MovieChat Forums > 61* (2001) Discussion > Good, but a lot of BS in there

Good, but a lot of BS in there

posted 14 years ago by mercury4
14 replies | jump to latest

They go out of their way with this movie to demonize certain people. They make Mickey Mantle look real bad and they make Roger Maris look like the saint. Mickey Mantle I know was no angel, but he wasn't as big a jerk as this movie made him look. Like the remarks he makes about getting more [women] than Ruth did. They also try to make Babe Ruth's widow look bad. But she wasn't that bad. She actually visited Roger Maris to congratulate him after he tied Babe Ruth's record. They have her looking all pissed off and even have her saying things like "Babe loved that record." Actually his shutout record he set as a pitcher was his favorite record. Whitey Ford broke that record in '61, but because of all the hype surrounding Maris, it wasn't well known. They also have some kind of problem with Joe DiMaggio in this movie. They felt a need to make him look like a jerk. A lot of the stuff they said about him was BS. This movie was good, but they tried too hard to make Maris look great and everyone else to look like jerks.

[–] Marvelouis 14 years ago

BS.

You read way too much in to things. I think they made Mantle look good... a hero with flaws. Which is EXACTLY what he was. The Mantle family signed off on this film and Billy Crystal was a good friend of Micks. Watch the bonus features on the DVD before posting stupidity.

[–] bigsoundp 14 years ago

a hero with flaws.

well said. The film is wonderful at showing real people. The good parts, and the less than good.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] phrumpster 14 years ago

I thought they made Mantle look good . The ^ poster got it right about DiMaggio.

Poets are made by fools like me, but only God can make STD.

[–] mitchellG 14 years ago

u are dead wrong

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] edjavega 14 years ago

I thought it was dead-on. Flawed heroes were shown, and everyone had their own motivations, whether it was players or managers or press.

One inaccuracy I recall, was about Joe DiMaggio was supposedly being called by Casey Stengel as "the old man" when Mantle came over in 1951. According to books I read, Stengel actually called him "the old d a g o " which at this time, was of course a common racial epithet hurled against Italians or Italian-Americans. But during this period, it seemed Wasps, especially on a baseball team, could almost use this term in a mock "endearing" or "fond" way of addressing Italian-Americans on their team.

Billy Crystal sanitized that for modern audiences.

[–] mercury4 13 years ago

Yeah, that would've been quite offensive. Glad Billy Crystal changed that.

"everyone had their own motivations, whether it was players or managers or press."

I agree. But I think they really tried too hard in the movie to make Joe D look bad. It wasn't necessary. There's a goof I came across about Moose mentioning DiMaggio not even talking to him. But Moose never played with DiMaggio. That whole scene of them sitting around talking about DiMaggio was unnecessary. Joe DiMaggio wasn't a bad guy. I've spoken to a lot of people who knew him personally. I know Mickey wasn't great. He told kids not to look to him as a role model, but the movie over did it a little bit, in my opinion. Movies are not 100% accurate. We can all agree on that. I wouldn't doubt it that some of the things they have Mick say are a little exaggerated. You know, I'm curious to know how many people that posted on this thread are actually baseball fans, Yankee fans, or if they even know Mickey, Maris, and Joe D.

[–] blurayrankingsdotcom 13 years ago

I didn't think the film made Mick look bad overall. He acts like a jerk in a few scenes but I think most of us would have a few of those in a movie about a significant period in our life, hehe. Nobody is perfect.

DiMaggio and Ruth's Wife did come off quite poorly and I always wondered if the stuff said about them was true. Interesting to hear now that it may not have been.

New Release Reviews!: blurayrankings.com

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] EPLakeLA 12 years ago

DiMaggio was a jerk. I thought this was well-known. His perceived aura is what caused Mantle to back off from a fly ball in his rookie year, which resulted in Mantle badly injuring his leg. You can blame DiMaggio to a certain degree for Mantle not living up to his enormous potential. If anything, Mantle was the tragic hero, and Maris was the antagonist. He deliberately did everything he could to separate himself from the press, and didn't even want to play for the Yankees. In the book October 1964, Maris refused to buy a better pair of shoes and said if they didn't like it, they could trade him back to Kansas City. And Maris only had the record because they wanted to pitch around Mantle and because Maris had a natural ability to pull the ball that worked really well in Yankee Stadium with the short porch in right field.

Claire Ruth is also reported to have said, "I hope he doesn't do it" in regards to Maris' record. I think Crystal did as good of a job as he could have.

Snoopy is one cool cat...although he's a dog.

[–] mercury4 11 years ago

Despite the way Mrs. Ruth is portrayed in the film, she actually visited Roger Maris after his 60th home run. Maris whispered in her ear, "Don't feel badly, no one will replace The Babe." What the hell would've been wrong with putting that in the movie? Say what you want about DiMaggio, this movie made Joe D look bad and it made Mantle look bad. They made Maris look like a saint. I'm not knocking Maris and I'm not saying Mantle was perfect. But you know what I mean. One of the very first scenes you see Mantle in he's reading Playboy. He says things regarding Ruth like, "I'll bet you I got more p**** than he did." Then they had Mantle talking about getting laid by a blonde in the stands before he's about to get up at bat. Like that was the only thing on his mind. It got ridiculous. It was terrible the way they treated Maris, but that's no excuse to make a movie that tries to demonize Mantle to show Maris really was the right guy to get the record. There was no need to demonize anyone; Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mrs. Ruth, or Roger Maris.

[–] pattrick-clark 9 years ago

Not quite as much BS as you'd like to think. It's widely known (and in his later years in life he talked about it,openly ALL THE TIME) that Mantle thought about getting laid all the time. He thought it was especially cute to have sex (or perform sexual acts) in Yankee stadium. There's a very famous anecdote where they were celebrating Yankee stadiums anniversary and they sent out these surveys to the old Yankee players asking them their favorite memories in Ya kee stadium.
Do you know what Mantle sent back on the survey?
That his favorite moment was him getting a blowjob during the seventh inning stretch.

He was exactly what Whitey called him: a p***yhound. He worked harder at getting laid than at baseball,and he worked pretty hard at being a great ball player, for a while.

[–] lonniemac 8 years ago

I don't think they made Mantle out to be a bad guy at all. Despite his many warts he was very likeable in this movie. The facts are that he cheated on his wife and was an alcoholic...he admitted to this so its not a secret.