An unknown comes seemingly out of nowhere to become a legendary player with almost divine talent.
Director: Barry Levinson
Stars: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Darren McGavin.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087781/
Decided I wanted a copy of A League of Their Own ('92), and this was included for cheap. I've liked some other baseball movies, so I gave it a try.
I just couldn't get into it. Maybe if I stared at the screen (as one should do when watching a film) and got more of the visual communication, it would be better. But I didn't, and watching the extra features didn't help. (They're all by/with baseball people: Bob Costas, Cal Ripken Jr., etc.)
We do eventually see a photo of RR's assailant dead from suicide, but it took the extra features to explain she was a serial killer intent on killing the best in sports.
We get no explanation of what RR did in the 16 years between when he was shot and when he landed in the majors. But somehow that bullet was in his stomach all those years and his stomach lining was damaged, jeopardizing his ability to play in the final game for the pennant. (BTW, he had red on his uniform over his stomach in his final at bat; what was the red from?)
Nor do we get any background on GC's journey from when RR was shot (was he presumed dead? Why didn't he contact her?) to introducing his son to him.
And it's not like we have loads of unanswered questions because the film is short and chock full of other plot. No, it's slow, languorous, like being at a low-score double header.
Then the extra features liken this to The Odyssey, with RR as Homer, which was intended by the author of the novel to which the film does not adhere (happy ending). I'm pretty rusty on what Odysseus endured trying to get home, but getting shot by a serial killer and distracted by the gangster's moll (KB) hardly seems worthy of analogy to a classic Greek epic.
RR looks competent as a baseball player (left handed; I don't remember noticing that about him), and he's still gorgeous in '84. The look of the film is pretty.
But I have no idea why 38k+ IMDb voters give this 7.5.
TriStar & more, dir. Levinson; 6-
