Low Key Romantic Comedy

Rating: 7/10 (14 July 2010)

I've done my best to like this over the years because a number of people whose opinions I respect have recommended it. I can see why. I mean, here is it -- 1988. And what has been showing up on the screen? Rambo, Bruce Willis, Ahnold, Freddy Kruger, Pumpkin Head, Batman, the guy with the hockey mask and the butcher knife, Lund Dolfgren, Chuck Norris saving the US from the North Vietnamese, Jamie Lee Curtis screaming while monsters slaughter her slutty friends, Piranha, Jaws, Jaws II, Bruce Loses His Cherry, and -- well, I don't know what all.
And here, in the middle of all this garbage, comes "Bull Durham," a leisurely examination of non-stereotypical people in a milieu (minor league baseball) that no one knows or cares about. The story itself isn't much we haven't seen before, but the characters are anything but formulaic.
Tim Robbins is new to the Durham Bulls. He pitches fast balls with a great deal of "heat" but he's wild and easily distracted. Kevin Costner is the newly arrived catcher, recently sent down from the major leagues, who has a thing or two to tell Robbins. They are also in competition for the heart and body of Susan Sarandon, a kind of local baseball groupie who schtupps the best player of the season and is always true to him in her fashion. She has a degree from Alliance Junior College, has New Age tendencies, and quotes from Blake, Whitman, and a number of other wordsmiths. There are a number of sexy scenes. The romantic and the athletic competition exist in equipoise.
As you can see, it's not exactly what you'd expect in a movie about baseball or any other sport. It has a certain charm, but very low in key, rather like some unexpected and interesting rock formation you stumbled across on the Appalachian trail. You're compelled to stop and admire the thing for a while.
It was written and directed by Ron Shelton, who has convinced me he knows baseball, or at least has invented a colorful argot for it. It must have been successful because it spawned a number of cruder imitations, funnier but with considerably less of its fey quality. In the rip offs, the characters are no longer quirky. They're bizarre. I have in mind especially "Minor League." The template may have originated with "Semi-Tough," back in 1977. But the 1970s were a good decade for movies, whereas 1988 was part of a decade in which the screen swam in schlock. So, Shelton, good on you, and good on the angels who provided the dough.