The Natural
Promotional poster of The Natural
Directed by	Barry Levinson
Produced by	Mark Johnson
Written by	Bernard Malamud and Roger Towne, (based on a novel by Bernard Malamud and Kevin Baker)
Starring	Robert Redford Robert Duvall Glenn Close Kim Basinger Barbara Hershey, Darren McGavin, Wilford Brimley Richard Farnsworth
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	May 11, 1984
Running time	137 Min 144 Min Director's Cut
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000
IMDb profile

The Natural is a 1984 film adaption of the 1952 baseball novel of the same name. The film was directed by Barry Levinson and stars Robert Redford. The movie is not considered to be faithful to the book, since important details are changed, particularly the film's upbeat ending, which differs significantly from the novel's ending. While Malamud wrote a dark satire of a fallen hero, the film version took a traditional "Hollywood" approach. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (480x755, 60 KB) Downloaded August 16, 2005, from http://www. ... Barry Levinson Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. ... Mark Johnson may refer to: Mark Johnson (professor), philosophy professor Mark Johnson (footballer) (born 1978), Australian rules footballer Mark Johnson (film producer) Mark Johnson (umpire), baseball umpire Mark Johnson (hockey player) (born 1957) Mark Johnson (rugby) Mark Johnson (baseball analyst) Mark Johnson (musician) Mark Johnson (football club director), director of... Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American writer. ... Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American writer. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. ... Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an Academy Award and four-time Golden Globe winning American film actor and director. ... Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ... Kimila Ann Basinger (pronounced (bay-sing-ger), often mispronounced ) (born December 8, 1953 in Athens, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. ... Barbara Hershey is an American actress, known for her many film roles. ... William Lyle Richardson (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006), who adopted the name Darren McGavin, was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and also his portrayal in the movie A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given... Allen Wilford Brimley (September 27, 1934 - ) is an American character actor. ... Richard Farnsworth Richard Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor. ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A directors cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video or video games, that is supposed to represent the directors own approved edit. ... The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud. ... // Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name. ... The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball written by Bernard Malamud. ... Barry Levinson Barry Levinson (born April 6, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Jewish-American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. ... Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. ...

However, the movie, like the book, concerns the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great "natural" baseball talent. Early in the movie, Roy's father tells him that his success will involve his natural ability less than how hard he works to be successful. The remainder of the movie chronicles Roy's trials and suffering.

In 1984, The Natural was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Glenn Close), and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger). Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in Buffalo, New York's War Memorial Stadium, built in 1937 and demolished a few years after the film was produced. Buffalo's All-High Stadium stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field in a key scene in the film. Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ... Kimila Ann Basinger (pronounced (bay-sing-ger), often mispronounced ) (born December 8, 1953 in Athens, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. ... Nickname: Location of Buffalo in New York State County Erie County Government  - Mayor Byron Brown Area  - City 52. ... War Memorial Stadium is the name of a stadium that formerly stood in Buffalo, New York. ... All-High Stadium as seen in The Natural All-High Stadium is a football stadium in Buffalo, New York. ... Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. ...

Darren McGavin had been cast late in the process, and went unbilled in the film. The other unknown was the radio announcer heard from time to time throughout the picture. As Levinson stated on the DVD extras for the 2007 edition, there had been too little time to find a bona fide announcer during post-production, so Levinson himself recorded that part of the audio track.

Plot

The movie begins by showing Roy Hobbs as a grown man, looking rather old for his years, silently awaiting a train that will take him to New York for a last chance at baseball. The specifics of his early career are not revealed until later. The film then cuts to a lengthy flashback showing Hobbs as a young boy playing baseball on an American farm, somewhere in the Midwest, with his father. He is obviously a highly-talented baseball player. When a tree, under which his father had died, is destroyed by lightning, Roy takes a piece of the tree and makes a bat from it, on which he burns a lightning bolt and the label "Wonderboy". He carries the bat with him throughout his career, in a trombone case.

