Bull Durham (1988)

The cover art for the 1988 movie Bull Durham, directed by Ron Shelton.
About the movie
  • Director: Ron Shelton
  • Starring: Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon
  • Yes or no?: Yes
  • Links: on Letterboxd, IMDb page
Other reviews:

I saw this many years ago, when it was pretty new, and I didn’t pay much attention. It seemed boring and not about baseball in the way Major League was about baseball so I didn’t care. That meant I had some vague idea that the movie was about a groupie-type who slept with minor leaguers and also some career minor leaguer who set the home run record. Maybe something about a hot new pitcher.

Not only did I not know anything about this movie, I had opinions about the cast. This one is inexcusable. I have never been a fan of Kevin Costner. It mostly stems from two things: his movies were boring when I was in my most formative years, and he was a total dweeb to Madonna in Truth or Dare. Like a super dork. It turned me off of him when his movies weren’t doing anything to help his case. So I’ve gone through life occasionally watching a Kevin Costner movie under duress and almost universally enjoying them—mostly him as an actor.

Bull Durham was a fantastic movie. Costner and Tim Robbins are so good in this. Susan Sarandon is excellent as well. Her performance was one I always had an opinion on for the dumbest reason. I remember my parents talking about this after seeing it when it was new, and they were disappointed that she actually sleeps with the players. They thought the movie would have been so much more interesting if she had simply read poetry, and that poetry is what made them all have career years. I couldn’t watch the movie without thinking that. For what it’s worth, that would change the movie too much—good idea, though.

Something that is very clear is that baseball is no longer like that. Even in the low minors, Nuke LaLooshes are all over the place. The game is just prospects with the role of the lifers played by the younger coaches that organizations have now. The bus leagues are still there, but I suspect they are quite a bit different.

I liked this quite a bit and will probably watch it again in a couple of years. I took a few notes as I watched:

  • “I’m the player to be named later”, great entrance line and most “what Ryan thinks of Kevin Costner” thing ever.
  • The whole thing about throwing the first ball fastball to the guy where Crash tells him what’s coming? What’s the lesson in that? Crash is just a dick. He should’ve just let the guy think fastball as he said he would be doing and seeing if he can hit it, because Nuke said he hadn’t seen his fastball. Give him the chance.
  • Annie’s breakdown is kind of weird. First of all it’s like 12 days that she hasn’t had sex or something like that. It makes her weaker character not nearly as impressive as she could have been.
  • I love that Costner’s head sags when he’s told there might be a manager opening next year in Visalia, like that’s the worst place you could go. It might be. He’s from there.

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November 08, 2024
Tags: susan sarandon | tim robbins | kevin costner | baseball