User reviews

Not being a golfer or a fan of biographies of sportsmen, this viewer found a surprising amount of satisfaction in this recreation of the life of Bobby Jones, whose fame in the game of golf is legendary. So the question arises: "How can a film about golf maintain such a viewer's attention and appreciation?" The answer lies in the physical production of this beautiful little film. Capturing the essence of the world in the 1920s and 1930s not only in costuming and manners and atmosphere but in sociologic and philosophic vantages, Director Rowdy Herrington has ably explored the life and times of the reluctant hero in a way that exhumes a period in history when everyone needed something to believe in. Actors Jim Caviezel, Malcolm McDowell, Jeremy Northam, and Claire Forlani not only look their parts: their demeanor before the camera absorbs the state of mind of America lapsing from the riotous 20s to the massive depression of the 30s.

Bobby Jones physical problems, both self induced and genetic, are explored with just enough veracity to make him more of a well-rounded character than a cardboard saint (we don't learn the name of his neurological disorder - syringomyelia - until the final credits). His struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds to move through every golfing challenge of his day and succeed beyond the realm of possibility is well captured in Caviezel's delicately nuanced performance.

Not a great movie, but certainly worth more attention than it received in the theaters. You don't need to be a golfer to appreciate the beauty of this little moment of nostalgia. Grady Harp

Golfers will love this film about one of the greatest golfers of all time. I say one of the greatest because it is hard to say that any one golfer was the greatest given the changing conditions, the degree if competition, and the changes in equipment. While Jones undoubtedly was the best of his generation, arguments can be made that Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus were the greatest of their generations and that Tiger Woods is the greatest of the present generation.

From a historical standpoint, this movie is very accurate and a great deal of attention was paid to every detail. As to authenticity of the sets and costumes this movie is the best I have seen in years. All too often movies take shortcuts which infringe on their authenticity. Even the uniforms worn by the Marines in this picture are authentic replicas of the uniforms worn by Marines in the early '30s down to the ribbons.

The film does have some shortcomings though. Ihe acting is not that great and the story gets a little hammy at times but the reality still shows through. Much too much is made of the reporter from the Atlanta Journal who is used as a foil. While the Journal did follow Jones closely, it wasn't nearly as close as depicted in the film. But the story brings out the humanness of Jones quite well, better than does the usually told legends.

My dad loved golf, and I wish I did. Unfortunately, I'm like my mom--as unathletic as you can get. But I enjoyed this film about the greatest amateur golfer who ever lived.

Bobby Jones didn't do it for the money. Isn't that an anachronism in this sports-crazed age of million dollar salaries! Bobby's record as the only golfer to win the big three of golf tournaments still stands. He walked away from it after this accomplishment to devote his life to his family.

I really like this movie. It portrayed a time when values meant something. Jim Caviezel does a great job as do the rest of the cast. The guy who plays Jones' arch rival, Walter Kagan almost steals the movie.

We saw this movie last night on its opening night for the public. It was a good movie about a man who loved to play golf, and over his lifetime transformed himself into a man of integrity, perseverance, and great intelligence. He knew what was really important in his life and he made a plan that allowed him to fulfill his destiny in golf and in his personal life. He was the best golf player in the world, but he was also an awesome man personally. One of his greatest accomplishments was bringing his father and grandfather together, healing a life-long rift.

The movie was well done. It was both entertaining and enlightening. It definitely kept our interest for the whole two hours. We felt his sense of life-long struggle, that life was never easy for him, and we celebrated his accomplishments, both on and off the golf course. The actors did a wonderful job, especially Jim Caviezel as Bobby and Malcolm McDowell as OB Keilor, the newspaper reporter who wrote about Bobby's career from the very beginning. Jeremy Northam also had a good supporting role as Walter Hagen.

We'd recommend that you see this movie; you don't have to love golf to enjoy it (but if you do, you'll enjoy it all the more). It's worth seeing in the movie theater.

Good movie!, shows the beautiful of the golf game and the life of a true gentlemen and a legend! In this movie you can feel the beauty of golf, a game of masters, that involve the society of the 1920's, 30's and 40's trough the life of a legend, Bobby Jones (Caviezel), the only golf player that has ever won the grand slam (the four biggest tournaments in the same year), and the one that designed and started the Augusta National, home of the Masters!.

But the more important things, is that you'll be close to the good and bad events in Bobby's life, his bad temper, his values and his life as a son, husband father and player. You can really feel the very human side of Jones noble character; you'll also see great acting roles of Claire Forlani as his wife Mari Malone, Jeremy Northam as his rival and friend Walter Hagen, Malcolm McDowell, as loyal friend O.B. Keeler.

