The Natural (film)
| The Natural | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg?lang=en) Promotional poster of The Natural | |
| Directed by | Barry Levinson |
| Written by | Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry, (based on a novel by Bernard Malamud) |
| Produced by | Mark Johnson |
| Starring | Robert Redford Robert Duvall Glenn Close Kim Basinger Barbara Hershey, Darren McGavin, Wilford Brimley Richard Farnsworth |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
Release dates | May 11, 1984 |
Running time | 137 Min 144 Min Director's Cut |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28,000,000 |
The Natural is a 1984 film adaption of the 1952 baseball novel of the same name. The film was directed by Barry Levinson and stars Robert Redford. The movie, like the book, concerns the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great 'natural' baseball talent. Early in the movie, Roy's father tells him that his success will involve his natural ability less than how hard he works to be successful. The remainder of the movie chronicles Roy's trials and suffering.
In 1984, The Natural was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Glenn Close), and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger). Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in Buffalo, New York's War Memorial Stadium, built in 1937 and demolished a few years after the film was produced. Buffalo's All-High Stadium stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field in a key scene in the film.
Darren McGavin was cast late in the process and went unbilled in the film; the other unknown was the radio announcer heard from time to time throughout the picture. As Levinson stated on the DVD extras for the 2007 edition, there had been too little time to find a bona fide announcer during post-production, so Levinson himself recorded that part of the audio track (and probably also that of the scout, who appears in just two lines, over the phone).
Plot
The movie begins by showing Roy Hobbs as a grown man, looking rather old for his years, silently awaiting a train that will take him to New York for a last chance at baseball. The specifics of his early career are not revealed until later. The film then cuts to a lengthy flashback showing Hobbs as a young boy playing baseball on an American farm, somewhere in the Midwest, with his father. He is obviously a highly-talented baseball player. When a tree, under which his father had died, is destroyed by lightning, Roy takes a piece of the tree and makes a bat from it, on which he burns a lightning bolt and the label 'Wonderboy'. He carries the bat with him throughout his career, in a trombone case.
Hobbs embarks on his baseball career, not as a batter but an ace pitcher. Enroute to Chicago for a tryout with the Cubs, the teenaged farm boy accepts a wager to throw three pitches to 'The Whammer', the top hitter in the major leagues. He promptly strikes him out on three straight pitches. Honorable but young and a bit cocksure, the young Hobbs is seduced by Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey), an alluring but dark and sinister woman who gravitates to him after judging that he is the best baseball player who ever lived. In a hotel room, Bird shoots Hobbs in the mid-section.
The story skips forward 16 years to 1939 (the Baseball Centennial patches on the uniforms being a clue to date the movie). Hobbs is now thirty-five and has just arrived in New York by train. He helps a down-on-their-luck, fictitious National League team called the New York Knights and is signed by a scout (in a blunder that later turns out to be part of the movie's main subplot) who thinks he is a washout, without consulting the team's manager and co-owner. The gruff manager, Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) is unimpressed by the aged Hobbs. However, Hobbs refuses to leave, and eventually gets a chance to take batting practice, where he hits every ball well past the fence. Still skeptical, Fisher agrees to let Hobbs play. In Hobbs's first at bat in a major league game, Pop Fisher tells Hobbs to knock the cover off the ball, not expecting Hobbs to do just that. Hobbs literally knocks the cover off the ball, sending an unraveling ball of string into the outfield for a triple. From that point on, Hobbs hits massive home runs time after time, rising to stardom and reversing the bottom-dwelling Knights' fortunes.
Despite his supernatural abilities, Hobbs and his abilities are vulnerable to temptation. An unscrupulous and cynical reporter, Max Mercy (Robert Duvall), hounds Hobbs through the season. The mystery of those sixteen years is slowly revealed as Roy's childhood sweetheart, Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), returns to his life. It is later revealed that an encounter between Roy and Iris sixteen years earlier had produced a son.
The corrupt owner of the Knights, The Judge (played by Robert Prosky), tries to persuade, even bribe, Hobbs to throw the remainder of the season owing to a contractual agreement between The Judge and Pop Fisher, whereby The Judge will obtain full ownership from Pop if the team fails to win the pennant. Hobbs feels strong loyalty to Pop, particularly as Pop has confided to him that his one dream is to win the pennant; Pop doesn't care about winning the World Series, he just wants to be there. Hobbs cares little about money and stands firm against The Judge's attempts to buy his honor. However, The Judge realizes Hobbs's one weakness--he can be corrupted by a woman. A gambler associate of The Judge, Gus Sands (Darren McGavin), introduces Hobbs to his mistress, Memo Paris (Kim Basinger).
