The Natural: Director's Cut
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Movie Reviews of The Natural: Director's Cut
Movie Review: Maybe the best baseball movie of all time - but there's one glaring flaw
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's get this out of the way: I LOVE this movie. It's one of the best, if not the best, baseball movies ever made. The sports action is believable, Hobbs (Redford) is an incredible character, and the musical score is phenomenal. Hobbs is, indeed, the natural. He can hit the ball so far and hard that the cover has no choice but to fly off, and an entire electrical system in a stadium is destroyed with a well-placed 750-foot homerun - surge protectors and transformer boxes be damned! Simply incredible, awe-inspiring, and it's a requirement for any fan of sports movies.
As a kid, he was essentially a combination of Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez from The Sandlot and Kelly Leek from The Bad News Bears, except for the fact that he caught better, hit harder, and ran faster than either of the others, and didn't have the smoking habit or the girly hair. The man was made for baseball; he's been a superstar his entire life, the big man on campus. Then he got shot by that evil black-widow, wench Barbara Hershey for absolutely no reason (she should have shot Glenn Close).
Then he takes a ten year layoff with a bullet in his abdomen, and he's still a BAMF sporting an average over .500 and roughly one home run every three at bats! There is simply no comparison to how awesome he was/is. He would have hit the ball right through Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn's chest if he were on Major League (Wild Thing Edition). He would have made Kevin Costner retire before he even met Kelly Preston on For Love of the Game. He would have made Henry Rowengartner from Rookie of the Year pee himself. He would have made Jim Morris from The Rookie (Widescreen Edition) look so bad all the kids from the high school team would have quit and tried out for football. Deniro would have demanded a pay raise for Hobbs if he were in The Fan. The Angels would have just shrugged their shoulders at those two kids in Angels in the Outfield and watched the homerun sail over the fence as the Angels lost. And Hobbs would have simply murdered the entire cast of Fever Pitch (Widescreen Edition) if he were anywhere near that abomination. With all of that said, with Hobbs' legendary status confirmed, with hordes of women no doubt swooning over his rock star status, how am I supposed to believe he would find Glenn Close attractive?
Other than that, I love the movie, and I feel it's nearly perfect. It's not only one of the best baseball movies ever, it's one of the best movies ever.
Movie Review: "I believe we have two lives..."
Summary: 5 Stars
...and so does The Natural. I've become a fan all over again.
NOTE: This review concerns the 2007 two-disc DVD director's cut.
I loved the orginal version of the 1984 baseball film classic, but IMO director Barry Levinson's reworking of his own film has improved it. In his brief video introduction to this edition, he explains why he dared to tamper with success.
Levinson's recutting of the opening sequence, utilizing flashbacks with some previously unseen footage, now provides more background and motivation for Roy Hobbs' belated return to the game he excelled at in his youth. Other bits added throughout the picture have enhanced every principal actor's character and performance. It's amazing how just one added look, move or scene can change an opinion, illuminate a detail or explain something important. Another reviewer here noted that the music has been edited to be less obtrusive and declaritive; I listened closely and agree that was a good move. Thus, the new version is truer to Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel, which had a darker post-WWII point of view, but it's still the same awesomely inspiring sports film classic we fell in love with -- just a tad more realistic.
Technically speaking, this DVD hits a homer. A high-def digital transfer was made from the original print; images are clean and sharp. This has improved the detail and look of some dingy and muddy-looking scenes, like those in the Judge's darkened office. Also, the sound track has been upgraded to Dolby Digital 5:1. Now the bats crrRACK! and the crowds ROAR! Randy Newman's anthem-like theme gets the rock-star treatment it deserves and right when it should.
Other reasons to get this version include these featurettes on Disc Two:
When Lightning Strikes: Creating The Natural
Clubhouse Conversations
A Natural Gunned Down: The Stalking of Eddie Waitkus
Knights In Shining Armor: The Mythology of The Natural
Extra Innings
Heart of The Natural
Of these features, to me the best is "Clubhouse" which highlights Cal Ripkin, Jr.'s seasoned take (among others) on baseball as it can and should be played: with integrity. That was the lesson of Roy Hobbs' story. IMO The Natural and this documentary should be required viewing for every player every year, from Little League on up to the pros. Too many athletes are seduced by the siren calls of celebrity, money, sex and drugs; they forget about the only thing that really matters in the end.
For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the game.
-- Grantland Rice (1880-1954), Tennessee-born sportswriter
UPDATE 20 January 2011: Just got the Blu-ray version of this. If possible, even better than before.