Enjoy this good film with really good golf (i'm not a golf fan, but i loved the way the game is shown here)

I did not know anything about Bobby Jones before watching this, and it is the first of the director's films I've seen, as well. Once you forgive the terribly cringe-inducing pun in the title, you may find that the writing is actually quite good. The plot is interesting, its thematic well-presented, and the characters credible and consistent. There is an appropriate amount of humor in this, and it's pretty funny. Particularly that line about "I checked the law; you don't have to go". The acting is marvelous, with Caviezel and McDowell shining as usual. Every performance is solid, even the children are rather convincing and in general, tolerable(which is sadly not always a given, even when they're not meant to be annoying). The cinematography and editing are nicely done. Dialog is great, and well-delivered. The "moral" is predictable, completely black and white, and has little to offer, though it remains a positive thing to promote. There is infrequent, moderately strong language in this, and nothing else objectionable, apart from some potentially disturbing content. I recommend this to fans of those involved, the man who is the subject of it, and/or golf. 7/10

A nice, indeed refreshing departure--along the lines of Sea Biscuit, Radio, and Chariots of Fire--from today's largely vacuous movie fare. The generational interplay between grandfather, father, and son together with the undergirding theme that there are things more important than championships, combine to make this a fine film.

This film is not for those whose entertainment tastes demand sex, gratuitous violence, or fast paced action. On the other hand, if you are tired of that type entertainment and enjoyed the above mentioned films, or Master and Commander, you should find this a very worthwhile picture. Unfortunately, it was not well-attended the day I saw it, though I did attend a matinee.

Bobby Jones' life was amazing and this movie missed a great opportunity to tell all. This movie is very slow. The acting is good, but the direction is boring. There could've been more suspense when Jones went for the Grand Slam. The movie only covers Jones from age 6 to 28. It would've been cool if the movie showed how Jones revolutionized golf instruction and equipment production after his retirement at age 28, how Augusta National was formed, and how the Masters was started. Give me birth to death not 6 to 28. This movie should have been promoted better too. It grossed less than $3 million and costed $17. Sad. It should've been called "Bobby Jones: Grand Slam" so people wouldn't think the titled was ripped off. With Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Martin Scorsese directing it (much like the Aviator), this would have been awesome.

If you are a golfer and your eyes don't well up when this movie starts you have no business in watching the rest of the movie. For the rest of you, this true story will give you a glimpse of one of the best, if not the best, golfers and truest gentlemen the golf world has ever known.

The story, acting, dialog, cinematography were all first class. Some good music was even put in from time to time. All that aside this is a moment in a life that we feel is more important than all that. Even if the story, acting, dialog and cinematography weren't up to par, it would not have mattered much because we learned about the man who lived and played in another zone than the rest of us. But, that is a moot point because everything here was up to par.

For years whenever we watched the Masters Golf Tournament we heard the name Bobby Jones and the announcers would list some of his accomplishments, however, this never really told us about the man himself. Well, this movie does. Okay, some things in it may seem sappy, corny, and not real, but in those days that is the way things were. Those were days when respect for everything meant everything, was everything; and people moved on from that standard.

In some ways the movie makes Bobby Jones out to be more human although we held him above that station. Yes, he had a temper when he hit a bad shot, but learned to control it. Yes, he had some medical problems that we never really knew about. Yes, he seemed somewhat selfish running from tournament to tournament at the expense of his family, but the pressures on him were really great. And, his family always stood by him. He accomplished what he wanted to accomplish at a young age, and then quit tournament golf to be more with his family. Later he founded Augusta National Golf Course where the Masters is played each year.

James Caviezel was probably the best person to play the role of Bobby Jones and his performance made Bobby Jones more real for me and this will always stay with me. It is probably too much to hope that the age of respect will once again come around, but to those who see this movie that standard will be remembered at least on the golf course. Anyway, this movie is a real special treat.

I admit that I have a bit of a weakness for movies about golf. Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup, even Bagger Vance merited a watching on HBO for me. So I was probably a little more generous in my appreciation of Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius than some (most) people would be.

But I liked it. I don't think by any standards that it was a 'great' film, not one to be remembered most likely except by Jones fans, or by golf fans in general, and at times it does sort of fall into a zone of made-for-TV-movie mode, but it's heartfelt and well acted by Jim Caviezel.

It's safe to say that if you don't like golf, you won't like this movie. But if you DO like golf, you'll have a great time.

The first 20 minutes are slow, there is little plot and the acting is something out of a high school play. You're better off watching a documentary or ESPN Sportscentury profile. And if you are a golf fan, other than the fact you get to see some nice courses, you can't even fall back on the golf. Every putt is a 20-footer in the cup. There's no explanation about what made Jones a great pro. Was it his swing? His course management? His putting? You don't get any insight. There's no explanation about who the famous golfers are he's going up against. Someone without any golf knowledge will struggle with the subject material. There's no talk about why the two amateurs and Opens are the four 'majors' and different than they are today. And since this is basically almost a biography with little plot, it fails on even that account. However, it is a nice looking film - which saves it from being rated even lower.

