The Natural | | Cast : | Robert Redford, Robert Duvall | | Director : | Barry Levinson | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | May 11, 1984 | | DVD Released Date : | April 06, 2004 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Thai (Subtitled), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 22, 2005 | | Summary | Suspend Disbelief and Enjoy. | Content
 | Whenever I tell people how much I cherish The Natural, I often get the "do you still believe in the Easter bunny" look. Occasionally someone may throw out a dig about Robert Redford, but, even though I'm not a fan, I have to give him his due because he's so authentic in this role.
Yes, I suppose we could criticize this grand tale for several of its melodramatic conversations and scenarios. We might also wonder as to how "major league" teams continued to pitch, as opposed to intentionally walk, a guy consistently shattering the infrastructure of ball yards and sporting a batting average around .500. However, from the very beginning, we are made aware that this is a tale of fantasy and that it is necessary to suspend our disbelief.
The cast is superb and it isn't just the stars who glimmer. Wilford Brimley's Pop and Richard Farnsworth's Red are quite special. The chemistry between them is superb and both are extremely believable in the role of baseball old timers. Like Hobbs, they are remnants from a rural, simpler age that is no more. Pop even repeatedly wishes that he would have become a farmer rather than gone into baseball.
Kim Basinger plays Memo "I've known a million guys" Paris who, along with Barbara Hershey, are the embodiment of the femme fatale. Both are horrendous, and near lethal, influences on Redford. As Basinger's romance with the right fielder escalates, his performance on the diamond declines. In few situations in life or fiction are characters as black/white and good/evil as they are here. The Madonna/whore dichotomy has never been more apparent (outside of The Bible) as Glenn Close's Iris can be perfectly juxtaposed with the two Jezebels. She is as pure as Holy Water. Redford's sincerity in regard to her cannot be questioned. Indeed, he says, "Are you married?" seconds after being reunited with her after. When he looks at Iris, Redford's mind is fixed on only one thing: lifelong devotion.
As far as classic moments in film go, I can think of few as touching as when the camera catches Pop's expression as Roy Hobbs runs the bases while, in his glasses, we see the bursting of stadium lights. Few experiences are as rewarding as helping another when you are the only hope they have left.
The Natural is a marvelous antidote to societal reserve and restraint; even if it only lasts a few hours. It's cleansing to cheer for characters who lack a dark side, and inspirational to watch them trounce the bad guys. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 18, 2005 | | Summary | "A home run of a film..." | Content
| The story of a one-time baseball prodigy getting a second chance to participate in the sport he loves couldn't have been better presented for the screen than in "The Natural." I have heard griping from fans of the novel on which the movie is based, but I never read it, so I have nothing to complain about.
Mostly set in the 1930's, this film portrays baseball when it was truly America's favorite pass-time (although some will say it still is). Sterroids and cork-enhanced bats are nowhere to be found in this movie, and the absence of these things gives baseball a sense of purity that is harder to find today. "The Natural" is a home run of a film that can be enjoyed even by those who don't like baseball.
At the beginning of the film, baseball "natural" Roy Hobbs is on his way to a tryout for a major-league team. He leaves behind his childhood sweetheart, whom he promises to marry in the future. On the way, he shows flashes of talent when he strikes out baseball legend "The Whammer" at a local fair. Sportswriter Max Mercy witnesses this event, and he is all set to aid Hobbs on the road to fame. Unfortunately, a seemingly-unstable woman shoots Hobbs in his hotel before he even gets to try out. Supposedly gone are Hobbs's dreams of being "the best there ever was..."
Sixteen years later, with the help of a special bat nicknamed "Wonderboy", Roy Hobbs finally gets his chance to make a name for himself in the majors.
Robert Redford leads an all-star cast as Roy Hobbs. The movie is mainly about Redford's character, so he is given the juiciest scenes, which is good, because Redford is perfect in the role. Robert Duvall is equally perfect as Max Mercy, the sportswriter who constantly runs into Hobbs. Kim Basinger, Glenn Close, and Richard Farnsworth are only a few of the actors/actresses featured in this movie. The photography is terrific, and Randy Newman provides a wonderful musical score.
My favorite scenes in the movie include:
-The first glimpse of Roy Hobbs, as a kid, catching a fly ball in a field by his farm.
-Hobbs's first major league hit, a triple, where he knocks the cover off the ball with "Wonderboy".
