Interesting that I was objecting because it was a baseball movie; turns out three of my favorite films (of which there are hundreds, I must confess) are baseball movies: Field of Dreams, of course, then Bull Durham
Bull Durham is interesting for many reasons. It was the first time I saw Tim Robins, who I have come to think is one of the bigger talents of the last few decades, and who is close to the top of the list of people I want to meet and work with. The next thing I saw him in was Jacob's Ladder
In any case, Field of Dreams is about a man "who never did a crazy thing in his life until he heard The Voice," which tells him to plow a third of his corn field under and build a baseball diamond on it so that Shoeless Joe Jackson (played by Ray Liotta fairly early in his career) can redeem himself from the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal. But, as is often the case where it's used in American stories from Bernard Malamud
Often, there is something intangible that makes a movie work. In the case of Field of Dreams, a lot of its success was due to the passion that everyone who made the film had for the project. They all believed in it and that belief practically glows from the screen. Passion is my favorite word and I am attracted to that kind of passion even when it is directed toward something I am not passionate about.
In Bull Durham, I think, baseball stands in for passion. And it's a very passionate film. It's a very different movie from Field of Dreams, much more lusty, and Costner is again quite good in it. It was where I fell in love with Susan Sarandon and, as I say, where I discovered Tim Robins. (It seems it was where Susan Sarandon discovered him, also, they've been living together ever since.) It makes the distinction between youthful, undisciplined passion, embodied by Robins' character, and that of Costner's, no less lusty, but grown up, matured, partly because of the added element of respect. One of the best speeches Costner has ever delivered on screen is the "what I believe in" speech. What he believes in includes the hanging curve ball, the soul and the small of a woman's back. Every time I watch that film, by the end of that speech, I believe in all those things, also.
Where Field of Dreams finds a powerful emotional core in its gentle examination of family ties and following a dream, Bull Durham is simply a delight from beginning to end. It is delightful to watch this young buck (Robins) be forced to grow up and this slightly over the hill ringer (Costner) fight against making his peace with the world. And Kevin Costner is in both of them, of all things. Who knew?
Geoff Hoff is co-owner of Joseph Coaler Productions and, with Steve Mancini, co-wrote the satirical novel "Weeping Willow: Welcome to River Bend
1 comment:
I like that - "chick flick for guys". It reminds me of that scene in Sleepless in Seattle (the quintesential Chick Flick) where the guys are making fun of the women by sitting around the dinner table talking about the movie that made them cry. Best scene in the movie.
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