The Natural

5/11/19842h 17m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ He lived for a dream that wouldn't die. ~

Overview:

An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.

Director:

Barry Levinson

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$28,000,000.00

Revenue:

$48,000,000.00

Key words:

corruption
sports
baseball
attempted murder
talent
redemption
child prodigy
femme fatale
lightning bolt
hdd

Cast

Robert Redford

~ as ~

Roy Hobbs

Robert Duvall

~ as ~

Max Mercy

Glenn Close

~ as ~

Iris Gaines

Kim Basinger

~ as ~

Memo Paris

Wilford Brimley

~ as ~

Pop Fisher

Barbara Hershey

~ as ~

Harriet Bird

Robert Prosky

~ as ~

The Judge

Richard Farnsworth

~ as ~

Red Blow

Joe Don Baker

~ as ~

The Whammer

Darren McGavin

~ as ~

Gus Sands (uncredited)

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

John Chard
Written 10 year(s) ago
8.5
The Wonder of Wonderboy.

The Natural is directed by Barry Levinson and adapted to screenplay by Roger Towne & Phil Dusenberry from the novel written by Bernard Malamud. It stars Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky and Richard Farnsworth. Music is by Randy Newman and cinematography by Caleb Deschanel.

The Natural is a wistful sports movie, one that asks every person who views it to buy into the whimsy and mythologising on show. If able to do that then it's a film of beguiling beauty, awash with strength of the human spirit and of luscious technical credits. The Arthurian core to Roy Hobbs' (Redford a superb presence yet calmness personified) second chance ensures we always know this is fanciful stuff, but that's just fine, we are in Field of Dreams territory here and fans of such fare are rewarded royally. Period art design, photography and musical score are grade "A", snuggling up nicely with a support cast to Redford that is of high end proportions. If it's in you and you know what sort of film to expect, you may well, come the end, be punching the air whilst having a tear in your eye. Lovely film making. 8.5/10
Peter McGinn
Written 5 year(s) ago
7
Many, many years ago when I was a bit of a sports fan, I remember reading stories about scouts who had seen athletes in the olden days like Roy Hobbs. Players who could hit a ball a mile or throw a hundred mile per hour fastball, but who never made it to the big league for some reason. But of course, this movie is based on a novel by Bernard Malamud, though there are hints of actual events here and there.

It is an entertaining movie, presenting baseball as America’s game and therefore, ultimately, above corruption. It has an old timey feel, perhaps even older than the 1939 setting that is presented. The movie is less gloomy than the book, and I guess the purists don’t like that, but for me, life is gloomy enough and the mood and ending were just fine with me. (And I did read the book.) Since actual events and people from bygone days are cleaned up and mythologized for our history books, why get upset when fictional stories are purified with a rose colored lens?