Hobbs battles through many distractions and adversities, including succumbing to the sexual persuasions of Memo, who, while not as clearly sinister as the woman who shot him years ago, is most definitely an amoral and corrupting character. As Roy falls further into Memo's embrace and away from his honor, his play suffers. Before the pennant-deciding game, Hobbs eventually resolves to break free of Memo's and The Judge's web, and The Judge resorts to poisoning Hobbs (leading to a reaggravation of the injuries to his stomach sustained in the shooting). Up until the last minute it is doubtful Hobbs will be able to play, after he collapses while attempting batting practice, against doctor's orders.
Hobbs, of course, plays in the game even as his stomach bleeds through his shirt. The game stays close, but the Knights trail by two after their pitcher, who has also been paid off by the Judge's underworld associates, intentionally gives up a two-run home run.
As befits a baseball movie, Roy comes to bat in the bottom of the ninth, with a chance to win the game. He looks to the stands and sees Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), his childhood sweetheart. She stands up, shrouded in white light. She is with a boy, who looks to be about sixteen and bears a striking resemblance to Robert Redford. Despite this, Hobbs fails to put two and two together until Iris hurriedly passes a note down through the crowd to Hobbs. He reads it, presumably saying that the boy is his son. His stomach is bleeding more than ever, and he realizes that he may die.
As Hobbs steps up to the batter's box, the lightning flashes again, and Hobbs swings Wonderboy and connects. But he gets around on it: hard and dead foul. Having dropped the bat, Hobbs looks down and sees that Wonderboy has shattered. No longer able to depend on his seemingly magical bat, Hobbs keeps his emotions in check and tells the bat boy to 'pick me out a winner, Bobby.' The youngster selects a bat that Hobbs had helped him make earlier: Savoy Special. Roy takes the bat. Their eyes meet as Bobby hands him the bat just as a camera bulb flashes (a smaller 'lightning flash').
Hobbs' stomach has started bleeding visibly, and he accepts the fact that the biggest swing of his life could disable or kill him. Hobbs shrugs off the umpire's concern about the bleeding, telling him to play ball and staring down the pitcher. Hobbs hits a towering fly ball, a pennant-winning home run, which soars into the stadium's lights and starts a chain reaction that bursts the lights and rains sparks down over the field, backed by Randy Newman's iconic score.
The Knights have won the pennant, and true to Pop Fisher's dream, we don't see what happens in the World Series. It's the end of baseball for Hobbs, and the film ends with a scene of Hobbs playing catch with his son in a sun-dappled cornfield, with Iris standing by.
The musical score
Randy Newman's dramatic and Oscar-nominated score, which was described by at least one complimentary critic as 'Coplandesque', has been referenced frequently since then, in visual pieces underscoring other 'natural' ballplayers. The music has been used in a documentary about Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg; retellings of Ichiro Suzuki's breaking of the single-season hits record held by George Sisler; and in retellings of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, when a seriously injured Kirk Gibson hit a dramatic game-winning 9th inning home run reminiscent of Roy Hobbs' blast to win the pennant. To this day, the movie's theme is often played at ballparks when a home-team player hits a significant home run, as the Boston Red Sox did on September 21, 2006 when David Ortiz blasted his 51st Home Run of the season, breaking Jimmie Foxx's 68 year old Red Sox club record of 50 Home Runs. The theme was played as Frank Robinson walked off the field at RFK Stadium after his penultimate game as a manager. The theme was also used when Cal Ripken's 2,500th consecutive game became official, and during his farewell tour at every one of his at-bats since he announced his retirement in 2001. The theme was played in Comerica Park after Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander's no-hitter in 2007, as well as in Yankee Stadium the same year after Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th career home run.
Billy Joel traditionally uses a theme from the score as an introduction while on tour.
Also, excerpts from the score were used in the memorable series finale of the hit ABC-TV series The Wonder Years in 1993.
Metaphors
One metaphor, as referenced in the DVD extras, is the grand allusion to the story of King Arthur and Percival. Percival is a country boy (like Roy) whose father was a great knight (like Roy's father was a great semi-pro ballplayer). Percival comes to be one of Arthur's knights in search of the Holy Grail. He comes upon the Waste Land, which The Fisher King rules over. The Fisher King is ill, and when he is ill, the land is ill. The Fisher King is like the coach of Roy's baseball team, Pop Fisher. Pop has a disease on his hands like athlete's foot. When Roy comes along and makes his first hit, and the team's long losing streak ends, Pop's hands start to heal and it rains for 3 days making the grass green again. But Roy, like Percival, gets distracted from his duties by his infatuation with a woman.
