a wonderful scene in which Shoeless Joe is exercising his batting eye by staring at a candle - one eye at a time - until he temporarily loses his sight. Some mothers might blanch, but his shadier teammates interrupt when they enter and cause him to reluctantly agree to participate in the "fix". Yet remarkably, he then goes back to exercising his batting eye, though this would now appear to be a barren exercise. In fact, though [a lot of money] is delivered to him, the movie doesn't make clear that Jackson might not have lived up to his end of the bargain. He was the leading hitter of the World Series, with a .375 average. Charlie Sheen's Hap Felsch is surprisingly understated, but John Cusack steals much of the show as third baseman Buck Weaver, who goes along with the fix but finds that his competitive spirit won't allow him to participate in it. The scene in Weaver makes a sensational stop of a ground ball headed for extra bases (which could not have been accomplished with less than his best effort) and pegs a perfect throw to an amazed Gandil (who has no choice but to catch it) is priceless. And the stark contrast between the Sox's smooth execution of championship baseball on the field, despite sharp divisions in the dugout, is symbolized by the picture-perfect double-play completed by second baseman Eddie Collins (Bill Irwin), shortstop Swede Risberg (Don Harvey) and Gandil. Party animals Gandil and Risberg then jog off the field, verbally scrapping with the straight-living "college boy" Collins about his lack of nightlife. The only major historical flaw occurs when honest rookie pitcher Dickie Kerr (Jace Alexander) reassures aging manager "Kid" Gleason (John Mahoney) of his integrity by remarking that as a youngster, he saw Gleason throw a no-hitter. As Kerr was born in 1893 and Gleason pitched his last game in 1895, Kerr surely could not retain such a memory. The villainous gamblers also include Michael Lerner's portrayal of mobster Arnold Rothstein, Michael Mantell's rendition of Rothstein's right-hand man, Abe Attell, and Kevin Tighe's thick Irish-accented Sport Sullivan. But the true villain of the piece is skinflint Sox owner, Charles Comiskey (Clifton James), whose royal treatment of an adoring press contrasts sharply with his stingy treatment of the ballplayers bringing him glory, particularly pitching ace Eddie Cicotte (David Strathairn). The "fix" would not have taken place if it were not for Comiskey's miserliness. But flawed character is not a bar to Hall of Fame membership, and Comiskey is a member because of his record as a manager and executive. This movie was made in 1988 but is of particular relevance now that Pete Rose seems ready to confess his own association with professional gamblers, in exchange for forgiveness and Hall of Fame membership. Might it not be time to revisit the issue of Shoeless Joe, who had the third highest lifetime batting average in the history of the game when expelled for his role in the fix at the age of 31? He was STILL getting better, but has also been shut out of the Hall of Fame. Unlike Jackson, Rose is not believed to have staked his fortune AGAINST his team, but Rose is a shrewd man deserving of far less sympathy. If Comiskey can't be kept OUT of the Hall of Fame, it's still disconcerting that he's a member and Shoeless Joe isn't. The movie's wistful close should make its viewers wonder whether it would be fitting to replace Comiskey's plaque with one made for Shoeless Joe and place Comiskey's plaque in an isolated corner where it is likely to gather dust.
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