Audience Rated by buyers PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type of bind: Video Download
Release Date: August 27, 2008
Running Time: 120 minutes
Sale Popularity Level: 8354
Studio: MGM
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The new edition is a nice upgrade, since it includes several behind the scenes documentaries which give a lot of background regarding the choice of actors, interviews with the director and actors, and info regarding the sets and filming of the movie. The picture looks very sharp, and the soundtrack is 5.1. If you are a fan of this film, you will find the new edition well worthwhile.
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I just read Roger Ebert's review of this movie and was amazed that he said you have to be a baseball insider to understand it. ???? I'm certainly not an insider, not even an avid fan, but I had no trouble following the story. In fact, I thought it was told with unusual clarity and elegance. And the actors were perfectly cast. Each seemed to slip into his role as comfortably as an old shoe. They weren't actors playing ball players. They were ball players. The movie flowed perfectly as the gamblers very first approached a couple of the more receptive players. You could easily see the others being slowly drawn into the fix by the lure of easy money. You could also see, even before the players did, that they were nothing more than suckers themselves. They would not get the money - ever. Go to bed with criminals expect to get robbed. Roger Ebert was concerned about the way the "fix" unfolded, saying it was far too obvious. Of course it was! That's why they were caught!
Some of the other reviews here justify the actions of these players, based on the way their owner treated them. Man! That's certainly 2008 logic. They commited a serious criminal act! What's so hard to understand. Are we now at a point where unfair treatment legitimizes criminal actions? Yeah, many of the owners were most likely rotten. Yeah, the players were not treated fairly but NO, that doesn't justify their actions, including the ones who were guilty by omission. They let themselves down, they let the league down, but most of all, they let the fans down (Remember, "Say it ain't so, Joe?") Judge Landis was a tyrant but he did the right thing.
The last scene, where a much older Bucky Weaver sits in the bleachers of some nameless sandlot ballpark watching his old team mate, Joe Jackson, play is heartbreaking and sums up the movie perfectly.
The bottom line is: this movie is a wonderful example of intelligent story-telling and film-making. I'm not a big fan of Sayles usually but he knocked this one out of the park.
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Until the nineteen seventies, major league baseball players were held in a form of bondage. They could be bought, sold, traded largely against their will and their salaries were fixed artificially low. The reserve clause in their contracts bound them to that team and prevented them from playing for anyone else without explicit permission. If a player's salary was low, their only recourse was to not play, which was a drastic and self-destructive step.
The treatment of players in the early twentieth century was often even worse, and there was no more ruthless owner than Charles Comiskey. His salary structure for his quality players was much lower than what existed in the rest of major league baseball. He even let his players take the field in dirty uniforms in order to save on laundry bills. Over and over again he lied to his players and failed to pay them promised bonuses. Therefore, baseball historians rightfully blame him for creating the circumstances that led to the 1919 Chicago White Sox team throwing the World Series. That ruthless desire to save money at all costs on the part of Comiskey is captured in this movie.
The inner machinations of the players on the 1919 team are also captured very well. Only a few players were guilty of acts of commission designed to throw the series, others simply knew about it and said nothing to team officials. There was also a great deal of internal dissension on the team, which further inflamed the players. All eight of the players who knew of the conspiracy were banned from baseball for life, even though they were acquitted at trial.
The two people who were most unfairly treated were Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver. While both knew about the scheme to throw the series, both played very well in the series, hitting over .300 and playing flawlessly in the field. The Jackson character is played very well in this movie; by all accounts he was a naïve man who really didn't understand the ramifications of what was going on around him. Weaver tried defending himself as best he could against the charges and tried to get reinstated, but the commissioner was adamant against clemency.
A great deal of time is taken in this movie to set the historical backdrop of the 1919 World Series, which is necessary. While the White Sox players did throw the series, in this movie they are presented in a sympathetic light, as men who were poorly treated and just wanted a chance to earn what they felt was their right to have. It is a very good movie about the history of baseball.
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This is the best baseball movie ever. I am not a sports fan, so that is saying volumes about the movie. I am a John Salyes fan though. I have been ever since I met the crew of a movie he made in my home town in West Virginia. Excellent writing, great acting, and great film making.
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I didn't get to finish it because of the profanity. It should be rated PG-13 for the language.
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