Hobbs embarks on his baseball career, not as a batter but an ace pitcher. Hobbs also said that Josh Crane was his childhood hero. He travels by train throughout the country, hoping to land a spot with a major league team. Hobbs's talent is virtually infinite: in one incident at a fair, the teenaged farm boy accepts a wager to throw three pitches to "The Whammer", the top hitter in the major leagues and modeled after Babe Ruth. Honorable but young and a bit cocksure, the young Hobbs is seduced by Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey), an alluring but dark and sinister woman who gravitates to him after judging that he is the best baseball player who ever lived. In a hotel room, Bird shoots Hobbs in the mid-section just before committing suicide. Barbara Hershey is an American actress, known for her many film roles. ...

The story skips forward 16 years. Hobbs is now thirty-five and has just arrived in New York by train. He helps a down-on-their-luck, fictitious National League team called the New York Knights and is signed by a scout (in a blunder that later turns out to be part of the movie's main subplot) who thinks he is a washout, without consulting the team's manager and co-owner. The gruff manager, Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) is unimpressed by the aged Hobbs. However, Hobbs refuses to leave, and eventually gets a chance to take batting practice, where he hits every ball well past the fence. Still skeptical, Fisher agrees to let Hobbs play. In Hobbs's first at bat in a major league game, he hits the ball but not for a home run--instead, he literally tears the cover off the ball, sending an unraveling ball of string into the outfield. From that point on, Hobbs hits massive home runs time after time, rising to stardom and reversing the bottom-dwelling Knights' fortunes. The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the National League, is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada (until 2005 when the Montreal Expos moved to Washington) and the worlds oldest extant professional team sports league. ... Allen Wilford Brimley (September 27, 1934 - ) is an American character actor. ...

Despite his supernatural abilities and general goodness, Hobbs and his abilities are vulnerable to temptation. An unscrupulous and cynical reporter, Max Mercy (Robert Duvall), hounds Hobbs through the season. The mystery of those sixteen years is slowly revealed as Roy's childhood sweetheart, Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), returns to his life. It is later revealed that an encounter between Roy and Iris sixteen years earlier had produced a son. Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an Academy Award and four-time Golden Globe winning American film actor and director. ... Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ...

The corrupt owner of the Knights, The Judge (played by Robert Prosky), who hates bright light, tries to persuade, even bribe, Hobbs to throw the remainder of the season owing to a contractual agreement between The Judge and Pop Fisher, whereby The Judge will obtain full ownership from Pop if the team fails to win the pennant. Hobbs feels strong loyalty to Pop, the archetypical gruff but loveable coach, particularly as Pop has confided to him that his one dream is to win the pennant; Pop doesn't care about winning the World Series, he just wants to be there. Hobbs cares little about money and stands firm against The Judge's attempts to buy his honor. However, The Judge realizes Hobbs's one weakness--he can be corrupted by a woman. A gambler associate of The Judge, Gus Sands (Darren McGavin), introduces Hobbs to his mistress, Memo Paris (Kim Basinger). Robert Prosky (born Robert Porzuczek on December 13, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American character actor who has appeared in such films as Christine, The Natural, Broadcast News, Green Card, Hoffa, Rudy and Dead Man Walking. ... William Lyle Richardson (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006), who adopted the name Darren McGavin, was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and also his portrayal in the movie A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given... Kimila Ann Basinger (pronounced (bay-sing-ger), often mispronounced ) (born December 8, 1953 in Athens, Georgia) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. ...

Hobbs battles through many distractions and adversities, including succumbing to the sexual persuasions of Memo, who, while not as clearly sinister as the woman who shot him years ago, is most definitely an amoral and corrupting character. As Roy falls further into Memo's embrace and away from his honor, his play suffers, as if he has been reduced from partly divine to just a flawed, over-the-hill man. Before the pennant-deciding game, Hobbs eventually resolves to break free of Memo's and The Judge's web, and The Judge resorts to poisoning Hobbs (leading to a reaggravation of the injuries to his stomach sustained in the shooting). Whether or not the Judge had anything to do with Hobbs' incapacitation is left somewhat ambiguous, it may merely be a recurrence of the old bullet injury being aggravated by Hobbs' intense play and the stress of a pennant race with the entire team on his shoulders. Up until the last minute it is doubtful Hobbs will be able to play, after he collapses while attempted batting practice, against doctor's orders, in collusion with the trainer and some of the Knight's players.

