Directed by: Ron Shelton
Starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl
"You hit the ball, you catch the ball, you throw the ball," yells the manager of the losing Durham Bulls to his team during a pep talk. If only baseball or anything else were that easy. Bull Durham is a love letter to the game of baseball. This is when it is at its best. The romantic comedy subplot really didn't work as much for me, mostly because it got in the way of all of the baseball. Written and directed by Ron Shelton (Blaze, Tin Cup, White Men Can't Jump), Bull Durham knows a lot about the game and has an insider's feel. You learn a thing or two.
Bull Durham opens at the dawn of a new Durham Bulls season. They are a minor league North Carolina team that is the closest folks in these parts will ever come to seeing live baseball. A game is an event. The voice over narration is provided by Annie (Sarandon), to whom baseball is a religion. She is not just a fan, she acts as an unofficial team advisor. When new hotshot pitcher Nuke Laloosh (Robbins) can't find the strike zone (he hits the team mascot at least twice), she writes her observations down on a piece of paper and has it delivered to him on the mound.
She's right, it turns out, and Nuke strikes out 18 batters (while walking 18, but hey the Bulls win). Nuke has a mean fastball, but serious control issues. "He has a million dollar arm and a five cent brain," says the Bulls' skipper (Wilson). The organization brings in veteran catcher Crash Davis (Costner) to mentor the kid and help him get to the big leagues. Crash doesn't much love the assignment and isn't sure how much he likes Nuke, but he still gets to play baseball every day.
Annie takes a liking to Nuke and Crash. She has them both to her house, where she lays down the law, "I sleep with only one player per season," Crash doesn't much like the law and leaves Nuke to have at Annie, but he surely feels strongly about her. At one point during Nuke and Annie's affair, Nuke abstains from sex and the team goes on a long winning streak. Crash, perhaps with his own selfish motives in mind, tells Nuke not to mess with a streak. The impressionable Nuke abides, which frustrates Annie sexually (although the team wins).
Crash's advice to Nuke ranges from "Strikeouts are boring. Throw ground outs, it's more democratic." to what clichés to tell reporters when he makes it to "the show". Crash has been to the show and around the block a few times. He thinks Nuke can be a great pitcher as long as doesn't start to think. Robbins is tall and looks the part of a pitcher, plus he really does the naïve, impressionable thing very well. Costner projects a certain world-weariness to Crash and we see a man who can't wait to share all of this baseball knowledge in his brain. This is the same weariness that keeps him from going full throttle after Annie.
Sarandon is whip-smart and I think is physically unable to play dumb. She's surely smarter than the young Nuke and she may have met her match in Crash, if each can get out of their own way long enough to see that. The right people get together at the end, but the romance feels more forced than the baseball scenes, which are alive and teeming with energy. We even hear the player's thoughts as they bat or pitch. I am sure these are things Shelton has heard or thought himself in his minor league baseball days as a former player.
I enjoyed most of Bull Durham because most of it is about the business of baseball. We hear the skipper's same trite speech every time he has to cut a player. ("The organization is doing some restructuring and it's time for a change.") It is something he has said a thousand times before and will say a thousand times more before his managing days are done. The romantic triangle between Crash, Annie, and Nuke is shoehorned in to attract a larger audience, but to me, Bull Durham would have been just as good or better if Crash or Nuke were abstinent all season.
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