The Natural
| The Natural | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg?lang=en) | |
| Directed by | Barry Levinson |
| Written by | Bernard Malamud and Roger Towne, (based on a novel by Bernard Malamud and Kevin Baker) |
| Produced by | Mark Johnson |
| Starring | Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Barbara Hershey, Darren McGavin, Wilford Brimley |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
Running time | 137 min. |
| Budget | $28,000,000 |
The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud and Kevin Baker. The book centers around Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot in a chance encounter. Most of the story concerns his attempts to get back into baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his legendary bat, "Wonderboy." The story closely parallels the legend of King Arthur.
The Natural was adapted into a film starring Robert Redford in 1984. The movie, not considered very faithful to the book (as its details differ, especially its upbeat ending which is the opposite of the ending of the novel) is about the trials of Roy Hobbs, an individual with "natural" baseball talent. However, early in the movie, his father tells him that his success will be less about his natural ability, and more about how hard he works to be successful. So, the remainder of the movie chronicles the trials he suffers, which are terrible, maybe a bit extreme. In 1984, it was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress-Glenn Close, and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress-Kim Basinger.
The Plot
Template:Spoiler The movie begins showing Roy Hobbs as a young boy playing baseball on an American farm, somewhere in the mid-West, with his father. He is obviously a highly talented baseball player. When a tree, under which his father died, is destroyed by lightning, he takes a piece of the tree and makes a bat from it, which is carries with him throughout his career in a case.
As Hobbs embarks on his baseball career it is prematurely cut short when a chance encounter with a female, Harriet Bird Barbara Hershey, who shoots him.
The story skips forward 16 years, to when Hobbs is in his mid-thirties. He helps a down-on-their-luck, fictitous New York Knights rise to stardom. The mystery of those sixteen years is slowly revealed as his angelic, old childhood sweetheart, Iris Gaines, Glenn Close returns to his life. It turns out that his early injuries have damaged his stomach and may prevent him from helping the Knights win the pennant.
The owner of the Knights, The Judge Robert Proskey, tries to persuade, even bribe, Hobbs to throw the remainder of the season due to a contractual agreement between The Judge and Hobbs' coach, Pop Fisher Wilford Brimley, whereby The Judge will obtain full ownership from Pop if the team fails to win the pennant. The Judge is joined in this persuasion by a gambler, Gus Sands Darrin McGavin, and his mistress, Memo Paris Kim Basinger.
Hobbs battles through many distractions, including indulging in the sexual persuasions of Memo, being poisoned and offered a bribe, and even the breaking of his boyhood bat, to help the Knights win the pennant. The movie ends with Hobbs playing baseball with his son (and his old childhood sweetheart, Iris Gaines Glenn Close) in a farm field.
External Links
- The Natural at IMDb