The Natural (1984)

Great movie, a bit slower than I remembered

Fabulous scenary and a near perfect baseball movie. Beginning was a bit slower than I remember. We had to see the past (19 years old), getting in to the club (NY Knights), and then the rise and fall of "Bump" Bailey before we could see some great moments from Roy Hobbs.

A definite must for ones collection. September 2, 2008

Maybe the best baseball movie of all time - but there's one glaring flaw

Let's get this out of the way: I LOVE this movie. It's one of the best, if not the best, baseball movies ever made. The sports action is believable, Hobbs (Redford) is an incredible character, and the musical score is phenomenal. Hobbs is, indeed, the natural. He can hit the ball so far and hard that the cover has no choice but to fly off, and an entire electrical system in a stadium is destroyed with a well-placed 750-foot homerun - surge protectors and transformer boxes be damned! Simply incredible, awe-inspiring, and it's a requirement for any fan of sports movies.

As a kid, he was essentially a combination of Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez from The Sandlot and Kelly Leek from The Bad News Bears, except for the fact that he caught better, hit harder, and ran faster than either of the others, and didn't have the smoking habit or the girly hair. The man was made for baseball; he's been a superstar his entire life, the big man on campus. Then he got shot by that evil black-widow, wench Barbara Hershey for absolutely no reason (she should have shot Glenn Close).

Then he takes a ten year layoff with a bullet in his abdomen, and he's still a BAMF sporting an average over .500 and roughly one home run every three at bats! There is simply no comparison to how awesome he was/is. He would have hit the ball right through Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn's chest if he were on Major League (Wild Thing Edition). He would have made Kevin Costner retire before he even met Kelly Preston on For Love of the Game. He would have made Henry Rowengartner from Rookie of the Year pee himself. He would have made Jim Morris from The Rookie (Widescreen Edition) look so bad all the kids from the high school team would have quit and tried out for football. Deniro would have demanded a pay raise for Hobbs if he were in The Fan. The Angels would have just shrugged their shoulders at those two kids in Angels in the Outfield and watched the homerun sail over the fence as the Angels lost. And Hobbs would have simply murdered the entire cast of Fever Pitch (Widescreen Edition) if he were anywhere near that abomination. With all of that said, with Hobbs' legendary status confirmed, with hordes of women no doubt swooning over his rock star status, how am I supposed to believe he would find Glenn Close attractive?

Other than that, I love the movie, and I feel it's nearly perfect. It's not only one of the best baseball movies ever, it's one of the best movies ever. August 12, 2008

One of the WORST movies I've seen

A coworker forwarded me a list of '20 movies that make men cry' and the Natural was one I hadn't gotten arount to seeing. (BTW 'Old Yeller' is the ONLY legitimate movie on the list.)
The only reason to cry when seeing this movie is from the pain caused by stabbing youe eyes out with an ice pick to avoid seeing any more. My very first impression was that Redford, besides being a terrible actor, looks about 30 years too old to play the ADULT character. Never mind the complete joke of him as a 19 year old. The plot is about as lame as they come and the ending is just stupid. Really NONE of the characters are believable except possibly Glenn Close but her brief screen time is not sufficient to rescue this abomination.
I realize a lot of guys will want to see this for themselves and there is that masochistic fringe that will enjoy this movie simply because it is so bad.
If you just have to subject yourself to this -- rent Don't buy! August 1, 2008

Classic

Very thoughtful and well made movie whether about baseball or not, is well deserving to be seen. This movie has an element rarely seen anymore in movies and that is "character". June 19, 2008

The Natural

I am well pleased with the product. I have tried to source it out from various places without any success. I am so pleased, the movie plays well and my expectation has been exceeded by the service I got from Amazon.com. Hey guys, you have got yourself a customer for life. June 17, 2008

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