Um Homem Fora de Série

Whenever "The Natural" is on TV, I stop what I'm doing and watch it. I don't know why, exactly. I have been a baseball fan since I was a little kid and love the tradition. There is no other sport that has as much history. It's because one can isolate moments in time. Situations develop. Every announcer says things like, "Bottom of the third, men on first and third, Turley on the mound, Simpson is up, he's two for four today. The wind is blowing out to right field, etc." We can make words visual. In this wonderful movie, a man wants a piece of that tradition. He makes a horrible mistake along the way to the big leagues, and now is given one last chance. This is mythical. This is not realistic. To criticize it on the basis of its credibility is unfair. Even to compare it to the book is unfair. They are totally different. What one does with a camera should not be compared to the printed page. Malamud did his thing and now Barry Levinson is doing his. The cinematography is without peer. It is magical all the way through. The lighting as Glenn Close stands up in the stands is mesmerizing. This is more Greek myth than baseball story, but it is a baseball story, with the Ruth like gods and the day-to-day players. Roy Hobbs is like all of us in some ways and we love him for his endurance, patience, and drive. Redford brings him to life with that rugged face moving away from lost youth. It's a fine film.

My son and I have watched this movie twice together. I can't think of any other movie we have watched twice--together. I'm 60 and my son is 26. There is the element of magic, of fairy-tale, of other-worldliness; there is the element of the naturalness, the character of Robert Redford; there is the element of baseball, the great sport-love of millions of boys in North America--and me back in the 1950s when I was growing up and dreamed of going to the majors; there's a touch of the sexual with Kim Basinger and Barbara Hershey----one could go on listing the pluses that this movie brings to the viewers. But I think what makes the movie in the end is the magic of Roy Hobbs as he hits a baseball further and harder than anyone ever has or(probably) ever will. Hobbs is the quintessence of the baseball hero and for sports lovers that's their religion. Hobbs is like Jesus come down to earth in the form of a baseball player, yet with sins of omission and commission. So, he's human and a superhero all at once.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It seems like the very embodiment of the Hollywood cliche - a noble hero overcoming difficulty to achieve his dream...but somehow, The Natural manages to pull it off in a very un-glamorized way. Take the hero - he's 35 years old! It just seems refreshing not to always have a dashing young fellow of twenty as the main character. And then - an ulcerated stomach? What kind of an obstacle is that? Not a Hollywood one, I'll tell you that. This hero is actually believable - and Robert Redford plays him handsomely. He makes Roy Hobbs a real person, and a gentleman. I recommend The Natural for any Robert Redford fan, baseball fan - and anyone who just wants to see a neat, entertaining movie with a main character you can really root for.

One of my all time favorites. Everything about this movie appears authentic. From the time period, to the baseball scenes. These guys really look like a baseball team.

Redford is low-key and stoic, but he hits just the right note for the character. Everybody else, especially Robert Duvall and Wilford Brimley, are fantastic.

A touching story, without being hokey. You get the feeling you are watching something mystical and magical along with all the characters in the movie, and it is played with just the right note.

Thrilling and inspiring. A well-made, well-acted film.

This is another one that I recently re-watched on cable. I must upgrade my collection to include the DVD. Of course, there are reviews which will attack its sentimentality; get over it!! It amazes me that so many film goers can't view a movie with a positive and sophisticated charm without rolling their eyes or sticking their finger down their throat. (As if we don't have enough coarse, angry, 'edgy' films in release already.) I don't mind Redford's Joe Hardy-like ability one bit, because success- for all of his skill and talent- still doesn't come to him easily. He must suffer a physical tragedy, be elusive with his greedy contemporaries, and finally deal with the past, which he spends the entire movie trying to hide. The one nitpick I have with the whole film was the painfully obvious soft-focus photography used to disguise Redford's age. It isn't so bad in the first reel when he's supposed to be a teenager (and the camera shoots him in silhouette and at length), but later, when he's supposed to be between 36 and, say 40, he just *isn't*. Glenn Close is radiant as his love from childhood, and shines in a memorable scene when they are first reunited at one of his games. After he goes into a foreshadowed slump, it is the arrival of Close (angelically back lit, and whose presence he senses even before seeing her) that brings him back to winning. Singularly gorgeous.