Doesn't it start off with a bat hitting a ball? (The Natural, I mean.)
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It was The Cup I was remembering, though.
Gotcha. Y'know, I've managed to avoid seeing The Natural all the way through somehow.
I think The Natural is more about the myth behind baseball. The best movies *about* baseball are probably Eight Men Out and Bull Durham.
As opposed to the tricksily disguised soccer games in Bend It Like Beckham, you mean?
I'm not the one arguing that sports movies aren't about sports.
Edit: Although I was awfully distracted by JRM's cheekbones.
IIRC, it starts with a tree gettign hit by lightning, and a kid lathing his own bat out of the lightning-struck wood. Then later, there is Robert Redford in a waistcoat striking out a major leaguer in a sun-kissed, J. Crew late-afternoon shot. Somewhere in there, Glenn Close looks on limpidly.
I'm not the one arguing that sports movies aren't about sports.
You misled me by answering my question posed in response to the contention that BiLB wasn't about soccer in the same way. Not that I was thinking Nutty was saying it wasn't about soccer. Just that The Natural handled its sport differently.
See, I didn't think Bend It Like Beckham was much of a sports movie, either. It was a coming of age movie with some badly played soccer in it.
BiLB didn't have to be about soccer. It didn't even have to be about sports. Whatever was chosen was integral to the plot, because it was the device for dissension and cultures clashing, but there were other ways.
Speaking of soccer, I'm looking forward to Hooligans, with Charlie Hunnam and Elijah Wood. Mmm, pretty violence.
Mmm, pretty violence.
I've seen some thuggish shots of Elijah. He's all cute and stuff.