One of the best baseball movies ever?

Major League is my favorite. This one ranks up there for its fictionalized portrayal of the golden age of baseball back in the early 20th century. A lot of farm boys went to the big city back then with dreams of becoming a legend, and had savvy gamblers and businessmen ready to take advantage of them. It also taps into myth with references to knighthood, and many extraordinary, even supernatural occurences.

Major League, Field of Dreams, Eight Men Out, The Natural, The Rookie, The Babe, Cobb, and Bull Durham are all fine movies. It's hard to rank them. I even like the kid movies like Rookie of the Year and Little Big League, in spite of their ridiculous plots. The Sandlot is probably the best movie about being a kid and growing up, not just baseball.

There are a few good baseball movies... but, yes, this is the best one.

GOOD:
The Natural
Fear Strikes Out
The Lou Gehrig Story
Bull Durham
A League of Their Own

BAD:
Major League (series)

WORST EVER:
Field of Dreams


Major League should probably not even be considered for mention. It was a total ripoff of other baseball movies, especially Bull Durham. You had a wild pitcher in both, a Christian and a voodoo believer in both... an aging player who leads the team, a funny announcer with a say-nothing color man. Hell, they both even had a pitch coming into the booth. There's a number of other similarities. Total plagiarism.

I beg to differ. I loved baseball as a kid and have grown to hate it as an adult. Baseball movies aren't much better than the actual sport.

So, Breakfast at Tiffany's got off to a bad start because a 32 year-old Audrey Hepburn was playing an 18 year old? That movie is considered by many to be a classic, yet I'd find much more wrong with Mickey Rooney playing a poorly-stereotyped Chinese man. As I said in another post, Hollywood often has actors playing much younger roles. As there have been many Major Leaguers who played well into their 40s (Ichiro is 41 and still playing, Jamie Moyer and Hall of Famer Hoyt Willhelm both played in the Majors until they were 49 (Wilhelm retiring in 1972, Moyer in 2012), so Redford's casting as Roy Hobbs isn't a major stretch to me.

You're absolutely entitled to your opinion about the movie, but I would agree that you should watch it again. A lot of the things you think are missing are in the movie. You just need to go back and listen. The Natural becomes better to me each time I watch it.

I love Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Eight Men Out, Moneyball, A League of Their Own, The Sandlot, 42, 61*, Fear Strikes Out, Trouble With the Curve, Cobb, Million Dollar Arm, Chasing 3,000, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Pride of the Yankees, etc...all for different reasons. I love most good sports movies, or movies with a sports backdrop in general, be it Rudy, Hoosiers, Raging Bull, Invictus, Cinderella Man, Caddyshack, Rocky, Million Dollar Baby, etc. But The Natural is still at the top for me.

I hope you'll give it another chance.

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions-Dag Hammarskjold

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No, it's not one of the best ever. Completely with you. I remember watching it for the first time and trying to figure out what the big deal was. The big deal is pretty simple ... a good score and some home run balls breaking blocks, hitting metal or knocking out lighting.

I will say, the end run around the bases was beautifully shot. When I say beautiful, one of the better scenes I've ever seen.

Glenn Close was a horrible cast. Absolutely awful. I'm sorry, but if you have to picture Glenn Close as the beautiful woman that you're still in love with from 20 years ago, you've cast wrong. The woman is butt ugly and rigid in her acting.

That doesn't match up well when Redford's acting was rigid on purpose. Well, that and the fact that he looks 50, playing a 36-year old ball player.

Brimley and Farnsworth carried the movie for me.

You have awkward love stories told awkwardly, absolutely unbelievable nonsense (Bump running into a wall, dying and then having his ashes scatter by byplane in almost comical fashion stands out the most) and then questions like ... if a guy is banging home runs out of the park at any level, why would a scout trying to tank a team for his owner send him to the big leagues? It was clearly stated ad nauseam in the movie that the scouts were trying to tank the team.

It's the Babe Ruth of baseball movies. All home runs and fuss.

Bull Durham and For the Love of the Game is where it's at for me.

I saw this movie in the theater when it first came out, I was 12 years old and baseball and movies were both still pure and were my true loves. Maybe that's why but not only is this my favorite baseball movie but my all time favorite movie. I'm sure a lot of that is based on sentiment and I can, happily, live with that. Reading the book a little while after seeing the movie was probably the first time I ever questioned the purity of baseball and probably of life. Seeing it now I fall even more in love with it more. The cinematography is incredible and makes a kids game beautiful.

I get why people don't like it but, come on, it's sharnado or whatever currently passes for a movie.

I just saw this recently since doing it as a kid and I think this is my favorite baseball movie.


Here's my top 5 list:

1. The Natural
2. Field of Dreams
3. The Sandlot
4. Angels in the Outfield
5. A League of their Own