Life is like a golf course...only if you're white

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2000)

"The Legend of Bagger Vance" - A Film Review by 'Young Angry White Man' (Negative, Very Minor Spoilers)
Golf, not unlike the Legend of Bagger Vance, sucks. Let's face it golf as a sport, as a form of recreation, and as a premise for a movie just doesn't quite register (Happy Gilmore respectfully excluded).
Sure most of us are caught up in Tiger mania but honestly before our favorite calablasian entered the scene and started tearing up the greens no one, not even Nike or ABC, really cared about golf. So when Will Smith talks about golf being the greatest sport ever, in the midst of football season no less, I can't help but choke back my disgust and try not to spill my bile on the floor.
But enough of my disgust about that pseudo sport...What's the movie about? Well this movie is about golf. The movie is also about Matt Damon. Damon, who plays a white man, not just any white man but a southern white man seems to have lost his ability to hit a golf ball after returning home from World War I is struggling with his personal demons.
Things aren't really going all that well with Damon, we know this because the director shows us that he hangs out with black people and drinks a lot, until Will Smith comes along.
While Matt Damon does one hell of a job playing a white man it is Will Smith who manages to steal the show by playing a Negro. Not his usual shtick as the ultra cool Negro, but a spiritual Negro.
Since black actors are only allowed to play the roles of comedian, ultra cool guy who says funny things, ignorant but yet spiritual guy, or the meaningless position of authority (i.e. Judge, police sergeant, DA), it appears Smith has one more role to achieve before he completes his career grand slam - shame Hollywood doesn't give black actors better quality roles.
Bagger Vance (Will Smith) is Matt Damon's caddie and though Bagger may not be able to follow subject/verb agreement he sure knows about the sport of golf. He knows so much about golf one asks him why isn't he playing? Could it be because he's a black man in the Deep South during the great depression? Or maybe because Bagger isn't really a caddie but a sage who preaches about life and golf is just one clever metaphor - Naw because that's just plain stupid to try and correlate how life is like a golf course. Not just stupid but insulting since golf is perhaps the most elitist sport out there today. Have you ever tried to purchase some clubs? I could buy what's left of Alonzo Mourning's liver for the price of new clubs. I will give the director the benefit of the doubt that his movie isn't about life being nothing more than a golf course since the only brothers other than Tiger who are on the golf course aren't swinging the clubs.
Will Smith's stellar role is very reminiscent of Michael Clarke Duncan's outstanding performance in the Green Mile (who by the way is playing in Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes). How he didn't win an Oscar for that "Take my hand" line is beyond me. Of course that is neither here nor there.
As with all popcorn movies, and that is exactly what this movie is, the hero rises and falls only to rise again. So if your into clichéd swill about black caddies who take a back seat to white men and their women then this is the flick for you...but if you got better things to do with your money then sit through this garbage go see Bamboozled and educate your self.