Hobbs, of course, plays in the game even as his stomach bleeds through his shirt. The game stays close, in part because at least one key member of the Knights has clearly been paid off by the Judge's underworld associates and is trying to throw the game.

As befits both an epic poem and a baseball movie, Roy comes to bat in the bottom of the ninth, with a chance to win the game. He looks to the stands and sees Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), his childhood sweetheart and as pure and good a person as the other two female characters are predatory and poisonous. She stands up, shrouded in white light. (Actually, she stands up earlier in the film, helping Hobbs break his unlucky streak.) She is with a boy, who looks to be about sixteen and bears a striking resemblance to Robert Redford. Despite this, Hobbs fails to put two and two together until Iris hurriedly passes a note down through the crowd to Hobbs. He reads it, presumably saying that the boy is his son, and with the realization that he is redeemed, again becomes more than human: Roy Hobbs, The Natural. His stomach is bleeding more than ever, and he realizes that he may die; of course, it is his duty and destiny to stand at bat.

As Hobbs steps up to the batter's box with divine determination, the lightning flashes again, and Hobbs swings Wonderboy, infused with the soul of his father, and connects: the culmination of his quest. But he gets around on it: hard and dead foul. Having dropped the bat, Hobbs looks down and sees that Wonderboy has shattered. No longer able to depend on his seemingly magical bat, Hobbs keeps his emotions in check and tells the awkward but good-hearted bat boy, Bobby Savoy, to "pick me out a winner, Bobby." The youngster selects a bat that Hobbs had helped him make earlier: Savoy Special. Roy takes the bat. Their eyes meet, like father and son, as Bobby hands him the bat just as a camera bulb flashes (a smaller "lightning flash"). Hobbs grips the bat in his hands. It feels like a good bat. It is made with love, as was Wonderboy. Hobbs realizes that this bat may have the magic, too.

Hobbs' stomach has started bleeding visibly, and he accepts the fact that the biggest swing of his life could disable or kill him. Hobbs shrugs off the umpire's concern about the bleeding, telling him to play ball and staring down the pitcher (apparently a young pitching phenom, much as Hobbs had been at the beginning of his career). But the pitcher's sneer is no match against the demi-god Hobbs, who connects (in slow motion) with an explosive sound of bat meeting ball; Hobbs has hit a towering fly ball, a pennant-winning home run, which soars into the stadium's lights and starts a chain reaction that bursts the lights and rains sparks down over the field, over the Judge and his cronies in his private box, and over Hobbs as he runs the bases, in a famous and really quite beautiful scene, backed by Randy Newman's iconic score (which is often played at baseball games following homeruns).

The Knights have won the pennant, and true to Pop Fisher's dream, we don't see what happens in the World Series. It's the end of baseball for Hobbs, and the film ends with a scene of Hobbs playing catch with his son in a sun-dappled cornfield, with Iris standing by.

The musical score

Randy Newman's dramatic and Oscar-nominated score, which was described by at least one complimentary critic as "Coplandesque", has been referenced frequently since then, in visual pieces underscoring other "natural" ballplayers. The music has been used in a documentary about Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg; retellings of Ichiro Suzuki's breaking of the single-season hits record from Roy's era of 1920; and in retellings of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, when a seriously injured Kirk Gibson hit a dramatic game-winning 9th inning home run reminiscent of Roy Hobbs' blast to win the pennant. To this day, the movie's theme is often played at ballparks when a home-team player hits a significant home run, as the Boston Red Sox did on September 21, 2006 when David Ortiz blasted his 51st Home Run of the season, breaking Jimmie Foxx's 68 year old Red Sox club record of 50 Home Runs. The theme was played as Frank Robinson walked off the field at RFK Stadium after his penultimate game as a manager. The theme was also used during Cal Ripken's farewell tour at every one of his at-bats since he announced his retirement in 2001. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. ... The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, located at 62 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, is a semi-official museum operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of baseball-related... Ryne Dee Sandberg (born September 18, 1959 in Spokane, Washington), nicknamed Ryno, is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball who spent nearly his entire career with the Chicago Cubs. ... image=Ichiro3. ... Dates October 15, 1988–October 20, 1988 MVP Orel Hershiser (Los Angeles) Television network NBC Announcers Vin Scully, Joe Garagiola Umpires Doug Harvey (NL), Larry McCoy (AL), Bruce Froemming (NL), Durwood Merrill (AL), Jerry Crawford (NL), Derryl Cousins (AL) The 1988 World Series matched the Oakland Athletics against the Los... Kirk Harold Gibson (born May 28, 1957) is a former American two-sport athletic star, best known as a Major League Baseball player noted for his competitiveness and clutch hitting. ... September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Frank Robinson (born August 31, 1935 in Beaumont, Texas), is a Hall of Fame former Major League Baseball player. ... Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, informally known as RFK Stadium, is a sports stadium that opened in 1961. ... There are two notable people named Cal Ripken. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Billy Joel traditionally uses a theme from the score as an introduction while on tour. William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949, in Bronx, New York, USA) an American singer, pianist, and songwriter . ...

