Une équipe hors du commun

An ex-baseball player reminisces on her time playing.

This is an enjoyable tearjerker and comedy with strong character moments.

'A League Of Their Own' has a good, albeit fictionalised, character-driven story about the formation of the All America Girls Professional Baseball League. The plot is driven by the friction between siblings Dottie and Kit, the humorous arc of manager Jimmy Dugan, and the struggle to sell female baseball to a wartime audience.

Geena Davis leads it well as Dottie and is plausible as a dutiful old-fashioned wife who is slightly conflicted because she's the best player in the league.

Lori Petty portrays Kit's inferiority complex so well she crosses the line to become annoying in some scenes, however it is an effective character arc.

Tom Hanks has the best material and makes the most of it with a hilarious portrayal of a cynical, aggressive, alcoholic manager, with enough humanity to get away with behaviour that most men could never.

All the support cast are great, particularly Jon Lovitz, David Strathairn, Rosie O'Donnell, Bitty Schram, and Tracy Reiner. I never believe for a second that Madonna is anyone other than Madonna in a baseball movie, but she is entertaining.

There are a number of emotional moments and you need a heart of stone not to appreciate some of them. The ones that connect with me involves a character leaving her father for the first time and another receiving the dreaded wartime telegram. By the end of the film though it feels to me like the writers overdo the sentimentality.

Technically it is as good as it can be when using actors to portray professional athletes. The cinematography and visual storytelling are strong throughout. The baseball scenes are very well edited. There are several decent montages that are expected in sports movies.

For me its a 7.5 but I round upwards.

'A League of Their Own' is a film about an all-female baseball team during the second World War. This film follows the stories about the team of females and their perspective on life and society (as women) during this time in history. I am not a fan of sports or sport-related films, but I did enjoy this one. I think that this film had enough elements for a wider audience to enjoy it. It also is able to combine comedy with drama and history, and it makes an exciting and engaging film with characters that are three-dimension and easy to care about. I think that this is an exciting film, and even if you dislike sports, the film has plenty more to offer for any viewer.

Despite the fact of this movie was exhibited on screens in 1992 or 93, I've just saw it on TV in my country only a few days ago. In fact, it isn't the first time it is exhibited, but for one reason or other I've never had seen it. And I've to say that "A League Of Their Own" really touched me. In my country, unlike other Latinamerican like Venezuela, Puerto Rico and -- if I'm not wrong -- Cuba, baseball isn't a popular game, like soccer or tennis. It's played only in some clubs by American citizens or Chilean who lived in the U.S. and learned to play and love it. However, for me the ignorance of the baseball rules is not important, but the fact of that the subjects treated in this movie are universal: fight for a dream and achieve it, solidarity (how beautiful the scene when one of the players teaches to read the one who doesn't know, using a "little hot" short-novel), friendship, hope, dignity and the spirit of trying to be always better. From now on, this movie has become one of my favorites, with some other like "Steel Magnolias" and "Fried Green Tomatoes". Beautiful ones, inspiring, with no-violence and giving a positive message good for our spirits, no matter the zone of the world where you live because, like I've already said, its message is universal: the hope on reaching your dreams and be a better person. And I think that it's marvelous in a world like the present, that sometimes turns so hard to live in. I believe also that it isn't necessary to be American or have had friends or relatives involved in a terrible conflict like the 2nd W.W. to understand this movie. Finally, I'm sorry for my not good English and, if possible, I beg from someone who had had the patience to read this lines up to this point, some additional information about the female baseball league of the United States. I will appreciate it, really. And friendly greetings from Chile, proudly the world's southernmost country!!. (and very friendly with foreigners, too. Visit us, we're waiting for you!!)

Set at the start of World War 2, Geena Davis and Lori Petty are recruited to the first professional baseball league for women. The sisters struggle to keep the league going against the odds, while their own personal rivalry begins to escalate.

I don't pretend to know much about baseball, so if this element is poor i wouldn't really notice, but i did feel that it was a good setting for the story.

Quite touching and well directed, i was surprised how compelling this movie was. All in all the strong cast and pleasant script makes this a good movie, with a little for everyone.

8/10

A League of their Own, another classic movie that I grew up with. I have to admit it, I'm a girl, I totally fell in love with this movie. But I'm one of the rare girls that loves baseball with a passion, I was raised in a very baseball oriented family, we live in Chicago, we kinda have to enjoy sports, lol. But growing up you wonder why baseball, football, basketball are more for the boys vs. the girls, girls can play but are not famous for it and if they are an athlete are accused of being manly. It's a tough world, but when I was 7 years old A League of their Own was released in theaters, my family saw this movie together and my life changed. Sounds silly, but this was the movie that reminded me to stay strong, at the time when women were expected to stay in the kitchen, as hard as they had to work for it, there was a women's baseball league during WWII. A League of their Own explores this hard but extremely fun time for the girls of the All American Baseball League.

When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, candy manufacturing magnate Walter Harvey decides to create a women's league to make money. Ira Lowenstein is put in charge of public relations and scout Ernie Capadino is sent out to recruit players. Capadino likes what he sees in catcher Dottie Hinson. She's a terrific hitter and he offers her a tryout, but the married woman is content where she is, working in a dairy and on the family farm in Oregon while her husband is away at war. He's less impressed with her younger sister, pitcher Kit Keller, who loves the game passionately but appears to be less talented. He finally lets her come along when she persuades Dottie to give it a try for her sake. When the trio arrive at the tryouts in Chicago, they meet Doris and Mae. They make it onto the team, The Peaches who are managed by drunkard former baseball great Jimmy Dugan. Jimmy initially treats the whole thing as a joke, leaving the managerial duties to Dottie. However, he takes over when he sees how hard and well his team plays. The league attracts little interest at first. With a Life magazine photographer in attendance, he asks them to do something spectacular. When a ball is popped up behind home plate, she catches it while doing splits; the resulting photograph makes the cover of the magazine. More and more people show up and the league becomes a huge success.

The acting is absolutely superb, we have actors on top of their game, Tom Hanks who delivers the memorable "There's no crying in baseball!" speech. Geena Davis who was a great heroine as the star of the league who just wants her husband home from the war but is hanging onto the league for her little sister's sake. Even Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell are great together and have awesome chemistry as best friends Mae and Doris. This is one of those chick flicks that everyone has to see because it worked on every level. Penny Marshall truly brought out the pain these girls had to go through to be taken seriously. The ending always gets me in tears I have to admit, just knowing that these girls hung in there and stayed strong when everyone told them that girls couldn't play ball, let's hope that one day they'll have the opportunity again.

10/10