Costner and Sarandon Sizzle in the Best Baseball Movie Ever!
Though it's been almost twenty years since it was releases, Bull Durham still tops almost every list of great baseball movies.
Part of the allure is the quality of the baseball and part, of course, is the sexual chemistry between Costner and Sarandon.
(Spoiler Alert)
The movie opens with a young fireball pitcher named Ebby Calvin LaLoosh (played to the hilt by Tim Robbins) having sex with a young girl named Millie (Jenny Robertson in her first screen performance) in the bathroom of the clubhouse. He is due to pitch in five minutes. His manager is displeased that he is "leaving his fastball in some piece of ass" but Ebby Calvin proves him wrong. His fastball is still there, just uncontrollable as he walks an incredible 18 in his first start, plus hits any and everything in sight.
After the game, Crash Davis enters the clubhouse. Davis (Costner) is a AAA catcher who has been reassigned to A ball to help teach and mature the kid to prepare him for "the Show", as the Major Leagues are referred to. He is unhappy initially to have his contract bought out babysit the flavor of the month but getting a chance to play everyday is in his blood, plus he is closing in on the record for career minor league home runs.
Later that night, Annie meets both Crash and Ebby at a bar and takes them home with her. She lays out the ground rules for having a relationship with her but Crash leaves, telling her he's "not interested in a woman who's interested in that boy." So Annie commits to Ebby (who she nicknames "Nuke") for the season.
During the season Annie and Nuke's relationship grows all the while she and Crash start pining for each other. However, as she stated, she is committed to Nuke for the season, and she remains monogamous during the baseball season. However Annie finds frustration as she convinces Nuke to rechannel his sexual energy into baseball and he starts winning and won't have sex until he loses. Meanwhile she is getting hotter and hotter for crash who now spurns her again.
I won't divulge any more of the story, but will say that this movie; despite it's sports theme, is as much romance and personal drama as it is sports. And the acting and photography are as solid as any, the dialog is incredible. Despite being a sports-themed movie, it is also one of those films that you can almost forget is sports themed!
Costner was in his hey-day, Sarandon was in her prime, and Robbins played the perfect foile for both! I give this one a solid and well deserved 5 out of 5 stars!
And if you don't have it or haven't seen it, I'm pretty sure there will be a 20th anniversary edition next year! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment