Celebrate America's Birth With America's Game..."Major League"

Major League (1989)

Rated R for language

Starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Wesley Snipes, Bob Ueker, Margaret Whitton, Rene Russo, Dennis Haysbert

Written an Directed by David Ward

The Story:

The owner of the Cleveland Indians is dead.  His widow (Whitton) decides to field the worst possible team that money can't buy so that attendance will drop so low, she will be able to leave Cleveland and take her talents to South Beach.

Hey wait a minute...

:)

There's no crying in baseball.

But there is laughing, and Major League will score laughs from beginning to end.

One of 2 classic baseball movies released in 1989 (Field of Dreams), both have endured as baseball classics, and I would say it is safe to say, movie classics as well.

For a quarter of a century, these two have ranked, easily, in my top 5 baseball movies, and also part of a great bumper crop of classics released in 1989.

Strangely, I'm not really a baseball fan, but I do love a good baseball movie.  I guess because they are inherently faster, and things actually happen.

:)

Needless to say, the team and coach defy expectations and rally to turn the franchise around, and make the Cleveland Indians a respectable team.

Shortly after the release of Major League, the Indians actually began to turn their franchise around.

Life imitating art.

Pretty cool.

As you can see by the cast, I've left several people off the list.  While Berenger was the "star" of the film, it really was an ensemble with every player being an important part of the team. 

It was a breakout role for Snipes as Willie Mayes Hayes.

It was also the big screen debut of Rene Russo.

And Bob Ueker nearly steals every moment he's in the film with his play by play.

There's a lot to like about this film, so get to it!

Watch the movie, especially if it's been anywhere close to 25 years since you last saw it.

Otherwise you might risk offending Jobu!

:)

Currently available to stream on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I already own it, and it gets a spin every so often.  Hilarious every time.

100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 59 ~ Field of Dreams

There's no crying in baseball.

However, when you watch a really good baseball movie, it's quite possible that it will happen.

At least once.

Which leads us to today's movie, Field of Dreams.

The last, and finest, of the baseball movies on the countdown, Kevin Costner shines as Ray Kinsella, a man who is told "if you build it, they will come", yet has no earthly idea what it is, or who is coming.

A struggling Iowa corn-farmer, Ray naturally plows half of his crop under and builds a baseball diamond on his property.  The crazy voices continue to guide Ray literally across America as he finds a voice from the past, and a doctor who has passed away.

Sure, it sounds crazy on paper, but man, it sure works on the silver screen.

Pick your meaning behind the film.  There are several that could be found, and all of them have merit in discussions of what makes this film tick.

I'll stick with the performances.  This is Costner's finest that I have seen.  For the record, Silverado and Tin Cup round out his top 3.  He is pitch perfect as a beleaguered farmer who has no idea why the voices are talking to him, and even when he gives in, he still wonders, why him, and what does it all mean?

James Earl Jones brings weight and humor to his role as that voice from the 60s who gave a generation advice, then disappeared. 

The icing on the cake for me though, is the story of Doc Graham.  This is one of the two Kleenex moments in the film.  Burt Lancaster plays the Doc, a man who never got a chance to make it in the Big Leagues, but what a difference he made in the lives of everyone he met after he became a doctor.  Doc is given a chance to relive the game, but then fate steps in and Doc has to make a choice.

Yeah, it gets me every time.

It also irritates me that the parents couldn't figure out what to do, and save me some tears!

The final scene you need Kleenex for?

That would be the "wanna play catch" scene. 

What kid wouldn't want the chance to spend some time with their dad, just one more time?