I Do Love The Game

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2018)

For Love of the Game is a film about Billy Chapel, an aging pitcher who may be pitching the last game, and perhaps the best game, of his career. This is happening on a day when he has discovered that the owner of his team is selling the team and the new owners want to trade him away. He has also discovered that his girlfriend of several years is leaving him to take a job in London. In short, at the beginning of the film, Billy Chapel is having a really bad day. Throughout the nine innings of the game that form the narrative core of the film, we experience various flashbacks that take us into the personal life of Billy Chapel.
One of the things that must be said at the beginning is that For Love of the Game is derivative, formulaic, and filled with cliches. This need not be a fatal flaw. The same could be said of some of Shakespeare's best work (e.g., Romeo and Juliet). In fact, For Love of the Game provides Kevin Costner with his best starring role since Dances With Wolves. There must be something about baseballs. Two of Costner's better films from the past are Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. The basic role is similar to Costner's role in Bull Durham, the aging but wise team veteran. In its symbolic view of transcendent moments and meaningful relationships, For Love of the Game has more in common with Field of Dreams.
The film is based on a novel by Michael Shaara. Shaara previously wrote the book that was the basis for the film Gettysburg ("Killer Angels"). The screenplay adaptation is by Dana Stevens whose previous writing credits include City of Angels. While it may seem like a weird combination for a baseball film, with Director Sam Raimi at the helm this film really works. One of the reasons it works is that, like Field of Dreams, this is not really a baseball film.
This is a film about the human spirit and our longing for transcendence. Years ago, I played on a softball team in league competition. It's the bottom of the ninth, men on second and third, two outs, and I'm at the plate with a 3-0 count. I'm ready to take the walk. I was a pitcher, I knew the strike zone, and that year I was leading the league in walks taken. My older, and occasionally wiser, brother was our coach, and he pulled me aside and told me to go for it. I was batting .750 that year, and the guy behind me in the line-up was struggling. Frankly, I would have preferred the safe way out. Let the other guy take the heat for losing the game. Inspired by my brother's confidence in me, I swung at the next pitch, and hit a double to win the game. That was more than twenty years ago, but I remember that moment to this day, because it was someone else's confidence in me that gave me the courage to reach for the stars.
In the final analysis, that's what this film is about. Baseball becomes the context, but the theme is the yearning of the human spirit for transcendence and meaning. What makes this film worth seeing is its emphasis on camaraderie and espirit-de-corps. In many films like this (e.g., The Natural) the hero finds his strength within and triumphs against the odds by superhuman effort. Billy Chapel's saving grace is his brokenness. It is his willingness to acknowledge his need for others that allows him to triumph in the end. While there are clearly elements borrowed from other films here, the final product is fresh, inspirational, and fun.