Losing is a disease..................Ah! But curable!!

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2005)

This film is a quality production throughout and my favourite Redford performance next to "The Candidate".
The subject matter is baseball and its place in American life, but the legend is Arthurian, mirroring the turmoils and triumphs of the ancient King of England.
Along the road to becoming 'The best there ever was', Roy Hobbs (Redford) caves in to temptation and abuses his emerging boy to man status by ignoring his honour to his first love and meeting the mysterious Harriet (Hershey) at a hotel. There are many theories as to her dark purpose and how this links to later plot development, none of which really becomes clear. However, her early act of genuine shock does give background to the later years emergence of Hobbs, who has aged and seemingly risen from the dead to fulfil his destiny on the plate. Consequently on the road to greatness, another femme fatale, Memo (Bassinger) effectively takes Harriet's place, seeking out weaklings for Gus the big bad bookie from hell to manipulate (such as "Bump" Bailey and, in the climax to the film, the NY Knights bent pitcher).
I like the contrast of the two ladies here - Hershey/Bassinger in black and Glenn Close in white - a clear reference to evil Morgana and pure Guinnevere (have I spelled that right??).
Hobbs rises, falls and rises again, to defeat, in a brilliant baseball crescendo, the owner (in league with Gus and Memo) of the Knights. He then returns to his first love in a sentimental, but 'right' end frame. Thus the story comes full circle and why not? It is a tale and a great one, too.
One unanswered question: Hobbs was shot in the stomach, so how come when Memo Paris touches his sensitive scar (the nightmare scene) it is placed on his shoulder.....?
One of my favourite films of all time and it is something that all of the family can watch, without the feeling that it is wishy washy.
Maybe I am drawn to this film by my love of baseball - but I cant help but draw parallels with the injured Kirk Gibson stepping up to the plate for the Dodgers in the 1988 World Series to score a platinum plated homer, against the "A"'s against all the odds.......
"Try this one for size" (Hobbs fits cap on) "Welcome to the majors!"