Contemporary critics noted how the imagery of women in the film, in general, is starkly separated into timeless traditions of 'good' and 'evil'.[citation needed] The two 'evil' women (Harriet and Memo) often wear dark clothing and are both sexy and sinister. The 'good' woman (Iris) takes on a literally angelic character in a crucial moment in Chicago, when she stands and her white hat is haloed by sunlight, as she catches Hobbs' attention and leads him 'to the light', and out of the batting slump brought on by Memo's nefarious distractions. This is discussed in the DVD extras, including the fact that 'Memo' suggests a 'memory' of Harriet Bird, which is alluded to in the dialogue; and that 'Iris' is the goddess of the rainbow.
Criticism and impact
Critics were not universally impressed when the film appeared. Leonard Maltin said it was 'Too long and inconsistent'. The critic of the Bloomington, Illinois paper said, 'The ending is so hokey you don't know whether to laugh or cry.' Roger Ebert fairly savaged it, calling it 'idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford.' However, Gene Siskel, Ebert's TV partner, rated it one of 1984's top 10 films.
Robert Redford, who was 52 at the time of filming, was much older than the 34 year old Hobbs of the novel.
The film proved to have broad appeal among fans of the game and, along with its imagery and music, has had significant staying power. The final baseball scene, as Roy's home run soars into the ballpark lights, and he runs the bases showered with sparks, remains one of the most memorable and widely known movie scenes.[citation needed] Both the novel and the film are usually included in lists of the greatest sports-related books and movies.[citation needed]
The film's producers stated in the DVD extras that the film was not intended to be a filmization of the novel, but was merely 'based on' the novel. Malamud's daughter said on the DVD that her father had seen the film, and his take on it was that it had 'legitimized him as a writer.'
DVD
The special-edition re-release of the DVD in 2007 included some souvenirs (a baseball 'signed' by Roy Hobbs, a few baseball cards, and a New York Knights cap); several short documentaries about the making of the film, and its symbolism; and a re-edit of the film that adds some previously cut footage, and expands and re-arranges the first part of the film substantially.
References in popular culture
In the third-season episode of The Simpsons titled Homer at the Bat, Homer joins the nuclear plant's softball team and leads them to the championship game using a hand-crafted bat named Wonderbat (with a sloppy lightning-bolt drawn on the side). Music reminiscent of the score from The Natural plays when Homer hits home runs. The references cease when major-league players are brought in to win the championship game, and Wonderbat is destroyed by Roger Clemens, who burns it in half with a laser-like underhand pitch.
In another episode featuring Homer's attempt to bowl a 300, the music that was played before Roy Hobbs' game-winning home run is used as a background for Homer's final strike. The action pans other characters, including a group of old-time photographers snapping pictures as Homer releases the ball. Like Hobbs' destruction of the ballpark lights, Homer's last strike causes all of the other pins in the other lanes to explode; balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling. The actual scene of exploding lights is often parodied on the show during scenes involving baseball. Also, much of the music from the show itself is based on Randy Newman's score.
The episode 'The Natural' of It's Garry Shandling's Show mirrors the movie, except that ping-pong is the sport instead of baseball. A special paddle is the mythical 'Wonderboy'.
The pilot episode of Quantum Leap (sometimes called 'Genesis') ends with Sam Beckett scoring the season-ending run for a minor league team, shortly after Al tells him 'Well, you're not Roy Hobbs, either.' The script notes that 'from this point on, we duplicate the shooting style of The Natural.' Parallels between the two scenes include Sam asking the bat boy to choose a good bat for him and unexpected lightning, slow motion and similar music. However, Sam misses the ball, and scores on a wild pitch and two errors.
In the movie BASEketball, numerous references are made to The Natural, including the ball that the main character calls 'La-Z-Boy', because he made it himself from a recliner.
In a Peanuts comic strip published on March 30, 1993, in his final at bat of the little league season, infamous character Charlie Brown hit a home run for the first time in any Peanuts comic. Afterwards, it was revealed that he hit it off of the great-granddaughter of the fictional Roy Hobbs character. Hobbs' granddaughter returned to the strip intermittently through the mid-nineties. In one series, she tried to sell an authentic bat signed by Roy Hobbs to Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown refused and Lucy bought the bat thinking it was a rare collectible item. Eventually, she admitted to the fact that Roy Hobbs was fictional.
A TV ad for XM Satellite Radio radio, played during the 2006 Major League Baseball championship series, referred directly to the climactic scene in the film. It showed an animated baseball flying toward an animated light tower, shattering the lights, accompanied by the corresponding portion of the film score.
In Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place season 1 episode 6 'The Softball Team', Mr. Bauer takes a cue from The Natural, against Tessio's Pizza.
In World Wrestling Entertainment, wrestler Bret Hart uses the moniker 'The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be', a quote from the movie.
In the late 1990's, Baseball Tonight spoofed the broken bat sequence with Dave Campbell as Roy Hobbs in a commercial for the post-season coverage.
External links
- The Natural at IMDb