Very well executed

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I don't fault this movie for its cheesiness, as it wears it so confidently on its pinstripe sleeves. I don't fault this movie for Redford, even though he seems bored out of his mind. I fault this movie because...what is it? What's the point? Roy Hobbs has earned nothing. Literally every single thing that happens to him, whether positive or negative, seems completely magical. So when the movie ends, we've just watched a dude have things complacently happen to him for over 2 hours. Why? WHY?!

Of course I love the scene at the end where Robert Redford's fated Roy Hobbs wins the all-important pennant game by smashing the baseball into the floodlights. It is one of the great scenes of American sporting cinema.But my favourite scene is previously when Glenn Close as his genuine love interest, as opposed to the evil character of a modern Morgan la Fay, so well-played by Kim Basinger, stands up in Wrigley Field magically willing him to break his poor batting run. Her character tranfuses strength into him, giving that scene an Arthurian, chivalric resonance. But then so has the whole film that glorious mythic quality. I am also thinking of Field of Dreams, here. What is it about baseball which so lends itself to films of mythic power?In this film some elements of its success can be readily identified: Barry Levinson's direction, the star power of the actors and, of critical importance, the power of Randy Newman's score. But then it also has a magic over all that, unanticipated by its makers.

In the most famous scene from this modern baseball classic, struggling middle aged professional baseball player Robert Redford strikes gold after a spell of strike outs. It's thanks to the presence of a majestic lady in white (Glenn Close) who stands up to guide him to his big hit. Redford, as comeback king Roy Hobbs is a mystery man who all who knows him, and even though they haven't seen each other in years, it is Close who knows him best. Wouldn't you be a bit of a mystery man if all of a sudden, you were shot for some unknown reason by a mysterious dark haired vixen who claimed that they were fascinated by your talents? Barbara Hershey is briefly seen as this mysterious femme fatale, and after that, it is surprising that he could ever trust a woman again. Along the way he meets another vixen, Kim Basinger, who distracts him into loosing, and the question becomes, "Why?"Not just a film for baseball fans, this is a look at every young boy's American dream. Whether it be baseball player, fireman or even president of the United States, it is a look at how good intentions come out of the Innocence of childhood, and how dishonest people can step in the way of one's dreams. Certainly one of the great modern baseball classics, it is even better then the mystical "Field of Dreams" which had little to do with professional baseball other than solving an issue for the film's hero, Kevin Costner. If Costner was the All- American hero of the 1990's, Robert Redford dominated much of the sixties, seventies and eighties with his easygoing personality, way with the ladies and his determination to make films that were artistic as well as entertaining.The cast is excellent, although I've never been quite convinced that Kim Basinger was one of the great beauties of the last 30 years in films. Glenn Close, on the other hand, had a realistic beauty that shines in the scene where she stands up in the Chicago baseball stadium. Some movie fans ridicule her as being somewhat haggard, but I've never looked at her that way. If you don't find the fact that she is indeed beautiful, watch this film and think again. I would rather have the girl next door that look like Glenn Close rather than a buxom vixen like Basinger who uses sex to sell.As Redford's mentors on the baseball team, the fictional New York Knights, Wilford Brimley and Richard Farnsworth are particularly outstanding. Brimley is that grouchy old grandfather we all know and love, knowing that underneath that gruffness is a huge heart of gold. Farnsworth is more quiet, and the wisdom that he silently conveyed to the complaining Brimley is something that you can take to heart. Less honorable are the characters played by Robert Duvall and Robert Brodsky, the later cast as an amoral judge who instantly wants to see Redford suppressed as a baseball superstar.While not an obsessive baseball fan, I can still appreciate the fascination with the sport, having grown up with professional games going to the Pittsburgh Pirates when they were at Three Rivers Stadium. I remember as a child the way I felt being in the presence of the All American Heroes and when I saw the film in its original release, those memories came back to me along with the excited looks of the two youngsters who popped in and out, looking up to Redford as their own hero. This does take a realistic look at the rivalry between players on the same team, some jealous or envious of Redford, referring to him as that old man since they obviously don't have the power he has. I wish I had a baseball bat like wonder boy when I was a kid. Of all the professional sports, baseball remains the most all American, and it is films like this that celebrate that sport's greatest qualities.

Barry Levinson's The Natural is by far one of the best baseball movies of all time (second to Pride of the Yankees (1942)) not only because the story is so extraordinary but it also feels like you are an actual character which is in fact how great this movie really is. The movie stars Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs a man who loved baseball all his life and played when he was a kid until high-school and tries to play for the Chicago Cubs at the age of 22 but before that he meets a journalist named Max Mercy (played by Robert Duvall) and a man who is called "The Whammer" (played by Joe Don Baker) and practices pitching with them. After he is done with pitching he meets a woman named Harriet Bird (played by Barbara Hershey) who at first seem like friends but after a few days she almost kills Hobbs in her apartment with one gunshot but luckily Hobbs survives and has to wait until he is 38 years old and doesn't get signed on to the Chicago Cubs but instead gets signed on to the New York Knights where he meets two managers one who's name is Pop Fisher (played by Wilford Brimley) who isn't sure at first that Hobbs would do well at his age, and another man named Red Blow (played by Richard Farnsworth) who believes that Hobbs would succeed. The screenplay to this movie is just awe-inspiring, because not only does it tell a story of a great player it also tells an evil back-story because Hobbs is being betrayed and he knows it by three people, the Judge (played by Robert Prosky), Gus Sands (played by Darren McGavin), and a girl that Hobbs was flirting with for a short time named Memo (played by Kim Basinger).The actual best supporting performance in the film didn't only come from Brimley and Farnsworth but the most inspired performance came from Glenn Close as Iris Gaines who was Roy's true love and made Roy a true natural at baseball.Though I didn't read the novel I felt as if I did while watching the movie, which I felt like I was an actual audience member at one of Hobbs' baseball games which to me pretty much explains why i think that all movie lovers should see this wonderful movie that will stay with you for a long time.