Paramount Baseball Flicks Score

If you're a fan of baseball flicks, these three entries from Paramount might be real hits with you. They're very different tales, but each is a good yarn, not necessarily about baseball per se, but set against the world of the "boys of summer."

The movies are Fear Strikes Out, Bang the Drum Slowly, and Talent for the Game. Their release dates range, respectively, from 1957, 1974 and 1991.

Perhaps the least well known of the three is "Talent for the Game." Edward James Olmos stars as a scout for the California Angels who, when the team is sold, is threatened with the loss of his job under the new regime.

His star could shine brighter, however, if he could find a Really Good Prospect - which of course he does. He comes across Sammy Bodeen (Jeff Corbett), a young Idaho boy who has the best arm Virgil Sweet (Olmos) has ever seen. But he's never played "officially organized" baseball before and, to make matters worse, is a sweetly naive boy of the type that the Big Show could easily chew up and spit out.

And that, of course, is exactly what begins to happen, except that Sweet (a man whose heart is on baseball, but is big enough to also include humanity and doing the right thing) has taken Sammy under his wing and is mentoring him while trying to protect him at the same time.

Sammy's thrown into action before he's ready and it looks as if he's going to fail big time, but of course we know that won't happen.

It's all quite predictable, but never lame or forced - though the big game at the climax becomes a tad maudlin and we were terribly disappointed to see the change in Sammy as the movie closes.

The screenplay and the actors performing it bring the characters to life as three dimensional beings rather than caricatures, and this is what really makes "Talent for the Game" work. Olmos is outstanding as Sweet, Lorraine Bracco is marvelous as his loving girlfriend (and they care enough for each other to go to bat for each other) and the rest of the cast are equally good - very believable. Even the billionaire team owner, the villain of the piece, comes off as not merely a bad guy, but a driven flesh and blood man with positive and negative attributes (not just your typical evil Hollywood-stereotypical capitalist).

The DVD is very good, with a richly colored and textured anamorphic widescreen picture (16x9 TV compatible) that looks particularly good during Virgil's vigil in the countryside. The opening scene, where Virgil rides an elevator down into a mine, is terrific as well; it really makes you feel as if you're heading underground.

Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, though there isn't a lot of surround, and it's fine though not particularly remarkable.

Extras? Forget about 'em, unfortunately.

The next two movies are more character dramas than baseball flicks, each dealing with a serious illness and how it's dealt with. But they're both good viewing.

Fear strikes out

This is the true story of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall and it offers a complex portrait of this sports personality - more as a human being than athlete and/or mythic figure.

The film offers a look at a father's dream for his son to succeed where he himself had failed, a dream that turns into a need to live vicariously through the son's achievements. And it's a dream that has damaging repercussions for the boy.

Anthony Perkins is brilliant as Piersall, making you feel for him pretty well every time you see him, yet without succumbing to cheap melodrama or schmaltz. His pain is real, and it haunts you as Perkins makes it real. He looks out of place on the baseball field, and he should. His father, like a "stage mother," drives him to succeed, in the end causing him to break down.

Karl Malden is excellent as Piersall's tyrannical father, his performance making clear that he acted not only because he wanted the kid to succeed where he didn't but also because he loved his son and wanted him to succeed in life. 

The DVD features a nice and clean black and white anamorphic widescreen picture (16x9 TV compatible) and Dolby Digital mono sound that, not surprisingly considering the film's age, is unremarkable.

So despite this being not so much a baseball movie as a "human drama," it's an extremely well made movie, by director Robert Mulligan of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame. The movie keeps you involved, baseball fan or not.

Which brings us to

Bang the Drum Slowly

Sort of a baseball version of "Brian's Song," this movie has a pre-stardom Robert De Niro in a tear jerker about the friendship of two pro ball players. De Niro is Bruce Pearson, a rather slow-witted rookie catcher who's mentored by veteran hurler Henry 'Arthur' Wiggen (Michael Moriarty).

When Pearson is diagnosed as suffering from Hodgkin's disease, Wiggen tries to help get him through his final season and in the process both men grow personally. 

If you've seen "Brian's Song," you know the basic drill. And as with Fear Strikes Out, where Bang the Drum Slowly could easily cross the line from drama to, well, sucking out loud, the filmmakers and performers manage to tread that line carefully and successfully.

De Niro is always good, and this outing is no exception. He's perfectly cast as the dull but big-hearted country boy, and Michael Moriarty positively shines as his buddy the big time pitcher and mover/shaker. And the wonderful Vincent Gardenia is terrific as the team's manager. The rest of the team is populated by eccentric characters who also provide a lot of interest.

So it isn't just about crying for two hours!

The DVD is also presented in anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) and the picture quality is very good, though some grain is evident. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and is nothing spectacular.

As with the other two films reviewed here, there are no extras and that's unfortunate.

It could be argued that none of these films is really about baseball itself, and that isn't a bad thing. Rather, the themes of these films are far more universal than just being about the diamond and its people, and that makes them accessible to an audience looking for more than just good baseball movies: an audience looking for good movies in general - and any of these titles qualifies easily.

Talent for the Game, from Paramount Home Video
91 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring Edward James Olmos, Lorraine Bracco, Jeff Corbett
Produced by Martin Elfand,
Written by David Himmelstein and Tom Donnelly and Larry Ferguson, Directed by Robert M. Young

Fear Strikes Out, from Paramount Home Video
100 min. black and white, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore
Produced by Alan J. Pakula
Written by Ted Berkman and Raphael Blau, directed by Robert Mulligan

Bang the Drum Slowly, from Paramount Home Video
97 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty, Vincent Gardenia
Produced by Maurice and Lois Rosenfield
Written by Mark Harris, directed by John Hancock.

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