There are a lot of sports movies out there, but none as great or as film noir-ish as The Natural.
The story starts out with a kid, Roy Hobbs, playing baseball with his father. Then as a young man, on a train on the way to try out for the big leagues, he meets a woman in black named Harriet Bird (played by Barbara Hershey), who winds up shooting him in a hotel, effectively ending his potential career in baseball.
The story picks up 16 years later, when an older, quieter and more mysterious Hobbs comes to play for the New York Knights. He's signed on but not wanted because of his age. The grouchy (yet ultimately endearing) manager, Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) doesn't let him hit for a long time; he basically spends his time warming the dugout bench.
Then, finally, during one practice, he shows what he's got. After which Roy Hobbs not only becomes part of the team, but he's the star player: Wherein he began, years earlier, as a hopeful pitcher, he's now a home run hitter.
One of the scenes I really liked was when Roy and Iris, who was his girlfriend as a kid, talk again after many years. During his successful turn as the Knight's chief slugger, he had been with someone else... a temptuous "femme fatalle" played by Kim Basinger... who, like the woman who shot him years earlier, also wears black.
But Iris, fitfully adorned in white, goes to one of his games, and they connect again, meeting at a restaurant in a very heartfelt scene providing Robert Redford and Glenn Close a genuine chemistry: like they were made for each other. Whereas he had been in a slump after spending too much time with Basinger's Memo Paris, he's now back on track and helping the Knights win.
The cinematography is really beautiful in the film. I love the lighting and how in the scene where he is playing past the railroad tracks and you can see the ferris wheel in the background, it looks so beautiful.
Another scene that really stood out for me was when Roy was going to play his last game. Iris has a note given to him: saying the boy sitting beside her is his son. This gives him the needed determination, especially after his past injury had begun to reemerge, bringing him into another slump. The note, and the presence of both Iris and their child, is what it took for Roy to be victorious again.
At the end, when he's playing baseball with his son just like he did with his dad at the beginning, is a fantastic parallel that binds the entire story together.
THE NATURAL is very symbolic, deep and engrossing, and yet there's also an uplifting, energetic quality about getting out there and showing that you still have what it takes to be great again.
Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.
