Bull Durham 1988, Rated R Orion

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Starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins.

Written and directed by Ron Shelton, the writer/director of the critically acclaimed movies White Men Can't Jump, Tin Cup, and Cobb, Bull Durham is a surprisingly cohesive and smooth flowing film. This is quite a contrast from the grand majority of recent movies set within the confines of competitive sports, whose characters and plots suffer tremendously from a complete lack of realism. Not only is the material forced, but it is often painfully obvious that we are not watching real athletes in the context of their game; a trait especially evident while watching Gary Busey pitch in the fantasy family film, Rookie of the Year. For their part, the directors attempt to camouflage their actors lack of athletic ability through a multitude of quick cuts, interspersed with actual baseball footage, but, unfortunately for the audience, this style of editing doesn't allow for any sort of rhythm to occur that will let the viewers identify with the film. Shelton, having several seasons of minor league baseball in the Baltimore Orioles organization under his belt, doesn't allow for any sports inaccuracies to bring down the style and grace of this film; the dialogue, the game situations, and the desires of the characters all ring true.

Starring Costner as Crash Davis, a minor league catcher, Bull Durham follows one season of the Durham (North Carolina) Bulls, a Class A ball club. Costner has been brought to Durham to teach the finer points of baseball, and life, to Tim Robbins' 'Nuke' LaLoosh, a flamboyant and completely meat-headed young pitcher with a May '98 model Kerry Wood like arm. Sarandon is added to the mix as a die-hard Bulls fan, who makes it her practice to choose one of the Bulls players with whom to carry on a relationship during the season. The interactions between Costner, Sarandon, and Robbins make up the core of this film, but Shelton's script is quick to bring in other characters and team members to keep the movie balanced and off-beat. The chemistry between the actors is tremendous--you have a character who's an expert on tantric sex and it'd better be--and Costner has 'cool' down to an art form, worthy of being showcased next to a Picasso in the Art Institute. He launches into one of the better speeches/tirades Hollywood has produced in the last ten years after Sarandon asks him what it is that he believes in. After a minute of listing things that he believes in, ranging from the hanging curveball to soft core pornography, Costner throws on his leather jacket, leaves the room and has Sarandon breathlessly muttering, "Oh, my".

When I envision a southern summer night, I think of lemonade, wrap around porches with porch swings and hammocks, lightening bugs, a quiet sense of peacefulness, and maybe Walt Whitman, thanks to a scene in Doc Hollywood. Shelton has somehow, majestically managed to create a cinematic embodiment of that vision; a movie you watch, enjoy, and wish would never end. Bull Durham is a well written film, with a lazy sense of pacing that allows you to get into the movie and empathize with the characters and their dreams. Football widows take note, this is the perfect romantic comedy for sports fans.