One of the most iconic baseball movies of all time

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2015)

Not just a great film about baseball, but a fable about overcoming demons, rising from nothing to greatness and good old fashioned love.
Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a prodigious baseball player who showed incredible promise as a young man, but was shot by a serial killer who hunted star athletes. Although he didn't die, he was badly wounded and missed his opportunity to join Major League baseball. The story revolves around his comeback (16 years later), overcoming his weakness for women, reuniting with the love of his life Iris (Glen Close) and saving his ball club and their head coach Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) from being sold. In the end, Hobbs must confront his younger self in a final showdown for glory, but ultimately his own happiness.
This is not a story about real life or "the real world". This movie is metaphoric. Although the theme is around baseball, it is actually a story of a cursed knight with a magical sword who saves a Kingdom from a tyrannical ruler.
There have been many reviews about the great performances by all of the cast, but the one thing that I have not heard much about is the INCREDIBLE score for this film. Written by Randy Newman...yes the Toy Story guy. He composed what is in my opinion, possibly the most iconic and memorable fanfare ever written for a movie. Absolutely, beautiful and uplifting. I can't for the life of me understand why he didn't win an Oscar for his work on this film. In the style of Aaron Copland, the perfect sixth that soars above as the baseball smashes the lights in the end scene will make even the hardest of men think about their childhood. Iris' leitmotif is very charming and makes you fall in love with her as much as she and Roy truly love each other.
It is important to remember that this movie is only based on the book. That is to say, the characters start off the same, but they do not arc the same as the book and that ultimately effects the story's outcome. Roy Hobbs' character is much purer in the movie than in the book. If you've read the book and expect to see the same story in the movie, you'll be surprised. Perhaps, unpleasantly surprised. I prefer the movie to the book, but I saw this movie when I was a kid and I am so biased that Roger Ebert himself (who didn't really like the movie) could come back from the dead and draft a 50 page critique of this movie and I still would love it just as much. That's how powerful and impressionable this movie is.
Watch this movie. People have compared it to the Fisher King, (hello? Pop Fisher?) and the Lancelot, King Arthur story (the team name is the New York "Knights").. all of that may be true, but I find that the most important theme that stems from this movie is Aristotalian... that is one's pursuit of happiness.
"Pick me out a winner Bobby." ... What a great film...