5/5 Roy Hobbs path to glory will reel you in...
  by Daniel H. Price (tucson, arizona)
Roy Hobbs path to glory will reel you in, in this outstanding baseball movie...it's all fiction...but it seems so real. In one scene Hobbs, played by Robert Redford, knocks the cover off the baseball and nothing is left but a gobbled mess of strings. The opposing players and coaches look on in amazement. And so will you as you follow Hobbs through an assortment of characters...including amazing character actors like Wilfred Brimley, Richard Farnsworth and Robert Duvall, just to name a few. The cast is wonderful and the movie is simply a "must see" for a baseball player, young or old.

2/5 Overrated tripe
  by One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:

A baseball movie that knows nothing about the sport (Roy Hobbs is a pitcher the first time we see him and, inexplicably, a slugging right fielder the next time he's on screen) and attempts to impose a larger-than-life mythological feel on a simple story that manifestly cannot support it, The Natural is an overlong, overrated, and unenjoyable film that didn't even have the guts to follow its source novel to the dark conclusion the plot warrants.

2/4

5/5 "I believe we have two lives..."
  by Natalie Dressed
...and so does The Natural. I've become a fan all over again.

NOTE: This review concerns the 2007 two-disc DVD director's cut.

I loved the orginal version of the 1984 baseball film classic, but IMO director Barry Levinson's reworking of his own film has improved it. In his brief video introduction to this edition, he explains why he dared to tamper with success.

Levinson's recutting of the opening sequence, utilizing flashbacks with some previously unseen footage, now provides more background and motivation for Roy Hobbs' belated return to the game he excelled at in his youth. Other bits added throughout the picture have enhanced every principal actor's character and performance. It's amazing how just one added look, move or scene can change an opinion, illuminate a detail or explain something important. Another reviewer here noted that the music has been edited to be less obtrusive and declaritive; I listened closely and agree that was a good move. Thus, the new version is truer to Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel, which had a darker post-WWII point of view, but it's still the same awesomely inspiring sports film classic we fell in love with -- just a tad more realistic.

Technically speaking, this DVD hits a homer. A high-def digital transfer was made from the original print; images are clean and sharp. This has improved the detail and look of some dingy and muddy-looking scenes, like those in the Judge's darkened office. Also, the sound track has been upgraded to Dolby Digital 5:1. Now the bats crrRACK! and the crowds ROAR! Randy Newman's anthem-like theme gets the rock-star treatment it deserves and right when it should.

Other reasons to get this version include these featurettes on Disc Two:

When Lightning Strikes: Creating The Natural
Clubhouse Conversations
A Natural Gunned Down: The Stalking of Eddie Waitkus
Knights In Shining Armor: The Mythology of The Natural
Extra Innings
Heart of The Natural

Of these features, to me the best is "Clubhouse" which highlights Cal Ripkin, Jr.'s seasoned take (among others) on baseball as it can and should be played: with integrity. That was the lesson of Roy Hobbs' story. IMO The Natural and this documentary should be required viewing for every player every year, from Little League on up to the pros. Too many athletes are seduced by the siren calls of celebrity, money, sex and drugs; they forget about the only thing that really matters in the end.

For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the game.

-- Grantland Rice (1880-1954), Tennessee-born sportswriter

5/5 A classic for the ages
  by Joker (Michigan)
When I first saw The Natural, I knew I was watching a classic or future classic. Robert Redford gives a great performance as both a 19 year old and a 35 year old Roy Hobbs. While he does look a lot older than 19 during the early part of the movie, it is passable. The "middle aged rookie" 16 years later is just 35. I always laugh when I see and hear his manager say, "Fellow, you don't start playing ball at your age, you RETIRE." Like the guy is so old! He's only 35. Oh well.

The entire cast gives great performances. I especially enjoyed the performances by Joe Don Baker, Barbara Hershey, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth, and Glenn Close.

Set in 1939, this is a story of a former star baseball pitcher who meets a wacko woman on a train to Chicago in 1923 who attempts to take his life. His injury sidetracks him for 16 years, then he comes back with a vengeance after he had basically disappeared. When he returns to the game at age 35, he's basically written off immediately by his new team, the New York Knights. He not only wows his doubters, but he becomes the biggest star in the game for less than one season. The very injury that sidetracked him 16 years earlier comes back to sideline him once again near the end of the season when the Knights are in the thick of a pennant race. It is at this time that his past association with the woman who tried to kill him 16 years earlier is starting to be revealed. It makes no difference, because after he leaves the hospital he hits a dramatic pennant-clinching home run.

If you haven't seen this movie, I definitely recommend it. It's a true classic that takes place in 1939 -- the tail end of the depression and at the dawn of World War II. The movie has a 1939 feel to it. If you like a dramatic movie with a good story where the underdog (Roy Hobbs) and his underdog team prevails, definitely see this.

5/5 25 Years Of Pleasure
  by James Pertierra (Cohoes, NY USA)
To say that I am a fan of this movie would be an understatement. I was in Buffalo while they were filming it, but had no clue about the book as, even as a hard core baseball fan and baseball book fan, I had never read it.

I did read it after I saw the movie when it came out in 1984 and I am glad that the ending of the book was changed. The overall tone of the movie would not lead you to believe that Roy Hobbs would do nothing less than what he did in the movie.

I have watched all different versions of this movie over the past quarter century and have watched in at least 40 times over the years and I love the movie more and more each time I see it.

There are only a couple things I would quibble about and, believe it or not they are all in the game AFTER Glen Close stands up. If you listen to the commentary by the play by play broadcaster in the game (Levinson forced into extra duty), the Knights are playing in Chicago but are batting in the bottom of the inning for each home run.

Totally minor and insignificant in the total package.

The Director's cut with a the added scenes and reconstructed opening sequence is wonderful. I love both versions, but the new version makes so much sense and fills in a few gaps.

I know that the reviews of the movie were mixed, but, like It's A Wonderful Life, "The Natural" has gotten better and better with age.

One final word, in my opionion, Randy Newman's score is the best movie score to grace a film. The Natural without Newman would be un-natural.

Jim Pertierra
6/21/2009