Can you say, Will Smith for best supporting actor this year?

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2000)

There are really only two reasons why you go to a movie. One is to be entertained and the other is to be informed. Sometimes being entertained is all we ask, as is the case of most summer movies. Then at times we are lucky enough to be entertained and informed. Films like Malcolm X, American History X, Saving Private Ryan are a few that come to mind. Films like that dealt with important historical and social issues. They opened my eyes to injustices of the past and the present and they did an excellent job of keeping me entertained in the process. The Legend Of Bagger Vance on the other hand informed me in a different way. It taught me a great deal about golf and some of it's history. And it entertained me a great deal. You see, for me, golf is now a great interest to me just as it is for a great many new fans. Since Tiger Woods has transcended the sport and became iconoclastic, my interest in golf has multiplied exponentially. Toss in a good Canadian prodigy named Mike Weir and I am now hooked on the sport. I was even fortunate enough to see Tiger and Mike play at Glen Abbey this year where Mike had a difficult weekend and all Tiger did was win the triple crown for only the second time in the history of golf. It was quite an event.

Golf is different than any sport, and that is because it is a gentleman's game. There is a level of integrity and honesty to it. You are responsible for keeping your own score and you are expected to uphold the rules of the game even when no one is there to govern you. Could you imagine in hockey if you hooked a man from behind and the ref didn't see it, you then went up to him and said, " look, I just took down Joe and I deserve two minutes in the box for that?" Or if in football, you told the ref that you didn't really make the catch, that the ball touched the ground first? It is unheard of. But not in golf. Not only is it your responsibility, it is your oath to do so, because if one wins the game of golf without integrity, then one is not a real man. I realize how surreal that sounds, but it is so true. Your victory would be tarnished and that would stay etched in your mind forever. That is one of ( but certainly not the only ) the beauties of golf. Such is one of the themes of this film. Golf is the back drop and it deals with issues such as these but it is a film about much more.
Critics have criticized the film for being too shallow and not containing enough substance, but I vehemently disagree. You have to look for what this is about at times, but believe me it is there. Will Smith plays Bagger Vance in by far his most in depth performance. Smith is known more for his comedic roles and his propensity for box office success where as Matt Damon has had success box office wise as well, but not nearly the kind that Will has. Yet he is known more for his great layered performances in films like Good Will Hunting and The Talented Mr. Ripley. However, in Bagger Vance, Smith steals every scene he is in with Damon. This is a performance that is worthy of an Oscar nod as best supporting actor thus far. He is that good.
Bagger Vance is a character that comes into Rannulph Junnah's ( Damon ) life just as he's entered into a golf tournament against the two best golfers of their era, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. Junnah was once a revered golfer but then went to WWII and came back a scarred man. He never regained his swing and now he flounders in a sea of confusion and drinks his life away. He is given this one chance at greatness again because of a young boy's belief in him.
The town is sponsoring a $10,000 dollar golf tournament in the middle of the Great Depression but it will only back it if one of their home grown talents will compete. Hardy Greaves is a young boy of maybe 12, and he remembers when Junnah was the best golfer the south had ever known. He tells the mayor and all the other town folk that he can get Junnah to play. He doesn't disappoint. He convinces Junnah that he can get his swing back again, with a little practise. One night as Junnah is attempting in vain to regain his stroke, Bagger Vance comes walking into his life out what seems to be nowhere. Somehow a conversation is started and Bagger Vance ends up being Junnah's caddy for the big match. Now where did this man come from? How did he get here and why is here? These questions are never answered but most people that I know and have talked to about the film think he is a guardian angel of sorts. Was he sent here just so Junnah could regain his stroke? Perhaps. Maybe God really does love golf that much. But maybe he was sent here not only to help Junnah with his game, but to help him with his life. Golf is like the art of Zen to some people and in here it is spoken of in the same reverence. If Junnah is to regain all that he once was, he is going to have to get rid of all his inner demons. And sometimes inner demons are a bitch to ostracize.
Bagger Vance is very laconic in his approach to things. He only says what needs to be said and the rest has to be learned. In all of the teachings about golf that are preached about in this film, the same can be said for life in general. This film captured me and filled me with a sense of....life. It did to me what American Beauty did in some ways. It is one of the best films to come out this year and it is steeped with rich and wonderful performances. This should go down in the annals of film as one of the best sports films ever made. And of course Will Smith is wonderful. I really think he will be looked upon differently in some circles after people see what he is capable of.
But more importantly, this film taught me something about sport, golf in particular, but sports in general. Even though Tiger has changed golf and there is a bit of swagger to it now with 5 million dollar purses and such, just take a minute sometime to take it all in. Golf really is different than anything else. In days when soccer fans are rabid enough to kill each other, hockey has people like Marty McSorley and one of the Niedermeyer boys head hunting with their sticks, football players celebrating voraciously and classlessly by slicing their throats with an imaginary knife, basketball players trash talking each other to the point of verboseness and the list can go on and on. Fans of these sports can become rabid with their cataclysmic fanaticism and yet you watch the gallery in golf and you get a perspective of what it is all about. When a golfer is about to take a shot, there is utter silence. No one wants to disrespect any player, whether his name is Tiger Woods or a guy that is just hoping to qualify for Q-school. You have fans that will not touch a golfer's ball when it goes out of bounds, they all understand the integrity of the sport. Then there are the players. They play side by side and wish each other well. They want to play the game to the best of their ability but not at the expense of someone's integrity. Player's respect one another, that can not be said in any other sport, not on the same level as golf. As Bagger Vance says in the film, "Golf is a game that can never be won, only played." Words to live by.
9 out of 10. This is one of the films to see this year. Look for it to get some well deserved notirity in March.