Also, excerpts from the score were used in the memorable series finale of the hit ABC-TV series The Wonder Years in 1993. This article needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ...

Metaphors

One metaphor, as referenced in the DVD extras, is the grand allusion to the story of King Arthur and Percival. Percival is a country boy (like Roy) whose father was a great knight (like Roy's father was a great semi-pro ballplayer). Percival comes to be one of Arthur's knights in search of the Holy Grail. He comes upon the Waste Land, which The Fisher King rules over. The Fisher King is ill, and when he is ill, the land is ill. The Fisher King is like the coach of Roy's baseball team, Pop Fisher. Pop has a disease on his hands like athlete's foot. When Roy comes along and makes his first hit, and the team's long losing streak ends, Pop's hands start to heal and it rains for 3 days making the grass green again. But Roy, like Percival, gets distracted from his duties by his infatuation with a woman. A bronze Arthur in plate armour with visor raised and with jousting shield wearing Kastenbrust armour (early 15th century) by Peter Vischer, typical of later anachronistic depictions of Arthur. ... Percival or Perceval is one of King Arthurs legendary Knights of the Round Table. ...

Contemporary critics noted how the imagery of women in the film, in general, is starkly separated into timeless traditions of "good" and "evil". The two "evil" women (Harriet and Memo) often wear dark clothing and are both sexy and sinister. The "good" woman (Iris) takes on a literally angelic character in a crucial moment in Chicago, when she stands and her white hat is haloed by sunlight, as she catches Hobbs' attention and leads him "to the light", and out of the batting slump brought on by Memo's nefarious distractions. This is discussed in the DVD extras, including the fact that "Memo" suggests a "memory" of Harriet Bird, which is alluded to in the dialogue; and that "Iris" is the goddess of the rainbow.

Criticism and impact

Critics were not universally impressed when the film appeared. Leonard Maltin said it was "Too long and inconsistent". Another critic said, "The ending is so hokey you don't know whether to laugh or cry." Roger Ebert fairly savaged it, calling it "idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford." However, Gene Siskel, Ebert's TV partner, rated it one of 1984's top 10 films. Leonard Maltin (born December 18, 1950 in New York City) is a widely known and respected American film critic. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American film critic. ... Gene Siskel Eugene Gene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was one of the worlds most successful film critics. ...

The film proved to have broad appeal among fans of the game and, along with its imagery and music, has had significant staying power. The final baseball scene, as Roy's home run soars into the ballpark lights, and he runs the bases showered with sparks, remains one of the most memorable and widely known movie scenes. Both the novel and the film are usually included in lists of the greatest sports-related books and movies.

The film's producers stated in the DVD extras that the film was not intended to be a filmization of the novel, but was merely "based on" the novel. Malamud's daughter said that his father had seen the film, and his take on it was that it legitimized him as a writer.

DVD

The special-edition re-release of the DVD in 2007 included some souvenirs (a baseball "signed" by Roy Hobbs, a few baseball cards, and a New York Knights cap); several short documentaries about the making of the film, and its symbolism; and a re-edit of the film that adds some previously cut footage, and expands and re-arranges the first part of the film substantially.

