Rating: 
Summary: Good Baseball Movie
Review: I love baseball movies, and especially this one!
Robert Redford and Glenn Close work so well together in this picture. I cannot wait to share this film with my soon to be ten year-old son. I would also like the see "Pride of the Yankees." One of Redford's best films is "The Horse Whisperer." Check that one out. :)
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES ABOUT BASEBALL.
Review: "The Natural" is the biggest influence of all the baseball movies that appeared after 1984, and that's because this is a very good film. "The Natural" is one of the best movies of the director Barry Levinson, and also features an all-star cast: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close & Kim Basinger.
"The Natural" has a good message: it's better trying late than never trying at all. Despite the fact that the main character Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is a 35 year old rookie, he never quits to his dream of becoming the best baseball player.
This movie is recommendable for all baseball fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie
Review: The Natural is the best baseball movie ever made. Great for everyone in the family.
Rating:
Summary: Could this be the best baseball movie ever?
Review: Having not read the book, the movie was not a disappointment. On the contrary, I think it ranks with, if not, the best baseball movie every made. It is a story of second chances both in baseball and in love. The movie avoids the usual Hollywood pitfalls of making a statement where no statement is needed (Holly Hunters library speech in Field of Dreams) and by avoiding meaningless cliques by the effective use of archetypes. For instance, the mystery woman who abruptly ends Hobbs fledging career is dressed in black as contrasted to Iris, Hobbs lost love, who stands in the bleachers backlighted by a halo of light. Also the use of lightening at critical movements of Hobbs life and career are but two examples of powerful archetype. Aside from a good story, this is movie making at its best. The cinematography is beautiful. Case in point: The contest between Roy Hobbs (the Robert Redford character) and the Whammer (played to the tee by Joe Don Baker). Cool summer evening, setting sun, beautiful light, the cottonwood fluff floating gently in the air and steam periodically erupting from the locomotive- it is a visual masterpiece. Add to the beautiful cinematography, the musical score from Randy Newman. Nineteen years after the making of this movie when one hears Newman's score we think- Baseball! The attention to detail and editing were also superb. Who make those advertising signs in the outfield? Bump Baileys meeting a premature end crashing into the outfield wall next to the crying baby sign? That is what I call attention to detail. How about this? In the train scenes the train actually rocks on its tracks as it speeds along its way- Roy has to steady himself as he talks to the woman in black. The editing is surperb- especially the water stop scene and the final at bat scene. Could this be the best baseball movie ever made?
Rating:
Summary: The Natural
Review: 'The Natural' (1984) Robert Redford is an extraordinary guy. Never a word of scandal is written
about him. He lives quietly with his family on a ranch in western United
States. He runs the annual Sundance Film Festival and he is politically
active as a loyal democrat. He has had his share of bad films as all
Hollywood stars have but he has evened it all out with a Best Actor Oscar
nomination for 1973's 'The Sting' and a win in the Best Director category
for 1980's 'Ordinary People'. His other impressive list of credits include
such diverse films as 'Quiz Show' (1994) for which he received another Oscar
nomination as Best Director and 1988's gem and little seen 'The Milagro
Beanfield War' which squeezed its way in to win an Oscar for Dave Grusin's
music score. Redford's 1998 film 'The Horse Whisperer' should have had more
success but this film will become a buried treasure of the future and will
take its time to truly get noticed. Redford's 1984 film 'The Natural' is a film that greatly divided the
critics. Some accused it of being an obvious soap opera while others
praised it as being an old fashioned story which brought back memories of
Hollywood's golden era. The plain truth is that 'The Natural' is a story of
lost youth with one man wondering how things would have turned out if his
life had gone in a different direction. What makes it extremely worthwhile
and fascinating to watch is the fact that the circumstances in this man's life that hand him a sour lemon are determined by fate and not by choice. Set primarily from the early to mid 1920's to about 1940, Redford plays Roy
Hobbs, a man who can do anything that the game of baseball requires.....and
he excels at it. As a friend of his says to a sports writer: "I thought you
might have heard of his 8 no-hitters." The story of 'The Natural' is truly
filled with fairy tale like qualities and sentimental charm. As a boy,
Roy's father helps him develop a talent for baseball and after his dad dies,
Roy makes a bat from a tree that was struck by lightning and appropriately
names the bat "Wonderboy" as he brands the name on his bat along with the
image of a lightning bolt. Roy also has a special lady in his life named
Iris Gaines (Glenn Close). Roy leaves her behind and intends to send for
her when he makes it in the big leagues. At a carnival one fine day, after being provoked and taking on a bet, he
strikes out a heavy hitter in the major leagues whose nick name is "The
Whammer" (Joe Don Baker in a take on Babe Ruth). Traveling with "The
Whammer" is sports writer Max Mercy (Robert Duvall). The amazing feat
accomplished by Hobbs stuns everyone including the mysterious Harriet Bird
(Barbara Hershey) who is instrumental in Hobbs' future. The rest of the
story can be explored from here at your own convenience for fear of
spoilers. Other notable members of the cast are Kim Basinger as a floozy who tries to
seduce Roy in a set up by gamblers and swindlers. Robert Prosky is the
film's villain as a judge determined to take over the team from Pop Fisher
(Wilford Brimley). A sly performance which goes uncredited in the film is
by Darren McGavin as an unscrupulous bookie who makes 10 million dollars a
year (about 100 million by today's standards). Directed by Barry Levinson with a screenplay by Roger Towne and Phil
Dusenberry based on Bernard Malamud's novel, 'The Natural' is a fulfilling
drama of hope and inspiration that captured four Oscar nominations for Caleb
Deschanel's sunlight enriched photography and scenes of silhouettes and many
dark passages which make the film stand out in a truly visual fashion.
Glenn Close was the only member of the cast to receive a nomination, this
time in the Best Supporting Actress category and the art direction/set
decoration made the era look totally authentic as it and the triumphantly
rousing music score by Randy Newman were also nominated. For those who have flocked away from the game of baseball in recent years
since the devastating loss of the World Series in 1994 due to labour and
management difficulties, 'The Natural' and 1989's 'Field of Dreams' are two
great films that renew your faith in the game and may draw you to it even if
you were never a baseball fan to begin with.
| 