I'm not a golfer and if I'd known this was a "golf movie" I probably would have stayed home. I knew Jones was a famous golfer but this film transcended golf--and for an independent film it had a real Chariots of Fire kind of spirit to it! This elegant, classically told and beautifully photographed homage to the Jones legacy is not only entertaining but there's some great truths contained in the dialogue. (They'll forgive you for losing but not for quitting). I attended a sneak advance screening of the film. The whole theme of the evening was a `life well lived' and was very inspiring. The more I've (now) read about Jones the more I appreciate this film about a humble guy whose integrity, sportsmanship and refusal to play for money made him a role model for the ages. It's not surprising I guess, to see that some critics seem to have it out for Caviezel who is very understated but excellent in this well-acted film. I think he's our next Gary Cooper. Or maybe Jimmy Stewart (as anyone could tell who's heard him speak). More films like this! Keep up the good work.

There is a difficult paradox that the seeing of this film provides for and that is that there is need for at least another showing or viewing and perhaps even more.Why more than once?I don't know absolutely however the film I felt in its attempt to place the life of this true gentlemen in Bobby Jones was not able to be the communicator Bobby Jones was and even more so the real man was in fact quite a hero both on the Links and otherwise.It is not such a simple task to allow for a value that superseeds a bottom line idealogical premise and as it is not so simple it is as well not that way at all anyway.The truth is that there is no justice in this film that is worth the life and times of Bobby Jones and though there is an attempt to sell this film as the life of Bobby Jones,it seems to me more like a passing motorcade in which an opportunity presented itself and indeed it is in the name of an opportunity that this film was entered into.There is a quality of the timeless and the everlasting that that degree of man represent and indeed the Grand Father was aghast at the playing of Golf on the sabbath.Part of the failure of this film was the films pretense to eclipsing time as it tried to tell the story of Robert Jones.It is much more of a task to know better than to be made fools of when all we as viewers do is say ooh and ahh.This film much to my surprise is something of a failure with an emphasis on the inability to know the world in which we live in and to know the very life and man in which this film entered into when it was decided to make a story called Bobby Jones-A Stroke of Pure Genius.There is a lack of imagination that from time to time render the film something of a Hollywood wannabe rather than the real thing.It is this lack of imagination that provides for the story telling ability and it is this lack of imagination that earmark this film as an opportunity that tried to time it right.It might be further argued that the money men who bank rolled this endeavour were looking to cash in on the time is right.This is that weak and it is as well not entirely without merit so compelling is the story of Bobby Jones that even a weak willed deal like this still is in fact interesting.Bobby Jones is that much the man that even a Hollywood hatchet job could not deny Bobby Jones his place as one of Golfing greatest players though his life story is made thread bare in the movie.Bobby Jones deserves better though I may very well find myself watching this DVD another day with emphasis on another day it is not unlikable and perhaps however mediocre it may very well be worth watching again.

Went to see the movie Monday night at a special screening at the George Eastman House. The cinematography was very good (8 out of 10), along with the sets and wardrobe (again 8 out of 10). There was more humor than I expected, especially during the portions that represented Mr. Jones' early life. The acting was better than average, but I don't see an academy award being issued for any of the performances (6 out of 10). If you enjoy golf, history and a good story, then this movie will be right up your ally. If you are just casually interested, then waiting for the rental will be sufficient.

26 June 2013. There are parallel themes on display with both Bobby Jones and the The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), the overt practice of elitism during first part of the 20th century, the vital importance of emotional control in the game of golf as well as the distinction between being a professional golfer who plays for money and an amateur golfer who plays for the love of the game. Along with The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) or the more popularized fictional romance drama Tin Cup (1996), Bobby Jones shares the individual travails and redemption themes. Yet Bobby Jones is somehow weakened though its difficult to ascribe whether to the vastness and epic nature of the real life Bobby Jones that perhaps required a much longer script and movie length or due to the absence of a strong enough script, captivating music, and poor editing that made the movie sequences seemed somewhat disjointed and without sufficient completeness or depth. This real life story as told however is breathtaking in its scope and Bobby Jones real life adds to the substantive material and multitude of plots that almost seemingly are beyond the scope of any one movie. The further overlapping release times and subject matter with The Greatest Game Ever Played are coincidentally interesting themselves with overlapping characters in a similar time period especially with the British legendary golfer Harry Vardon.

Wow, what a nice movie! Beautifully filmed, too.

