From The Natural in which nineteen-year-old pitching prospect Roy Hobbs strikes out the Babe Ruthian professional baseball star, The Whammer, at a county fair on three pitches.
The score and editing in this film are just magic, as is the entire film. I still recall seeing it in the theater with my mother upon first release. One of my fondest memories with her. At one time, Hollywood often made genuine art. Now they do live action comic books. What a sad tragedy.
I just like this scene for the insults that flew back and forth. "red nose", "green horn", "rum pot". Scary to think what the insults would be nowadays.
I think what I love so much about this scene is how it was shot. The beautiful sunset bathing everyone in the glow, playing ball in an open field. No matter how big the game can get, it always boils down to the beauty of it all.
Difficult to impossible to time the filming of a scene with the real sun. It takes all day to film a scene like this. The "sun" was probably faked with powerful lights.
What about Major League Back To The Minors? What about Angels In The Outfield? What about The Bad News Bears Go To Japan? What about Airbud: Seventh Inning Stretch? What about Ed? You have seriously got to watch more baseball movies! Live a little, FFS!
@@shelbyseelbach9568 What about the movies you mentioned. I can guarantee you are referring to Angels In The Outfield made in 1994 and not the original made in 1951. The better baseball movies are the bio-pics, Cobb, The Babe, Don't Look Back: The Satchel Paige Story and Eight Men Out. You can also back to vintage movies with Pride Of the Yankees, The Stratton Story and Rhubarb. You do not have a very good taste in baseball movies. Get a life FFS.
You can tell this is a warm summer night, with the moths flying around, and the ferris wheel in the background, and the men wearing buttoned up shirts, even in the heat. Beautiful cinematography.
So true. She was watching whammer from a distance on the train then rode w him. And a mention before this scene of another athlete killed by silver bullet. She was shooting athletes. Then later scene yrs later w old pic of Hobbs laid out shot and she was dead in the street. ☹️
One of the Best movies ever, in my opinion. When I was about 14ish, I watched it on VHS everyday after school for at least a month straight. Those movie rental late fees I paid where outrageous.
The look on Harriet's face when she shifted from Whammer to Hobbs was very telling. Hobbs saved Whammer and changed his own life on those 3 pitches and he didn't even know it.
Today a Marvel film would pander to the stupid and have character express this via unnecessary dialogue speech. In 1984 you could do it visually with just a look.
The Natural has a great story and a very good cast. For me though, I really loved the cinematography. The sets, costumes and the shadows and light really set this film apart. It's like it wrapped you up and took you back to an era and said, 'Here, look at this beautiful dream.'
It's the editing for me. The pacing is completely different. There are very good cinematographers still but the editing back then could allow a scene to breathe. They aren't like that now. It's rapid-paced. Everything's cut like a music video or an advertisement commercial. It's a mess.
This is such a classic sports movie, right up there with Hoosiers and Rudy. It's interesting that the music here is very similar to the music in Hoosiers.
One of the greatest movies. Spendid cast, production elements, score, script. All of it. One of Redfords best movies. Don't make movies like this a anymore.
@@christopherfoote4643 @cac productions the 1952 novel The Natural has a very dark ending, where Roy strikes out after having taken the Judge’s bribe to throw the game. No way Hollywood would have Robert Redford end up like that.
@@christopherfoote4643 Remember they are trying to sell the movie, not copy a book that's already been written, when the public puts down money to see a movie, they want a happy ending!
@@christopherfoote4643 Maybe Max was supposed to be the shadow of the devil, always using muses to temp you to the darkside, while he(Max) sits in the shadows, like the dark office at the ballpark??
Great scene in a terrific movie! I love how this scene, in the bright sunny part of the day, foreshadows the climactic ending with Hobbs batting against a young phenom at night with a storm approaching. Brilliant.
Too idealized for my liking. Not that I didn't watch & enjoy, just not my favorite. I saw Eddie Brinkman for the Tigers hit a two-run homer opening day 1972 (first in-person pro game I ever saw) for the win against the Red Sox, stadium went nuts as Brinkman was aging and not expected to be the hitting hero (great, dependable shortstop, hitting not so much) Still one of the best sports moments I've ever seen. Of course I was a Tigers fan, that helped!
I always love the moment when Robert Duvall realizes he remembers Hobbs from many years earlier. Time does that sometimes. He's trying and trying and just can't put a finger on where he remembers this guy then it hits him.
Actually I thought that was a little hokey. Certainly he would remember but maybe since it was sixteen years later he might have compartmentalized it. The whole jist of this sequence I think is lost in the subplot of Hobbs regaining his status. The Whammer said he would hit it to the Moon. It was meant to impress the lady figure who eventually cut Hobbs down to size. Hobbs took initiative into something he thought he should have seen coming but was too enraptured with the spectacle of it all. The ending really doesn't fit within the plotline. Probably what ought to have happened irrespective of what they presented was Hobbs at his peak. Striking out to a Whammer figure equally so enraptured. They kind of touched upon it. They just didn't follow through. Hobbs hitting a home run was ridiculous in that scenario because he was already corrupted. Am I the only one to notice it? He was already caught up in it.
@@christopherfoote4643 The novel takes more of the approach to which you allude, but then Hobbs is much more of a doomed and flawed figure in the book than he is portrayed in the movie. In the book, Hobbs’ ambition to be the best ever to the exclusion of other people and sensibilities is a tragic flaw that not only haunts his early life but continues to vex him to the end.
