Read the arguments from Bleacher Fan and Loyal Homer about which move they believe, on this Black Friday of shopping, is THE movie a gal should pick up for her guy today. The BEST sports movie of all time.
“Who’s this? Who are you?” said Durham Bulls assistant coach Larry Hockett.
“I’m the player to be named later,” said Crash Davis.
While the headline states all of my feelings about this debate (and, in the spirit of the website, I shall still provide an easy argument for Bull Durham is, hands down, the best sports movie ever, and a MUST buy for those wives out shopping for husbands today), but the opening quote captures the essence of what makes Bull Durham the greatest sports movie of all time. Not only is it funny, it is real. It is not about glorious comebacks, underdog stories, and rags to riches sports clichés. It is about real people whose lives just so happen to revolve around baseball.
Classic, hilarious exchanges between characters are enough to pull in any viewer the first time they watch this film. A few examples.
Head Coach Joe Reardon: He walked 18.
Larry Hockett: New league record!
Reardon: Struck out 18.
Hockett: Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice…
[Joe laughs]
Hockett: Also new league records! But, Joe, this guy’s got some serious sh*t.
Crash Davis: It’s time to work on your interviews.
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do?
Crash Davis: You’re gonna have to learn your clichés. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down: “We gotta play it one day at a time.”
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play… it’s pretty boring.
Crash Davis: ‘Course it’s boring, that’s the point. Write it down.
Joe: You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!
Larry: Lollygaggers?!
Joe: Lollygaggers.
But, it is the surprising insight and thoughtfulness that makes this movie watchable 100 times and worth owning. It is not just humor that makes the film great, it is the insightful quotes and exchanges that demonstrate a depth of sarcastic understanding of life and sports – a humanity that simply is not present in other sports films.
Of all American sports, baseball is the most literary and inspirational. No sports movie captures and builds on that fact better than Bull Durham. For example, Annie Savoy says in the beginning of the film, “There are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance.” While countless baseball writers, some of which are in the writing wing in the Cooperstown, have used the Cathedral cliché to refer to baseball stadiums, no writing or film transforms the hackneyed elements of baseball’s literary value into creative and inspiring moments like Bull Durham.
Bull Durham is the best movie for all Sports Geeks. The allusions and metaphors do not stop with religion. For example, Crash Davis is mentoring Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh on the mound during a game when he says, “Relax, all right? Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls – it’s more democratic.” He’s right. Only the pitcher and catcher enjoy a strikeout while a grounder allows everyone to decide the outcome. The writing in the film is smart, face-paced, and witty. One of the many reasons why it has attained legendary status.
Bull Durham also dispenses valuable advice for folks with ambitious career plans. Crash tells Nuke after a particularly poor outing, “Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press’ll think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.” It is that tried and true business/career expression – dress for the job you want, not the job you have.
The acting is great, the writing is better, and it is the characters that define Bull Durham as a classic film. From the meeting at the mound during a game to discuss gift ideas for a teammate’s wedding and ways to resolve the curse on a glove to wearing women’s underwear and breathing out of the proper eyelid to improve pitching, Bull Durham artfully digs at the fundamental psychology of sports and brings it back to the essence of humanity.
More than anything, Bull Durham is a sports movie designed for sports fans. Real, diehard sports fans. And, unlike many other movies built for the same audience, Bull Durham delivers.
Fittingly, the last line of the film makes the most sense for the last line of this article.
Annie Savoy says, “Walt Whitman once said, ‘I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.’ You could look it up.”
November 27, 2009 at 2:28 pm |
I’m old school…how can any argument about sports movies be taken seriously without including “Rudy” and “Hoosiers”?
November 28, 2009 at 11:27 am |
Quite easily! It’s evident to me that Bull Durham captures the realities and humor to sports better than any other sports movie. Why do you prefer Rudy and Hoosiers?
November 29, 2009 at 9:48 pm |
Old School,
‘Rudy’ and ‘Hoosiers’ are great movies, but there is nothing unique or special about them. They are no different than any other “inspirational” sports movie.
They’re the exact same movie as ‘The Mighty Ducks’, ‘Miracle’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Beerfest’, ‘Major League’, ‘Angels in the Outfield’, ‘Cinderella Man’ or ‘Necessary Roughness’, to name just a few movies off the top of my head.
Whether the movie is drama, comedy, dramedy, or any other genre you want to call it, the premise is IDENTICAL within each of the movies listed above, INCLUDING ‘Rudy’ and ‘Hoosiers’. Each is about a person or group of people who are not expected to succeed, but through hard work, dedication, and a refusal to be told that they “just aren’t good enough”, they end up achieving great things.
I’ll say it again – they make entertaining stories, but they are all EXACTLY the same.
November 28, 2009 at 3:10 pm |
They are both real life movies. Events that actually happened. I understand that they were both “Hollywooded up.” But,they were real events!!
November 28, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
It is true that those movies depict real life. However, I get all the real life I need in the news. For movies, I prefer they make me think and make me laugh. That’s why no sports movie fits that criteria like Bull Durham.