Best baseball movie ever.

Rating: 9/10 (21 November 1999)

Kevin Costner has been dubbed the king of all baseball movies, and very simply, because he is. He just does it so well, it's obvious that he enjoys playing the baseball player/fanatic, and does it very well. I know because I am one. I am a HUGE baseball fan and a HUGE movie fan. When baseball movies come along, it is always a treat.
This one was very different from other movies, it all takes place during one baseball game, and unlike other baseball movies, it is about the last game of the season, and Kevin's team has no shot at the playoffs, so this game does not mean anything. But to Costner, it does. It is nearing the end of his career, and his life is falling apart, his team is thinking about trading him, his arm is beginning to fail him, and his girlfriend is leaving him. Needless to say it isn't his best day to go out and pitch. But he still does, he badly wants to.
Costner is having flashbacks all throughout the game; in the dugout, on the field, before the game. We slowly get his whole life, and the father into the game we get, the farther into his life we get up to this point. His main focus is on his girlfriend just about to leave him, she tells him this just before the game.
This movie is very different and much better than other baseball movies because never have they only focused on one baseball game, usually it is the whole season, or just the playoffs or world series. It is just a useless game for the team. That is what makes this movie so much better than other baseball movies, it is hard to really capture the real intensity of baseball when you show each game in five or six minutes. It's just not possible, this is a two hour movie, practically in real time. This really portrays the way you get into a baseball game. Never have I heard the audience clap in the theater, as if they were at the game, until I saw this movie.
Somehow, the movie is able to show the Chapel's entire life and career, while at the same time showing this one, very important game. This has all the elements to be a great movie, and it is, I enjoyed this movie very much. Baseball fan or not, you will still like it.