Out of Left Field: What Makes a Good Baseball Movie
For one reason or the other, sports are one of the hardest things to translate onto the silver screen, which is surprising because of the natural drama that is created on the field, the court or the diamond. Every sport has its defining moments and characters in history that have shaped eras, but those moments rarely create great fiction.
Exceptions to the rule include the uber-patriotic Miracle and the sappy but always tear-jerking classic Brian’s Song, but baseball films tend to lack that same passion and drama in recent years.
This is particularly surprising due to baseball’s long history and tremendously entertaining leading characters. Babe Ruth drank like a fish and ate up the press every minute of the day, but 1992’s The Babe fell flat. Ty Cobb once nearly beat a fan to death during a game, but 1994’s Cobb went mostly unnoticed.
Recently, 42 the story of Jackie Robinson’s trepidatious first year with the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American to play organized white baseball tried to break this spell. Although it is a fine film with a great performance by Harrison Ford as Baseball Hall of Famer Branch Rickey it too falls short of that dramatic punch that fictionalized stories like The Natural and Field of Dreams thrive off of.
There are few true (or mostly true) films that get you there. A League of There Own and Eight Men Out illustrate small parts of baseball history wonderfully while the filmmakers still display a keen knowledge of the sport and a love of the game. Moneyball also is a good flick, but it sticks mostly with the movements in the front office than of that on the field.
Humor is also an important part of what makes baseball so great. The Bad News Bears, Major League and Bull Durham all mix the comedy of errors that baseball is on the field and off incredibly well.
In the end, only a few baseball movies have truly hit the mark well. Bull Durham and The Natural are quite often sited as two of the best, but many more with good intention, such as For the Love of the Game and The Rookie have fallen just short.
With all the drama and fun surrounding the great game of baseball it is hard to say what must be done to make a great baseball film. Humor is an important factor, but the heart-pounding action and drama that is so rarely seen in sports films is also a necessity.
So while I sit here and wait for the next Natural to hit the theaters, maybe something truly fresh will sneak up on me when I least expect it. Play Ball!
Mostly I'm Right 