Movie Review: One of the Greatest Movies ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
Just about everything positive that could be written about this film has, so I shall keep this one short. I saw the NATURAL when it was new & thought then, as I still do, that this is one of the finest movies ever made. The acting, cinematography, script, sets, wardrobe, editing and scoring are near or at perfection. Like fine art, this production even gets better with repeat viewings. In the early 1920s, a young aspiring baseball player is cut down by a creepy and mysterious female assassin who stalks and murders gifted athletes. Although our hero Roy HOBBS, (played by Robert REDFORD), survives, his recovery is insufficient to permit him to pursue his big league dreams. Following sixteen bitter years, he finds the courage and confidence to return to the game and claim his spot in sports history. During this course he faces his personal demons and discovers that he longs for home and the woman from his past that he still loves. Of interest to all who love a good movie with a strong moral base, this is one of those rare films that is practically all things to all people, as it is not only a moving drama but it has a magical charm that draws the viewer in. Indeed, Roy HOBBS' skill was near "magical" and the scenes involving the "Black Widow" and her silver bullet as well as the virtuous moral code that the film espoused, elevate this entry into a class all of its own. The NATURAL is so good, that it is one of the few films that both "chicks" and guys can watch together and enjoy. It also contains what is perhaps the most heart warming ending to a film that I have ever seen. This should be mandatory viewing (and study) in all film school courses. On a final note, I have seen both versions and believe that the Director's cut was not necessary. If you become a rabid fan the additional details that the Director's cut has, adds to the story, though some of the "flow" is lost due to lulls in the soundtrack. This is Hollywood at its golden best and it leaves all other sports movies in the dust. Five out of five stars. This Gold Standard is most highly recommended!Movie Review: Mythical work on baseball
Summary: 5 Stars
This ain't the Malamud novel put on screen. Yet this movie is very effective in its own right. While inspired by the book (many scenes are pretty much out of the book), there is a very different sensibility. The book is a kind of morality tale, with a dark view of the human condition. The movie, after an elegaic beginning, also gets dark--but then ends with a dramatic moment and a touching, affecting close.
There are mythical moments in the movie that are most catching--the lightning bolt and the cover coming off the baseball, breaking the clock at the stadium, the climactic closing baseball moment in the film.
Roy Hobbs, though, isn't superhuman, although he is less prone to human foibles than his namesake in the novel. He is human and very talented. His life went haywire when he went to try out for a major league team early in his life(with a contract in his pocket). A meeting with a mysterious woman derailed his baseball career for many years.
He comes back in his 30s and has a brief moment of glory, suggesting what could have been if things had worked out differently.
Thus stated, this sounds like a sad movie. But the ending, bringing a family back together after a dramatic moment in the playoffs, provides an upbeat ending, testifying to the possibilities that our hopes can be realized.
Robert Redford's acting style plays well in this movie. Glenn Close provides an affecting counterpoint to Kim Basinger's Memo Paris and Barbara Hershey's mysterious woman. Darren McGavin is wonderful as the gambler and Robert Duvall as Max Mercy, the sports writer. Wilford Brimley is terrific as the gruff old manager. Good acting; nice special effects; wonderful cinematography by Caleb Deschanel.
I know, it's a baseball movie. But it remains powerful for me after too many viewings.
Movie Review: 25 Years Of Pleasure
Summary: 5 Stars
To say that I am a fan of this movie would be an understatement. I was in Buffalo while they were filming it, but had no clue about the book as, even as a hard core baseball fan and baseball book fan, I had never read it.
I did read it after I saw the movie when it came out in 1984 and I am glad that the ending of the book was changed. The overall tone of the movie would not lead you to believe that Roy Hobbs would do nothing less than what he did in the movie.
I have watched all different versions of this movie over the past quarter century and have watched in at least 40 times over the years and I love the movie more and more each time I see it.
There are only a couple things I would quibble about and, believe it or not they are all in the game AFTER Glen Close stands up. If you listen to the commentary by the play by play broadcaster in the game (Levinson forced into extra duty), the Knights are playing in Chicago but are batting in the bottom of the inning for each home run.
Totally minor and insignificant in the total package.
The Director's cut with a the added scenes and reconstructed opening sequence is wonderful. I love both versions, but the new version makes so much sense and fills in a few gaps.
I know that the reviews of the movie were mixed, but, like It's A Wonderful Life, "The Natural" has gotten better and better with age.
One final word, in my opionion, Randy Newman's score is the best movie score to grace a film. The Natural without Newman would be un-natural.
Jim Pertierra
6/21/2009