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Drama 137 min PG
Rotten Tomatoes83%Metacritic61IMDb
He lived for a dream that wouldn't die.
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.
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Nostalgic, meticulous, effortless and contemplative.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
If you ever saw how Josef von Sternberg photographed Marlene Dietrich then you'll appreciate a similar style of camera adulation from Barry Levinson with Robert Redford in this touching adaptation of Bernard Malamud's complex and characterful novel. Every opportunity is taken to glisten the sunlight through his blond locks to create an almost halo-like effect as his "Hobbs" picks up a very special baseball bat and helps to guide a team that previously couldn't have beaten an egg to possible world series status. "Pop" (Wilford Brimley) is the sceptical coach who can't fathom why this thirty-something has been hired, but before too long he begins to see that his new and very single-minded batter is not just impacting on the results, but he is also galvanising a despondent team to raise their game. Why is he coming to the game so late, though? Well along the way we witness some flashbacks and hear tell of an incident from his past that almost cost him his life - and thereby, with his bat crafted from the wood from a tree struck by lightning, we begin to wonder if there isn't something a little super-"natural" to this engimatic chap. Those suspicions might also be enhanced by the arriv
Read the whole review on TMDBMany, many years ago when I was a bit of a sports fan, I remember reading stories about scouts who had seen athletes in the olden days like Roy Hobbs. Players who could hit a ball a mile or throw a hundred mile per hour fastball, but who never made it to the big league for some reason. But of course, this movie is based on a novel by Bernard Malamud, though there are hints of actual events here and there. It is an entertaining movie, presenting baseball as America’s game and therefore, ultimately, above corruption. It has an old timey feel, perhaps even older than the 1939 setting that is presented. The movie is less gloomy than the book, and I guess the purists don’t like that, but for me, life is gloomy enough and the mood and ending were just fine with me. (And I did read the book.) Since actual events and people from bygone days are cleaned up and mythologized for our history books, why get upset when fictional stories are purified with a rose colored lens?
Read the whole review on TMDBThe Wonder of Wonderboy. The Natural is directed by Barry Levinson and adapted to screenplay by Roger Towne & Phil Dusenberry from the novel written by Bernard Malamud. It stars Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky and Richard Farnsworth. Music is by Randy Newman and cinematography by Caleb Deschanel. The Natural is a wistful sports movie, one that asks every person who views it to buy into the whimsy and mythologising on show. If able to do that then it's a film of beguiling beauty, awash with strength of the human spirit and of luscious technical credits. The Arthurian core to Roy Hobbs' (Redford a superb presence yet calmness personified) second chance ensures we always know this is fanciful stuff, but that's just fine, we are in Field of Dreams territory here and fans of such fare are rewarded royally. Period art design, photography and musical score are grade "A", snuggling up nicely with a support cast to Redford that is of high end proportions. If it's in you and you know what sort of film to expect, you may well, come the end, be punching the air whilst having a tear in your eye. Lovely film making. 8.5/10
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“Is the nostalgia doing the heavy lifting?”
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“Is Robert Redford the best thing in The Natural?”
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24 profiled raters. Loved most by The Comfort Seekers; disliked most by The Ironists.
If you loved this film, the television, the book, the music, the game.
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