The Natural shows both the highs and the lows of making a living in professional baseball in the 1950s. Based on the novel of the same name by Bernard Malamud, the film uses baseball as a vehicle to tell a compelling love story and how the sport kept young lovers apart and eventually brought them back together.
Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) makes the Cubs as a 19-year-old pitching phenom before getting his young career cut short by a seductress who doesn’t want him to become the new greatest player of all time. This film tells the story of Hobbs’ return to the big leagues as a thirty-something man who has converted to a slugging right fielder for the fictional New York Knights.
There are often complaints about this film where Redford seems to be the “hand of God” and that it focuses too much on sentimental and divine themes, but it is a well-made film with a great story even if it only uses baseball as a backdrop for the compelling story.
I thought that the film was too quiet at times, meaning that there was a lot of empty space where dialogue was lacking. Redford plays a very quiet and reserved character and almost does it too well. This sometimes made it seem like the film was dragging and could have used a little pick-me-up.
Overall, I thought this was a great film with great acting led by one of the all-time greats. By using baseball in its golden age as a backdrop to tell a deeply sentimental and inspirational story, director Barry Levinson succeeded in making a film that will be a classic for years to come.
