Kevin Costner Is A Star In The Making

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2016)

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to 1988's Bull Durham
Plot In A Paragraph: Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) a baseball fan who takes a new lover each season, finds her life complicated when Crash Davis (KC) an aging catcher is brought to the The Bull Durham's to provide some help for "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) a hot young pitcher who has a great fastball but no control or handle on life.
If there was a list of the best baseball movies of all time, Bull Durham would be up there. Alongside movies such as The Natural, Pride Of The Yankees and of course KC's classic Field Of Dreams, it remains one of the best-loved baseball movies of all time, yet it doesn't really connect with me despite near perfect performances from the three leads.
KC is feeling confident after the success of The Untouchables and it shows in Bull Durham he's a star in the making here, and boy does he know it. Having skyrocketed from near obscurity to fame, Bull Durham gives KC and opportunity to be flashy!! Something he could not do when playing Elliot Ness, and the role of Crash shows a different side to him. It's a role he really seeks his teeth into, and with this performance he emerges as a true star.
I think Surandon should have been nominated for an Oscar for her work here. Her Whitman-quoting, sex-positive Southern belle just oozes confidence and sexuality.
Sarandon and Robbins have been an off-screen couple ever since this movie. Sarandon is older than both her co-stars (at the time of filming, she was 41, Costner was 32, and Robbins was 29), and this is a rare instance in which an over-40 actress is allowed the opportunity to act as a sex symbol. Although there is obvious chemistry between the two, it is surprising that brighter sparks fly between her and Costner. It's a good romantic triangle, though, with plenty of sexual tension.
There are some nice quiet little scenes that for me are some of the best in the movie, as when a player is called into the office and told his contract is not being picked up.
As sports movies go, this one is defiantly unconventional. The genre formula calls for the film to end with a big game, but that doesn't happen here. Instead, Nuke is promoted to the majors, and Crash (his job done) is released. There is no big championship game, no home run or anything. In Bull Durham the baseball is actually the background to the love triangle.