The Natural
The Natural starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, is arguably the best baseball movie ever made. The film works not because it is flawless in its depiction of what transpires on the diamond, but because it captures the spirit of the game at a time when baseball truly was the National Pastime. Watching The Natural, it's possible to see all that is great about baseball - the chess match between managers, the poetry of a ball in flight, the exhilaration of a comeback. By immersing itself in baseball lore and mythology, The Natural becomes a celebration of a game that has since turned into a playground of cynicism and money-grubbing. It's very possible not to appreciate a baseball game; the same cannot be said about this production.

The film's early scenes depict snapshot events from the youth of Roy Hobbs - playing catch in the fields with his father, carving his own bat (named "Wonderboy") from the wood of a tree split open by lightning and striking out big-league ballplayer "The Whammer" on three pitches. The overriding theme of The Natural is that of redemption (admittedly, a common theme not only in baseball movies, but in all sports films). One swing of the bat can make a goat into a hero or a hero into a goat, and the production (or the lack thereof) of a lifetime can mean little compared to the success or failure in the clutch. The Natural focuses on the redemption of Roy Hobbs, who figures out that he has something to prove - and sets out to do it. And, as he rounds the bases amidst a shower of sparks in a scene that could only happen in a Hollywood-born field of dreams, he knows he has accomplished his goal and fulfilled his dream.

The Natural has the quality of a fable. It romanticizes everything about baseball, even the darker aspects (gambling, temptation, corruption). The movie exists within the realm of the tall tale, where magic enhances the edges of reality. A different filmmaker might have used restraint in showing Hobbs' three great home runs (his debut, the one in which he breaks out of his slump, and his final at-bat), but Barry Levinson risks appearing too corny by embracing, in a no-holds barred manner, the exuberance of grandeur. The home runs are the stuff of legends. In its simplest form, a home run is just a ball that travels a long distance. In The Natural, it's a moment of sheer ecstasy - a shot heard round the world that shatters clocks, collides with a lightning bolt, or knocks out the lights with a fireworks-like display. There are times when we demand restraint from movies; those moments in The Natural are not among them. Take away the majesty of those home runs and the movie does not satisfy in the same fundamental way.