-Hobbs's home-run against the Chicago Cubs, where the ball shatters the clock next to the scoreboard.
-Hobbs's last game (I told you Redford had all the best scenes), where he hits a home-run (without "Wonderboy"!) and the ball hits the lights and they explode like a giant fireworks display.
Special features on the DVD include a unique, exclusive documentary featuring words from Cal Ripken Jr. and director Barry Levinson. The theatrical trailer is also available. The movie itself presents great picture and sound.
"The Natural", all in all, is a sports movie that should not be missed.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2005 | | Summary | Baseball as the Great American Myth | Content
| A so-so movie, especially when compared to the novel by Bernard Malamud. The plodding Robert Redford plays an aging ballplayer, Roy Hobbs, who years before showed great promise as a rookie, but had that all go down the tubes when a woman shot him in the stomach. So now, recovered, he's hired to play on the crummy NY Knights, whose owner has secretly bet they'd lose. When Redford does good and the team is on the verge of winning, he has him poisoned. But, of course, Redford drags himself to the plate near the end of the deciding game and hits a thunderous homerun that shatters the lights of the stadium.
Malamud believed that baseball was America's great myth, and he stocked his novel with all sorts of mythological elements: the hero coming through against adversity, the "magic" bat called Wonderboy (think Excalibar), the great final feat. But unlike all great heroes (at least in fiction), Redford doesn't die at the end (in the novel Hobbs does die), but instead gets the girl. Hollywood strikes again. Rather a letdown, but so's the whole movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 20, 2005 | | Summary | One of the best baseball films ever produced... | Content
| Nominated for four Academy Awards, The Natural is one of Robert Redford's best pictures. The breathtaking cinematography, coupled with the bold original score by Randy Newman, makes The Natural one of the most memorable films of its time. A classic baseball film, based on the best-selling novel, the movie has managed to insert itself into the pop culture. Certainly no little league player, nor major league player for that matter, can escape the sounds of Roy Hobbs and his mystical abilities when stepping into the batter's box with the game on the line... The Natural is quite simply one of the best baseball films around - up there with Field Of Dreams, Eight Men Out, and Major League...
Written more like a fairy tale than a modern drama, The Natural follows the life and times of Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), a man trained from his earliest days to love the game of baseball by his father. When the boy's father dies of a heart attack on the family farm, Roy uses the wood from the lightning-felled tree under which his father died to fashion a homemade baseball bat. In love with the girl next door, Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), Roy leaves the farm after promising to come back to her in order to pursue a tryout as a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. But Roy never makes it back...
Mysteriously shot by a woman he meets in a hotel room, Roy's career is nearly ended by internal injuries. When Roy reappears twenty years later as a forty-year-old rookie for a last place team, he faces opposition from the team coach Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) who believes his business partner, The Judge (Robert Prosky), is intentionally sabotaging the team in an effort to cheat Pop Fisher out of his ownership shares. But when Pop Fisher finds out that Hobbs can not only play, but is the best player to ever set foot on a baseball diamond, the team's losing ways are put to an end - at least until Hobbs decides to complicate his life further...
Involving himself with Pop's niece, Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), Roy finds the level of his game dropping off. Despite Pop's warnings, Roy develops a relationship with the girl who is in partnership with the Judge to keep the team stuck in its losing ways. However, when Iris reenters Roy's life (along with her teenage son), Roy's play begins to pick up. But the championship is in jeopardy when a familiar reporter, Max Mercy (Robert Duvall), comes dangerously close to uncovering Roy Hobbs's mysterious past and internal bleeding threatens the life and career of the game's greatest slugger...
Sporting a different (Hollywood-ized) ending from the novel which spawned its release, The Natural is nonetheless one of the most inspiring, feel good movies of all time. The 1930's setting, and the seemingly one-dimensional characters, create an innocence of times past that make this movie seem like a flashback to the Frank Capra era. The musical score will create a literal tingling in your bones, and the hero-wins screenplay is one to be appreciated in this era of cynic realism. All these aspects of the film work together to make The Natural one of the most entertaining films around as well as earn it the designation of a must-see film... Pop this one into the DVD player and go live the magic!
The DVD Report |
| Rating | | | Date | April 09, 2005 | | Summary | Read the book | Content
| The book was one of the best sports novels I've ever read, the movie pales in comparison. Bernard Malmud deserves the recognition for this great story, not Redford. If you've already seen the movie, don't spoil it for your kids, get them to read the book first. |
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