MovieChat Forums > The Natural (1984) Discussion > woulda had more impact w/ two roy hobbs-...

woulda had more impact w/ two roy hobbs- one old one young

posted 11 years ago by LTUM
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i see everyone on here defending redford portraying the 20 yo hobbs but it sounds like you guys are rationalizing when you say 'well it was only for ten minutes, so let it slide'

it was still way noticeable. yes only for ten minutes, but well long enough to have the viewer say wtf a few minutes later

but here's my two cents

just think......

for a second......

how cool it woulda been to have redford walk into the ballpark after watching some young actor play roy for the opening ten minutes.

one, that woulda solved the age/casting issue with redford.

two, it woulda been more realistic. by far

three, it woulda been MORE appropriate for the story, even wistful, existential (if not MYSTERIOUS also) to have redford show up as a seasoned older version of some kid actor we watched during the opening shots.

i can't think at the moment of who it coulda been. but i am sure they coulda found someone. lots of good names back then.

caveat: matching the body/mannerisms/style of redford and some young actor. but it has been done, i have seen it. woulda took some wokr on the casting front, but it's very possible

also, hmmmmm. just thought of this: 20yo hobbs was a pitcher anyway, so redford and the other kid wouldn't have to match up since 16 years later the older hobbs was only hitting. just a thought

but yeah folks, i think this woulda made it stronger. i think it woulda made it stronger, cooler, to see a switch out like that.

if you are about 50 like i am, you consider how different you looked at age 20. yep, i thought so lol

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[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 11 years ago

Yeah, agree....having a 48 year old Redford playing his nearly-teen self, along with a 37 year old Glenn Close, was ridiculous even with the shade and lighting tricks they employed.

In fact only a few years later in 1992 in the movie Sneakers, they had a different actor playing a college-aged version of Redford's hacker character Marty Bishop...and I thought that worked great.

A close runner-up for worst decision in this regard, was a 40 year old Kevin Costner attempting to also play a teen version of Wyatt Earp. He tried to use hairstyle (bangs), a bandana around his neck, and talking like a stupid kid leaving consonants off the end of words, in order to pull it off.....that didn't work either.

Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?