This is a loving tribute to the American amateur golf legend Bobby Jones but it doesn't sugarcoat his story. Jones is shown with his good and bad sides, especially his horrible temper which he corrected, and his nervous ailments which he was unable to correct and caused an early retirement from the game.

There is a lot of golf footage in here, of tournaments won and lost and battles against famous professional Walter Hagen, who always is pictured in these golf films as an arrogant, flamboyant man. In contrast, Jones' modest character is even more apparent than would normally be noticed.

Anyway, Jim Caveziel is likable as Jones and the two young actors who play the golfer as a kid also do very well. Jones' love interest is appealingly played by Claire Forlani. The two make for a handsome couple.

This is simply a good-natured, feel-good movie that is pleasing to the eyes as well as the heart. If you are a golfer, this a must, but a nice story even if you don't play the game. If you have the DVD, check out the documentaries here. They are quite interesting.

The story is wonderful, the characters are well portrayed, its good, clean, and fairly safe for the whole family. However, golf isn't for everyone and neither is this movie.

Golf fans will find the historic images, grounds of St. Andrews, and the history found in the movie really neat. The colorful characters, such as Stuart Maiden -- portrayed admirably by Alistair Begg -- bring life, and personality to these people of not so ancient history. James Caviezel does a tremendous job, and while the movie drags a bit near the middle--it isn't unbearably long.

Those who aren't golf fans may find the movie long, and tiring. They will appreciate the story, and the great character portrayal -- however, the story is about gold and a golf icon; enough said. This movie is much better than I expected, and golf will find it worth the 2 hours.

I can't believe the reviews above: Bobby Jones, neither the movie or the man, was inspiring or uplifting. The story is about a rich kid who becomes a great golfer. The the attempts to create dramatic tension, overcoming a bad temper, mild disapproval from a grandfather, dispute with his wife, are forced and unconvincing. The man had no great problems in life and the movie makers were unable to create any. Further, we learn nothing about him. He doesn't change. Everybody loves him. This is a relatively dull movie, saved only by some nice photography, the occasion bit of wit and Jeremy Northam's portrayal of Walterr Hagan.

I also found the naive an eliteist attitude about being an "amateur" grating. The reason that Jones, and like-minded people like the Olympic committee for so many years, played up amateurism and locked down their nose at professionals had nothing to do with love of the game. It was snobbery. Only the wealthy could afford to be amateurs. Professional athletes came from lower classes and had to make money, as Walter Hagan explains.

In fact, this would have been a far more interesting movie if it had explored Hagan's background and how he fought his way to the top ranks of golf. He certainly was a far more interesting character than Jones. And Jeremy Northam is a far more interesting actor than Jim Caviezel.

Bobby Jones has the same feel as the many old movie biographies of the 1950s, like the Glenn Miller Story, but it is better written and better acted and certainly the historic artifacts are better, although it is true that everything looks so new! There is no high drama, but one gets a sense of the sheer effort it took for Jones to succeed. Anyone who knew only the bare outlines of his career, and about his background, may have assumed that he was a "natural"to whom the game came easily. The opposite is true and the movies demonstrates, ironically, why amateurs have disappeared from golf. The effort needed to excel is too great except for the most gifted of golfers. Tiger Woods would not be what he is if he had to work at another job for 9 months a year.

But my questions is: what do some people hate morality tales, but especially the ones that are true. Is it inverted snobbery? I think so.

Booby Jones is like The Greatest Game Ever Played a good, likable, and even inspirational sport biopic around golf. Bobby Jones remains one the greatest, if not the greatest golfer of all time. He retired at only 28. With a rousing Braveheart-like score from James Horner, plenty of golf, a couple of good rivalries, and some love interest, if you like sports movies to move you and to be about not just winning but winning with values and heart then this will fit the bill nicely.

This is above all a film for those who enjoy being inspired by movies, you will get the lift and there is a palpable sense of real excitement in the golf in the last 30 minutes.

All in all, a great way to spend 90 minutes, we really liked it; it's a well-made and well thought through film that is one to simply enjoy.

I wanted to like it. I really did. I even tried going back to it more than once...and finally finished it. But it never went anywhere, never said anything...never developed any character and never made golf exciting. Too many 'nevers' to recommend it in anyway to anyone. Don't waste your time. There were lots of opportunities for the script to dig deeper (especially with the excruciatingly slow pace...). Why was he never a pro? Who was his grandfather? Why was his father such a wimp on one hand but strong on the other? And why did a journalist get to be part of his life? What parts were 'real' and what parts were made up? There was a wonderful opportunity to dig deeper (somewhere)...but instead, we end up with rich kid who seems humble enough but lives for 28 years off his parents money playing golf -- a sport that at the time, truly seemed ridiculous. Where's the motivation?