Allegory about life, a good "8" of 10 film on a baseball theme.

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2001)

SPOILERS - One of the more puzzling aspects of "The Natural" is the absence of Darren McGavin from the credits, since his character is the second most important in the whole story. Right before it came on AMC last night, the introduction said that it is an allegory, so I suppose my review would not be complete without my interpretation of that.
We first see that Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is a "natural" in baseball, grows up at age 20 to be a pitching phenom, and on a train stop as he was going forward with his dream of "I want to walk down the street and have people say 'he was the best ever'", in a dare and a bet he strikes out the "Whammer" (Babe Ruth?) in 3 pitches. A lady (Barbara Hershey) seems attracted to him, but when he restates that he only wants to "be recognized as the best ever", she shoots him, in the side, and we learn later that she threw herself off a high place onto the street below, dead. We find out much later that McGavin's character had lost $100,000 on that wager, "and I took care of him." Meaning, he was the one who hired the Hershey character to shoot Hobbs. Hobbs only realizes that at the finale, when he has to choose whether to try and win the game, or give in to McGavin's attempt to fix the game.
Meanwhile, back at the beginning, Hobbs was out of baseball 16 years, recovering from his gunshot, and dealing with his infatuation with the temptress known as "fame." He is recruited as a 35-yr-old rookie, almost never gets into a game, and finally using his bat carved from the old lightning-struck tree, becomes a batting phenom, the best hitter they ever saw. When he starts fooling around with temptress Kim Basinger, he suddenly cannot hit anymore. When he sees Glen Close again, he suddenly becomes a hitting machine again. He ultimately wins the big playoff game, sending the bad guys reeling.
At one point, Close's character tells Hobbs, "I believe we have two lives, the one we learn with, and the one we live with." Hobbs was a victim of the want of "fame", so much so it de-railed his career. Only after he learned to play baseball for the sheer enjoyment of it did he achieve the success he wanted, but "fame" was no longer a need. It is almost the same theme in "Big", where Hanks' character is a success because he remains a kid, enjoying what he is doing, while all the others just want to run a business and make a buck.
Good movie, Redford is always good. The baseball sequences are fairly well done, and the moral is positive. I think many who enjoyed Costner's "For Love of the Game" would also enjoy "The Natural."