Well, Mr. Redford has done it, the New York Knights have won it...

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2019)

It all starts with the idyllic postcard-picture of an Iowa or a Nebraska farm, a kid named Roy Hobbs is playing baseball with Daddy, he pitches the ball in the same spot drawn by his father, he's a natural we get it, but that's not enough. I thought what was missing was something from the heart: guts or determination, how wrong I was: it's all about the elements. The lightning struck the mighty oak tree under which his father collapsed to death, splitting it in two (the tree, not the father) then Roy took a piece of wood and carved it out into a baseball bat, calling it "Wonderboy" with a lightning bolt Ã la AC/DC, at that moment, I kept hearing that name being whispered in my head: Home...r... no, not home-run but Homer like Homer Simpson.
The 'Wonderboy' sequence inspired the first act of the legendary "Homer at the Bat", the one that started the Golden Age, and the music was used in another episode where Homer fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams by scoring a perfect 300 at the bowling game. Yes, there's something magical about that story and that Randy Newman's triumphant Wagnerian score, something that inspired the highest point of the life of all American hero: Homer. There's a catch though (no pun intended), "The Simpsons" is made for laughs. I'm not too sure bout "The Natural", Barry Levinson's adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name.
In many aspects, the film is similar to "Field of Dreams" and I must applaud its daringness. it embraces a sort of metaphysical vision of base-ball, revisiting America's favorite pastime through an almost mythological hero, a man with a gift for baseball and for troubles in the same time, a man whose aura carries some fantasy chosen-one element and yet for some reason, never seems to get even with Karma. Indeed, when we first see him at 19, striking the Babe-Ruth lookalike Whammer (Joe Don Baker) out on three pitches, it's like nothing can stop him, except maybe a silver bullet, cutting through his stomach and his promising career. I was caught off-guard by that moment and I thought the film had succeeded in its opening part... though it asks us a lot in terms of suspension of disbelief to make a 48-year old Redford pass for a young man, and it doesn't get better after.
For instance, when 16 year after the incident, he's hired to play for the New York Knights, the coach Pop (Wilford Brimley) never gives him a chance to show his talent and keeps him on the bench all the time. Granted he's the boss but when your club is sitting in last place, what can you lose? Roy could have pitched himself (so to speak), told the Whammer story, but no, we have to wait for the right moment so he can knock the cover off the baseball. Yes, it's spectacular, it's rewarding to some degree, but that's the film's problem: it always waits for the convenient moment, and even when it is effective and overwhelming but there's something a bit artificial about the pacing, and maybe worse, the characterization.
Robert Redford is heaven to look at and I'm straight like an "I" but Ebert is right in his assumption that the film is more enamored with the figure of Hobbs and his glowing blondish halo than it is with baseball, it's never Hobbs who's instrumental to the beauty of the sport but rather the opposite. And everyone around Hobbs is corrupt and malicious to a degree it gets ridiculous, the manager (Robert Prosky) uses bets against his own team (has anyone learned the lesson from 1919?), a beautiful woman (Kim Basinger) sees the best interests for her in a relationship with Hobbs and so does a manipulative bookie (Darren McGavin), and finally a cynical journalist (Robert Duvall) makes or breaks careers without any scruple as long as it makes good money.
In that microcosm, where the odds and the Gods are against him, Hobbs can only count on a few supporters: Farnsworth as the bench coach with a benevolent smile, Glenn Close as his sweetheart and lady-in-white Iris with a mysterious angel-like aura, enough to earn her an Oscar nomination, and don't get me started on the constantly smiling bat boy who looks like a picture you'd find in a peanut butter jar smile, that kid almost gave me ulcers. So for all its love letter to baseball, the bad guys have absolutely no redeeming qualities, the good guys believe in Hobbs in some saintly way, they're all as two-dimensional as an ad poster, and in that flood of good sentiment, somewhat I wished baseball could find a way and provide something a more intellectually challenging.
I read that the original novel was darker and had a more complex ending but "The Natural" seems to follow Hobbs' journey without even caring to explain anything. And many things do happen for no specific reason, there's a character played by Michael Madsen as star outfielder whose exit comes totally out of nowhere so I was wondering whether it was to be taken humorously or not, but of the many points that compromises the film's enjoyment and credibility, the worst is perhaps the ending. Say what you want, the deal was clear between Hobbs' choice to play... and the alternative and the final shot made me wonder if it was intended as a fantasy or reality, in both ways, it was a spectacular concession for fireworks but a bad move that contradicted the film's message. If there ever was.