Cobb

I remember that I said that Tommy Lee Jones could walk on the moon and wouldn't even need a spacesuit. This man is an incredible actor. He deserved the Oscar that he won for playing Lieutenant Gerard in The Fugitive. He played a tough guy with a heart of gold and was wonderful. In this film, however, he plays a very different role. EVERYONE HATED THIS BASEBALL LEGEND AND HE LOVED IT!!!That was the ad that accompanied this film. Ty Cobb may have been the greatest baseball player that ever lived. Even today, he has set records that other players have not passed. However, was he really a hero? I think that it is very interesting that this film came out about the same time that the O. J. Simpson case was grabbing the headlines because it brought into our collective minds the question. WHAT MAKES A HERO? Ty Cobb was a vicious bigot, he was a wife and a child beater and he murdered a man in cold blood. Someone said once that he was the most terrifying figure that you would ever encounter in a biography except for Adolf Hitler and some comparisons favor Hitler! They said that he makes Vince Lombardi look wishy washy! Tommy Lee Jones is excellent in portraying Cobb's egotism and cruelty but at the same time he makes you feel sorry for him. Cobb's father had been shot and killed when he was a young man (a classic Frued situation). However, it makes me think that Cobb was just a bad seed to begin with. Robert Wuhl plays Al Stump as an ignorant fool who finally just gives in and tells his friends that Cobb was a great man "know ye that a prince and a great man has fallen". He says that it wasn't because the kids of America needed heroes or some other nonsense it was because in the very end that I needed him to be a hero and I plead guilty because that is my weakness.

I normally would have absolutely no interest in seeing a Baseball movie. But this is no normal Baseball movie. This is a movie with Tommy Lee Jones in it. He portrays a vicious, nasty, evil, abusive, racist, violent, rage-filled man. And his fans know, Tommy Lee Jones does this type of man as no other can. Although he is perhaps too young for the role, he was unfairly absent from the Oscar ballot that year. He made me laugh during his insane moments (of which there were many), he scared me during a particular brutal moment, and he made me cry during his weak moments. Side-kick Robert Wuhl seems a bit toady, but you eventually realize he loves Cobb <Jones as Cobb, at least> as much as you do. This is a wonderful movie. Worth renting, absolutely. For those of you whom doubt Tommy Lee Jones ability, rent Cobb, The Fugitive, and Heaven and Earth or Men in Black. This man is fantastic; he makes Cobb great.

First things first, this movie is based off of a book written by Al Stump, who is played by Robert Wuhl in the film. Al Stump in recent years has proved to be a liar and a forger so sports historians are calling into question a great deal of his supposed insight into Ty Cobb. In other words, in all likelihood Mr. Stump exaggerated or outright made up most of his allegations against Cobb to sell books. That isn't to say Ty Cobb was a prince of a human being because there's enough contemporary evidence to show that he wasn't. But some of the most vile things that have been said about him can be traced to Stump's writing. So take the things this movie has to say with a huge grain of salt.

Another black mark against the film is that it has very little actual baseball in it. This movie doesn't care about Cobb the baseball giant. It only cares about Cobb the asshole. To include one side of the man without the other is a pointless exercise in self-righteousness. Why is a biography of Ty Cobb even necessary without his baseball accomplishments? Because he was a racist and a bully? There are millions of those, past and present, who aren't getting movies made about them. It just defies reason. Cobb was one of the greatest (and dirtiest) baseball players ever. Going by this movie, however, you would think he was just some crotchety old man who shared wacky adventures with a sports reporter.

Tommy Lee Jones was too old to play this role, as is especially evident in the flashbacks to when Cobb was younger. He plays Cobb as a silly cantankerous cartoon of a man. Every bit as over the top as his performance of Two Face in Batman Forever. Let that sink in for a minute. Robert Wuhl plays himself as he always does. The movie is entertaining in spots. The comedic parts work better than the dramatic. I can't really recommend it because the bad outweighs the good and, personally, knowing about Stump leaves a bad taste in my mouth over the whole thing.

I read about Ty Cobb in a baseball book when I was a kid, and while it was only a short bio it did manage to touch on many of the infamous incidents he was involved in along with his spectacular statistics. So when I heard a movie was going to be made with Tommy Lee Jones in the title role, I expected the worst and hoped for the best. The result is somewhere in the middle. I had always wondered if Cobb ever changed much in his old age, or ever had any regret over the way he treated people in the past. If he did, it didn't make it into this movie. Jones' portrayal is angry, belligerent, and over the top, and comes off as a man who has done nothing but make enemies his entire life, and intends to die as he lived, because to do anything otherwise - to show even a shred of remorse, would be admitting he had been wrong. It's something of a sensual overload to watch, is certainly not a movie to take a first date to see. But I was captivated by the rage on the screen, and watching very carefully for any cracks to appear. And the movie's biographer, Al Stump, is also looking to find a chink in the Cobb's armor, and Cobb knows it and exposes that fact as well. But the telling moment comes when this symbiotic pair suddenly reverse roles. Stump has been doing his best to stick with Cobb and keep him out of trouble through most of the film to this point. But then a process server knocks on the door of their motel with a divorce summons for Stump. A very drunk Stump then brandishes Cobb's ever-present Luger and threatens to kill the process server... and it's Ty Cobb who plays the sane one, and calms down the situation. It's a very telling moment in a film that otherwise fails to explain the man as the bastard, all the while depicting him with a savage intensity. As to the accuracy... I never met Ty Cobb, and I doubt anyone reviewing this film ever did, nor did Tommy Lee Jones I'm sure. So the real mystery of Ty Cobb died with him, as I'm sure was his intent... was it all an act? Or was the man truly psychotic? That mystery is left more or less untouched by this film, which I can recommend for anyone who has ever known anger, felt it, or been subjugated to it - but if you are prone to flashbacks of "Daddy Dearest", or you just aren't comfortable with harsh, angry, domineering behavior onscreen or otherwise, it's best avoided.

If this movie exaggerates the nastiness of Ty Cobb, his descendants could sue. Then again if the movie is accurate, his descendants clearly despise him as much as anyone else. The weirdly symbiotic relationship between Cobb and his hapless biographer Aaron Stump is engrossing to watch, but it is Tommy Lee Jones' performance that makes the movie. The performance borders on chewing up the scenery, but it's mesmerizing.