moriarty@uw-june.UUCP (05/12/84)
I'm one of the (apparently few) people who went to see Rocky and didn't a)
cheer during the fight scenes and b) leave the theatre "feeling uplifted".
So I was a bit skeptical about "The Natural", a movie about baseball starring
Robert Redford, Glen Close, Robert Duvall, and a host of other really
wonderful actors. After seeing it, I believe I should try to answer two
questions:
1) Was it a great movie?
2) Was it entertaining?
To the first, probably not. To the second, undeniably the most entertaining
movie I've seen this year (and I don't even like sports!).
The faults:
I don't know if any of you remember my review of "Moscow on the
Hudson", but in it I described the movie as a "modern Frank Capra movie".
Folks, "The Natural" IS a Frank Capra movie.
I think this script could have been taken, just about every word,
and been placed into a 30s or 40s picture. Same type of
"coming-from-behind" theme you've seen thousands of times before. Same
"good woman/bad women" stereotypes. Same predictable manipulation of the
audience with various plot devices (if you can't guess most of the ending of
this movie before the last hour, you are probably a novice to the film
world). Other than raising baseball and Redford into a kind of Greek myth
(it's obvious and extremely entertaining), there are no surprises here. The
opening five minutes remind one of Superman I, and I could probably find
similes elsewhere.
The strengths:
This film is manipulative, but my God, does it work! For several
reasons:
1) The photography. Very few major motion pictures can ever be
accused of less-than-excellent photography, but here it is INSPIRED.
Somewhere in the back of my head my subconscious was screaming, "Hokey,
Hokey!", but I couldn't care one whit... some of this photography makes
"Days of Heaven" pale. If this is a semi-modern myth, then the director has
his photographers to thank for bringing it to that level.
2) The actors. They may be playing stereotypes, but cripes, they do
it to the hilt, as if you are seeing the characters for the first time and
enjoying the expert portrayls of these time-worn castings concurrently.
Redford combines heroic stature (with a face that has always looked as if it
was cast as the conglomeration of all heroic elements) with human
vulnerability and failings; an Achilles of the bat. Glen Close portrays the
virtuous woman with such likability that she never gains the whiney tone that
heroines in golden age movies have. Duvall plays a nasty sports writer with
competency, nothing spectacular, and Barbara Hershey plays one of the most
menacing women I've seen in a while; Kim Basinger (late of "Never Say Never
Again") plays her "jaded woman" role to the hilt. The other two nice
performances are by Wilford Brimely as Pops, the manager of the team (can
you ever remember a character in a movie named "Pops" who wasn't a) lovably
gruff and b) in financial trouble?) and Richard Farnsworth (star of "The
Grey Fox") as Brimely's close friend and Redford's teammate... he is one of
the best character actors around. These people know how to bring the most
out of any line, no matter how corny, and credit is also due to Barry
Levinson ("Diner"), the director, whose vision of how this movie would
"work" is validated.
3) The music. If Tri-Star productions doesn't release the soundtrack to
this movie on record, I'm gonna croak. If I have lauded the photography and
the actors and the director for making this movie a complete vision, no less
credit can go the composer of the score; regretfully, I don't know who did
it as I was in a bit of a daze walking out of the movie.... I forgot to look
on the poster.
Folks, unless you **demand** originality in your movies, I can't see anyone
not enjoying this movie (I haven't had an end-of-movie reaction like this
since "Star Wars").
"DANGER is my BUSINESS"| Currently residing in
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cbspt005@abnjh.UUCP (Eric Carter) (05/13/84)
Randy Newman composed the score of "The Natural".
Eric Carter
AT&T-IS
S.Plainfield,NJ
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