The Natural

At the beginning of every baseball season I always have to watch my favorite baseball movie of all time, The Natural. Based upon the novel by Bernard Malamud, Robert Redford depicts Roy Hobbs one of the most famous athletes ever created by an author. The story of The Natural is epic, everything from his infamous bat (wonderboy), to him hitting the cover off of a baseball, and finally the final scene that sees Hobbs hit a home run into the light tower. Robert Redford couldn't be more perfect for the role, which is a major part of the reason why the movie was so successful.

Many people would say that the movie version of The Natural has a number of major errors. Mostly, these errors are due to Barry Levinson (the director) changing the story a bit to make the story better for a movie. The most glaring error of course is the final scene. Where in the novel, Hobbs strikes out when he has a chance to win the game. Letting himself and his teammates down after everything was going right for him. In the movie, the script is changed so that Hobbs actually hits a game winning home run instead.

Book junkies would argue that Hobbs hitting a home run completely takes away from the point of the novel. Things aren't supposed to work out for Roy Hobbs, and the rest of the novel doesn't make much sense if he succeeds in the end. Having said that, there isn't a kid that grew up loving baseball that doesn't love the movie version. Casting is such an important aspect of movie making, and every character in the novel was perfectly casted in the movie. Redford is Roy Hobbs, I think they are actually the same person. And Glenn Close is exactly how Iris is depicted in the novel as well.

Although Levinson did change some major events from the novel in his movie version, he accurately portrayed every single character. I think when you are making a movie out of a book that is what one of the hardest aspects. To make sure that all the characters are accurately shown like they are read in the novel. The Natural is definitely a great example of good casting.

Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet died yesterday at the age of 86. He is one of the directors that made an everlasting impression in my life and career. He made over 50 films of which many are masterpieces of American Cinema. The first one I saw in the early 60's was The Pawnbroker which left me stunned with its raw power and its fearless look into ills of society that were not the stuff of Hollywood movies, but then again, he was a New Yorker and his films were as unadorned as the City can be.

After that film I made sure I saw everyone of them. In just two years Fail Safe and The Hill came out. I was in film heaven, a very angry heaven!

Maybe you have seen Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Prince of the City, The Verdict, or his last one, appropriately called, Before the Devil Knows you are Dead. He worked with some of the best and most important actors that any director could wish to work with, and got extraordinary realistic performances out of them.

He made history, and he lived during our time.