Une équipe hors du commun

"A League of Their Own" tells a story that is rarely discussed in historical circles. The country is immersed in World War II and it is up to the women to keep professional baseball going. The film follows the sometimes rocky relationship between two sisters (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) who go from a small town in the midwest to the major leagues. Tom Hanks does outstanding work as the former player who now manages their team. Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell are among the other girls on the team who keep Hanks on his toes. Penny Marshall's direction is very solid here and she tells the story with a dignified style and grace that works well on the silver screen. A very good comedy-drama from the early-1990s. 4 stars out of 5.

I love this film! Seeing Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna in one film is fantastic. Having it directed by Penny Marshall makes it all the better. After I watched it, for some strange reason I felt I'd watched an extended episode of "Laverne & Shirley" but this is great for the comedy!

Tom Hanks was magnificent with all the comic touches that endear him to so many of us.

The older version of Dottie at the beginning and ending of the story is NOT Geena Davis made up to look older - neither are any of the other ladies! An excellent casting decision was made to have older actresses play these parts - Lynn Cartright was chosen to play Dottie (Geena Davis) in her late 60's and she was a dead-ringer for Geena!

Watch for Tea Leoni (as Racine Belles 1st-base player), Eddie Mekka (Carmine on "Laverne & Shirley" - he dances with Madonna!) and David L. Lander (Squiggy from "L & S" - radio announcer.)

Brings a tear to my eye no matter how many times I watch it - right up there with FIELD OF DREAMS!

For the person who said that the movie was good up until the reunion scene, you really need to go rent it and think that comment over, buddy. The reunion scene is what ties it all together! It shows you what happens to all the characters! I think that scene was one of the most adorable! And the casting! The women who played Kit and Dottie's part as older women were fantastic! They looked exactly like them! Every time I watch it with someone who has never seen it, they exclaim, "What good makeup work they've done!", thinking that they just made up Geena Davis and Lori Petty. For whichever person it was who said it dealt too much with the rivalry between sisters and not enough on the league, that was the whole point! That's the plot, that's everything about the movie. If they had focused entirely on the league, not only would it not hit the theatres and wind up being some stupid special on A&E, but nobody would watch it even then! True, to the women who lived it all, it was exciting, but unless you make it into a movie that good, nobody's going to end up caring. Children who saw A League of their Own learned about women in baseball and saw the beginning of females playing sports. Do you think more than about 3 kids in America would know ANYTHING about how women's baseball started if it had just been a boring documentary on the History Channel? I don't think so. To conclude this long-winded speech about why you two who commented negatively should go rent the movie again, I give it two very enthusiastic thumbs-up! I know I rented that movie a 14 year-old girl who figured girls had been allowed to play sports since Jesus was alive and after watching it, knew entirely better. One of the most fabulous movies and might I add - My favorite actress/director, Penny Marshall did a WONDERFUL job on it. And just a note: Keep an eye out for Penny's new movie, Riding in Cars With Boys. It's sure to be a good one, overlook the title, anyone who liked League will like this one, I guarantee!

Like most Englishmen, I know about as much about baseball as the average American knows about cricket. I am also not a great fan of sporting films in general, although there are a number of exceptions. Despite this, however, I generally love baseball films, of which there were a number of good examples in the late eighties and early nineties. ('Eight Men Out', 'Field of Dreams' and 'The Natural' all spring to mind). There is something about the sport that seems to lend itself to the cinema; perhaps British filmmakers should consider making a film about cricket, as the two sports have a lot in common.

During the Second World War many of America's male baseball stars were drafted into the forces, and it appeared that the nation might be deprived of its favourite sport. An entrepreneur therefore had the idea of creating an all-female baseball league. 'A League of their Own' tells the story of some of the women who played in that league.

At the centre of the drama is the rivalry between two sisters, Dottie and Kit, who sign for the same team, the Rockford Peaches. The sisters have contrasting characters. Dottie is the more talented player, but Kit is more aggressive and determined to succeed. Kit's aggression and the sibling rivalry between her and Dottie lead to dissension in the team's dressing room, and Kit is traded to a rival team, the Racine Belles. The climax of the film comes when Rockford and Racine meet in the finals of the league championship, with Kit and Dottie on opposite teams.

The film has some interesting observations about the social values of the era in which it is set. During this period there was a conflict between traditional views of femininity and the need, caused by wartime conditions, for women to take on what had historically been masculine roles. Before the war, there had been only very limited opportunities for women in professional sport; most sports, such as tennis and athletics, in which women were permitted to compete were strictly amateur. During the war, they were allowed to take part, but were still expected to conform to the ideal of being 'ladylike'. In the film, players are selected as much for their sex appeal as for their talent (Ernie Capadino, the cynical, sexist talent scout, wants to leave one player out of the team because he considers her insufficiently glamorous) and they are required to attend a 'charm school' and to conform to a strict code of sexual morality. Dottie and Kit can be seen as representing the two sides of this conflict. For all her talent, Dottie's heart is not really in professional baseball, and her real wish is to return to her old life as a housewife as soon as her husband returns from the war. Kit, on the other hand, is single, and sees the game as a way of escaping from her previously dull existence.

Although Geena Davis was quite good as Dottie, the two best performances came from two actors I had not previously heard of, Jon Lovitz in the cameo role of Ernie Capadino, and Lori Petty as Kit, who brought out the fierce determination and will to win of her character. I am surprised that she has not gone on to become a bigger star than she has. It was interesting to see Madonna (normally found in starring roles) in a supporting role as Mae, one of the Peaches who rebels against the strict moral code.

Tom Hanks stars as Jimmy Dugan, the coach of the Rockford Peaches, in a role created largely because the filmmakers felt that they needed a big male star. Dugan was himself a famous baseball player in his time, but his career was wrecked by his heavy drinking. At the beginning of the film, Dugan is played as a figure of fun, making blunders such as urinating in front of the women, but being too drunk to notice or to care. Later on, Dugan sobers up and develops into a mixture of inspirational coach and dispenser of homespun philosophy along the lines of 'There's no crying in baseball'. At neither stage, however, does the film bring out the genuinely tragic aspects of Dugan's fall from grace as a great, or potentially great, athlete ruined by alcoholism. (One can think of modern parallels such as George Best or Diego Maradona). The actor may be at fault here; during the early part of his career Hanks always seemed a limited actor, convincing in 'Mr Nice Guy' roles but unable to portray more unsympathetic characters. ('Bonfire of the Vanities' being another example).

There were one or two other things about the film that I did not like. I felt we should have seen more of Kit between her transfer to Racine and her reappearance in the finals. The opening and closing scenes, showing a reunion of the surviving players more than forty years later, did not add much to the story. (They did, however, correct the misleading impression given in the rest of the film that women's professional baseball came to an end with the war; in fact, it survived until 1954). Overall, however, this was an entertaining film, well worth watching. 7/10.

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