Who gets the bill for the broken clock?

Rating: 9/10 (11 May 2016)

In the most famous scene from this modern baseball classic, struggling middle aged professional baseball player Robert Redford strikes gold after a spell of strike outs. It's thanks to the presence of a majestic lady in white (Glenn Close) who stands up to guide him to his big hit. Redford, as comeback king Roy Hobbs is a mystery man who all who knows him, and even though they haven't seen each other in years, it is Close who knows him best.
Wouldn't you be a bit of a mystery man if all of a sudden, you were shot for some unknown reason by a mysterious dark haired vixen who claimed that they were fascinated by your talents? Barbara Hershey is briefly seen as this mysterious femme fatale, and after that, it is surprising that he could ever trust a woman again. Along the way he meets another vixen, Kim Basinger, who distracts him into loosing, and the question becomes, "Why?"
Not just a film for baseball fans, this is a look at every young boy's American dream. Whether it be baseball player, fireman or even president of the United States, it is a look at how good intentions come out of the Innocence of childhood, and how dishonest people can step in the way of one's dreams.
Certainly one of the great modern baseball classics, it is even better then the mystical "Field of Dreams" which had little to do with professional baseball other than solving an issue for the film's hero, Kevin Costner. If Costner was the All- American hero of the 1990's, Robert Redford dominated much of the sixties, seventies and eighties with his easygoing personality, way with the ladies and his determination to make films that were artistic as well as entertaining.
The cast is excellent, although I've never been quite convinced that Kim Basinger was one of the great beauties of the last 30 years in films. Glenn Close, on the other hand, had a realistic beauty that shines in the scene where she stands up in the Chicago baseball stadium. Some movie fans ridicule her as being somewhat haggard, but I've never looked at her that way. If you don't find the fact that she is indeed beautiful, watch this film and think again. I would rather have the girl next door that look like Glenn Close rather than a buxom vixen like Basinger who uses sex to sell.
As Redford's mentors on the baseball team, the fictional New York Knights, Wilford Brimley and Richard Farnsworth are particularly outstanding. Brimley is that grouchy old grandfather we all know and love, knowing that underneath that gruffness is a huge heart of gold. Farnsworth is more quiet, and the wisdom that he silently conveyed to the complaining Brimley is something that you can take to heart. Less honorable are the characters played by Robert Duvall and Robert Brodsky, the later cast as an amoral judge who instantly wants to see Redford suppressed as a baseball superstar.
While not an obsessive baseball fan, I can still appreciate the fascination with the sport, having grown up with professional games going to the Pittsburgh Pirates when they were at Three Rivers Stadium. I remember as a child the way I felt being in the presence of the All American Heroes and when I saw the film in its original release, those memories came back to me along with the excited looks of the two youngsters who popped in and out, looking up to Redford as their own hero. This does take a realistic look at the rivalry between players on the same team, some jealous or envious of Redford, referring to him as that old man since they obviously don't have the power he has. I wish I had a baseball bat like wonder boy when I was a kid. Of all the professional sports, baseball remains the most all American, and it is films like this that celebrate that sport's greatest qualities.