References in popular culture

In the third-season episode of The Simpsons titled Homer at the Bat, Homer joins the nuclear plant's softball team and leads them to the championship game using a hand-crafted bat named Wonderbat (with a sloppy lightning-bolt drawn on the side). Music reminiscent of the score from The Natural plays when Homer hits home runs. The references cease when major-league players are brought in to win the championship game, and Wonderbat is destroyed by Roger Clemens, who burns it in half with a laser-like underhand pitch. Simpsons redirects here. ... Homer at the Bat is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons third season. ... Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. ... William Roger Clemens (born August 4, 1962, in Dayton, Ohio), nicknamed The Rocket, is a starting pitcher in the New York Yankees organization, and is one of the preeminent Major League baseball pitchers of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. ...

In another episode featuring Homer's attempt to bowl a 300, the music that was played before Roy Hobbs' game-winning home run is used as a background for Homer's final strike. The action pans other characters, including a group of old-time photographers snapping pictures as Homer releases the ball. Like Hobbs' destruction of the ballpark lights, Homer's last strike causes all of the other pins in the other lanes to explode; balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling. The actual scene of exploding lights is often parodied on the show during scenes involving baseball. Also, much of the music from the show itself is based on Randy Newman's score.

The episode "The Natural" of It's Garry Shandling's Show mirrors the movie, except that ping-pong is the sport instead of baseball. A special paddle is the mythical "Wonderboy". Its Garry Shandlings Show is one of the first original programs created by the fledgling Showtime network in the mid-80s to compete with original HBO comedies like Not Necessarily the News. ...

The pilot episode of Quantum Leap (sometimes called "Genesis") ends with Sam Beckett scoring the season-ending run for a minor league team, shortly after Al tells him "Well, you're not Roy Hobbs, either." The script notes that "from this point on, we duplicate the shooting style of The Natural." Parallels between the two scenes include Sam asking the bat boy to choose a good bat for him and unexpected lightning, slow motion and similar music. However, Sam misses the ball, and scores on a wild pitch and two errors. Quantum Leap is a science fiction television series that ran for 97 episodes from March 1989 to May 1993 on NBC. It follows the adventures of Dr. Samuel Beckett (played by Scott Bakula), a brilliant scientist who after researching time-travel, and doing experiments in something he calls The Imaging...

In the movie BASEketball, numerous references are made to The Natural, including the ball that the main character calls "La-Z-Boy", because he made it himself from a recliner. BASEketball is a 1998 David Zucker comedy feature film starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with Dian Bachar, Robert Vaughn, Yasmine Bleeth, and Jenny McCarthy. ...

In a Peanuts comic strip published on March 30, 1993, in his final at bat of the little league season, infamous character Charlie Brown hit a home run for the first time in any Peanuts comic. Afterward it was revealed he hit it off of the great-granddaughter of the fictional Roy Hobbs character. Hobbs' grandaughter returned to the strip intermittently through the mid-nineties. In one series, she tried to sell an authentic bat signed by Roy Hobbs to Charlie Brown. Charile Brown refused and Lucy bought the bat thinking it was a rare collectible item. Eventually, she admitted to the fact that Roy Hobbs was fictional. Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000 (the day after Schulzs death). ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (90th in leap years). ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Charles Charlie Brown (occasionally called Chuck by Peppermint Patty and when she first appeared, Marcie) is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. ...

A TV ad for XM Satellite Radio radio, played during the 2006 Major League Baseball championship series, referred directly to the climactic scene in the film. It showed an animated baseball flying toward an animated light tower, shattering the lights, accompanied by the corresponding portion of the film score. “XM” redirects here. ...

In "Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place" season 1 ep.6 "The Softball Team" Mr. Bauer takes a cue from The Natural, against Tessio's Pizza.

In World Wrestling Entertainment, wrestler Bret Hart uses the moniker "The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.", a quote from the movie. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. ... Bret Sergeant Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler, and part of the Hart wrestling family. ...

In the late 1990's, Baseball Tonight spoofed the broken bat sequence with Dave Campbell as Roy Hobbs as a commercial for the post-season coverage.

External links

• The Natural at the Internet Movie Database