Underrated. DeNiro plays another great S.O.B

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2007)

The Fan is the polar opposite of Field of Dreams and I loved it. Baseball movies have no spine to them whatsoever, they tend to all ways follow the same Pride of the Yankees formula where Baseball is a fraternal sport in which everything is okay. The Fan digs deeper.
Robert DeNiro plays Gil Bernard an odd knife salesman who loses the visitation rights to be with his son. Bernard vents his rage by following his San Francisco Giants religiously. Gil becomes obsessed with Bobby Rayburn, the Giants' new top paid center fielder. Rayburn believes in jinxes and wants his lucky jersey number back to end a slump. Gil gets it for him by killing his teammate. Gil confronts Rayburn who says his change of luck was due to his not caring anymore. Gil goes berserk and threatens to kill Rayburn's son if he doesn't due a Babe Ruth and hit a homer for him.
DeNiro represents the Fan who turns to MLB as an escape from real life. His Gil is a tragic character who only lives for the game and focuses on what he could have been and what he wants to force his son to become. We don't necessarily agree with him but we can better see what makes this villain tick.
Snipes Rayburn isn't a bad guy but he like the A-Rod's of day let's the fame get to his head. He undergoes a perspective change through the film as he questions what the game means to him.
The Fan is a great dark satire of baseball. We see all the aspects that are there but are so often ignored. The greed of the players and their agents, the sports writers eager to sink their teeth into the slumping hitter, and the fathers who try to pressure their children to live their athletic dreams through them.
My one complaint about the film is it's ending. It just seems far too over the top and unrealistic. Gil shouldn't have received that much attention at his death, it should have been a private confrontation between him and Rayburn.