1988 Bull Durham Directed by Ron Shelton
There are only a few genres that are uniquely American; one of them is the Sport’s movie.
A good sports film has an undercurrent, which has little to do with the sport;
A man’s fight for redemption,
protect the family,
proving one is worthy,
overcoming tragedy,
looking for acceptance,
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| Tim Robbins & Kevin Costner |
In the case of Bull Durham, it has some of these themes but the main theme that drives this film:
It doesn’t matter how hard you work, practice,
no matter what you do,
unless you have that gift- call it god given or whatever,
you are not going to be an elite artist,
thousands try their dream, and some are even good enough to make some noise, but like Crash Davis, no matter how long they or Crash works at their/his art, they/he ain’t got “it”
Crash knows the game better that most, but he just will never make it, he knows this, but he keeps playing. LaLoosh is a young cocky flamethrower who doesn’t respect the game, partly cause he is young, but mainly cause he has the gift- he has the “it”
The question with Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh is will "it" be enough.
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| Ron Shelton |
Former minor league player turned writer/director Ron Shelton understand this as much as anyone, it was in his blood too.
What Shelton does in Bull Durham that is truly amazing, is he brings in a character which in standard romantic films, would just be the standard by the numbers female lead,
But with Annie Savoy, we have another version of Crash,
a female that loves the game as much as anyone playing,
but cause of who she is; she can’t get to the top.
She loves the game, understands the game as well as anyone.
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| Susan Sarandon |
She is not baseball “groupie”
if that were the case, then this wouldn’t be a great film, hell it might not be a good film, but cause she is the Chorus of this Diamond Play Bull Durham is damn good
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| Trey Wilson & Robert Whul |
Another reason for this making 101 Great Films, is the spot on performances by the supporting cast through the film. Trey Wilson, who we lost way to early, is a force that steals every scene he is in, as he did in another film on this list.
The whole cast and crew were a winning combo that hit Bull Durham out of the park! And place it on the top 101
Don’t you just love sports metaphors.
MGM's Bull Durham is on Blueray and standard dvd now.
101 Great Films:
101 One False Move
100 Friends of Eddie Coyle
99 Tampopo
98 The Thing
97 Nanook of the North
96 The Battle of Algiers
95 The Third Man
94 Au Revoir Les Enfants
93 Meshes of the Afternoon
92Alien
91 Young Frankenstein
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