Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)

Bittersweet Baseball

To say the book and this movie is not really about baseball is not quite right. Yes, it is about more than just baseball, but baseball provides the rhythms, the spring, summer and ultimately the winter for us all. Baseball is the only major sport where time is not a factor, it can be played into infinity. That said, the cut aways from the actors to the real ballplayers was pretty well done. I did think it was strange for the Yankees to be playing the Reds and the Pirates. I wish DeNiro had spent as much time on baseball as he did on the accent. Also, Harris wrote four books with Henry Wiggins as the main character, from rookie to veteran on his way out. I highly recommend his books. "From now on I rag nobody." Good words to live by. March 13, 2008

Great

I Bought this as a present for my father and he was thrilled to get it for Christmas. It was on-time and packaged well. January 13, 2008

Di Niro comes to bat

Bang the drum slowly is a great movie. Robert Di niro was unknown at the time, dominates the movie, the rest of the cast do a great job. Barbara Babcock is beautiful. This film is a sad film, except the Baseball part wich includes highlights from real games fans will remember the players. There are people who hate Baseball that love Bang the drum slowly.i agree with the comparison to Brians Song. i like Bang the Drum slowly better,because of Di Niro. June 28, 2007

More About Real Friendship Than Baseball

There was nothing hokey overly melodramatic about this story, and usually you get that with a sports story or about a good person dying. In this case, we have a combination of the two.
This is simply a mellow, sweet-natured human interest story well-acted by the two main stars: Michael Moriarity and Robert De Niro. Both are nice to watch, playing very easy-going non-offensive characters.
Moriarty plays a pitcher on a pennant-contending team who lovingly looks after his not-so-smart-but-dying teammate and friend (De Niro). By today's standards, it's slow-moving but I never got bored with it in several viewings. As nice a film as it is, there is one warning: a lot profanity by the manager (Vincent Gardenia) but it's not a kids' movie anyway.
I watched it years ago and then again recently when it came out on DVD. It's hard to get excited about it, yet it's a memorable story that I could never get out of my head. We all wish we had friends like the one Moriarty portrays here. April 16, 2006

One of my husband's all time favorites

Though I haven't seen it yet, my husband considers it a must-have classic. March 9, 2006

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