sports haiku

Rating: 7/10 (29 April 2009)

Bull Durham was a really good movie when it came out. But I watched it recently and portions of it are not aging well. There is tension over whether the movie is going to be thoughtful, or whether it's going to be a marketable "product." The "valentine to baseball" moments are writ large (unsubtle!) and Shelton could have left them out because they're just gilding the lily; the movie is already a valentine to baseball. Annie Savoy's outfits are obnoxious in a way the movie is not. Shelton also takes a lot of this from Slapshot. And I think it was Christopher Null who griped that Crash's big famous speech to Annie about his beliefs being overwritten. (It is.) The Bulls team is largely made up of dopes whom thoughtful people would now regard as "meatheads," but how can you give it low marks for all of that, when there's such smartness elsewhere?
The movie's charm lies in in wry moments that are written subtly enough to please any smarty. It deserves credit for suggesting that small towners might be aware of William Blake, Kirkegard, Thoreau, alternative sexuality, etc. Even if it's a complete fiction, it's a nice place to occupy for a few hours. And really what makes parts of the film extraordinary is its oblique answer to philosophy, media coverage (intentionally being boring as the highest art of public relations), and movie plot lines. When's the last time you were asked to (allowed to?) identify with the second best character in a Hollywood movie? How often does a sports movie have the nerve to work in a love of books? There is a thread of laconic sensitivity here encompassing futile achievements and humility, that could not be manufactured by a hundred baseball-loving Hollywood execs. "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air." Thomas Gray, or was it William Blake? You can look it up!
Also... I loathe sports. It doesn't matter one bit. Parts of this movie are quite nice.