This scene was filmed in my hometown of South Dayton, NY. I remember news broadcasts looking for background characters. A classmate had a speaking role in the next scene (train chase scene) that boy is 51 yo now.
Three years later the train station scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" would be filmed in the same location. If you're ever in South Dayton, make sure to stop by the supermarket across the street from the old train stop and pick up some donuts. Best you'll ever have.
@@wexwuthor1776 I was doing that once in little league practice and a foul tip caught me on the eyebrow and opened up a nice cut that bled into my eye and ended that practice session for me.......60 years ago now.
I love everything about the Natural except the ending. In the original novel (one of the best sports novel ever), Hobbs is a much more flawed character. In fact, he strikes out (the reason he decided to play was because Iris is pregnant with his child so he needed to be able to support them). In the end Muncie (the reporter) discovers that Hobbs was paid to throw the game. The novel is as much about the loss of innocence, something that was basically ignored in the movie. While I appreciate the movie for bringing out what we love about the game, I wish it had been a little more realistic - like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.
@@jamesrawlins735 I appreciate your opinion, however I think with this film both instances could work. In this case, I really really enjoy this ending. It's not like typical you win it and everyone runs over and does their whole speech about how they knew, rather its majestic with the lights burning out, everyone cheering and its still not the championship game. So they could still have gone on to lose. All they do is secure a bid into the World Series and pop keeps the team. I also love the fact that when it does flash forward, he's out enjoying his time with his family and his son who he's rekindled a relationship with.
@@drfunk1986 I think as well the movie does show Hobbs as a flawed character, the difference being that he overcomes those flaws in the end compared to the book. The whole middle of the movie is about showing Roy Hobbs' flaws. I really don't see anything wrong with that. There's places for downer endings I suppose, but if a movie chooses to have a happy and hopeful ending I'm not going to fault it. There's enough things wrong with the world, we don't need fantasy and fiction bringing us down too, especially when it's the only thing we can guarantee to lift our spirits.
Part of why I hate Hollywood. In the book Roy strikes out at the end, but the folks in tinsel-town couldn’t have that so they changed it to him hitting a home run and busting all of the lights. It’s a much more emotional story the original way.
@@Alvan81 The dumbing down of Americans is a real thing. That's a part of it. People don't remember how scary WWII was, how uncertain it was and how much suffering happened for 15 + years
“You've got a gift Roy, but it's not enough -you've got to develop yourself. If you rely too much on your own gift then you'll fail.” Ed Hobbs (Roy’s father)
I'm pretty sure that "You've got a gift, Roy, but it's not enough" is echoed several times throughout the film, by Pop, The Judge, Max Mercy, and maybe Iris.
Two guys; one a pitcher with a 3 inch diameter ball and the other a batter with a 34 inch long chunk of an ash tree - can it get any better? Only if I am there watching them with a dog in one hand, a scorecard in the other and a cold one in the armrest. "It's a great day, let's play two!" Thanks Ernie . . .
I've always loved the first pitch in it being so fast, Whammer didn't even see it and reacts stunned after it hits the glove. That must've been how batters felt facing Nolan Ryan when he was throwing 105-108mph back in the 70's.
@@SilentKnight43 I disagree. Although golf is pretty bad, but at least you’re out walking around and interacting with your mates. It’s not exercise, and it’s not out in nature, but you’re not standing in a field picking your nose and scratching yourself either. I read a study once where they claimed the kids in the stands got more exercise than the kids playing.
have seen this flick 100 times... hope to see it a 1000 more. Will never get old.. the sound track fits in with every scene.. every scene made memorable with great acting and costumes... " you're right Memo.. we have met before" !
This is just my opinion but a much younger actor should have been chosen to portray Roy Hobbs in this opening scene of the film. He is only supposed to be nineteen but Robert Redford was actually in his forties at the time and unconvincing as a nineteen-year old.
@@ThePropertyHatsTeamatRNYRNJ Brad Pitt just might have been a good choice. I think he was only in his early twenties at the time this film was released.
This scene is based on a real event: a young woman named Jackie Mitchell actually struck out Babe Ruth _and_ Lou Gehrig, then walked Tony Lazzeri at a pickup/exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1931.
I really love this film by Barry levinsion he got a fantastic cast in the script was beautiful written also Robert redford was a fine thing in this movie also glenn close and kim basinger they were beautiful in this movie as well robert duvall was brilliant as the sports writer as well
There are a few movies where Wrigley was used but this isn't one of them. You can be forgiven for thinking it was with those lights on top of the stands. I thought the same until I looked it up.
Baseball is the best non-contact sport shown perfectly in this clip. It's the pitcher versus the batter one on one. No help from anyone. And the best man wins in front of everyone.
A perfect example of this was the Tigers' Dave Bergman's At Bat against the Blue Jays' Roy Lee Jackson on 4 June 1984... I wish this video showed the At Bat in its entirety-without the choppy graphic insertions-as it takes out the tense drama of the moment, but... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xn44Rsn9WlY.html
The film is good, but I love the score much much more, & even though he still had his leading man looks, Redford was clearly too old to play Roy Hobbs, too bad de-aging wasn't around yet!
Loved this movie when I Was a kid 11 yrs old and watched it back in 83 or 84 on HBO… played baseball as a kid and me and my friends took a magic marker and wrote “ wonder boy “ on our bats in hopes that we would hit a Homer.
The Natural is a 1984 American sports film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall.
