Bull Durham (1988)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Running audio commentary by Costner and Robbins
  
• Running audio commentary by director Shelton
  
• Making of documentary--including all new interviews with the cast
  
• Kevin Costner profile
  
• Joe Cocker Music Video: "A Man Loves a Woman"
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• Sports Wrap featurette
  

Calvin "Nuke" Laloosh (Robbins) has an arm that could launch a baseball into orbit. Unfortunately, that's about the only place he can send them. Rarely do his pitches ever make it across the plate. So, the Durham Bulls bring in catcher Crash Davis (Costner) to train Nuke how to use the raw talent he possesses. The Bulls also have an "unauthorized" pitching coach in the form of Annie Savoy (Sarandon). She uses her...um...sexuality to get the players to improve their game for the Bulls. Between the two of them, maybe, just maybe, they can help Nuke make it to the Major Leagues.

This has often been touted as one of the greatest baseball movies of all time. Some even argue that it is Costner's finest performance. God help us all if they are right. As is very common with Costner's performances, there are some points where if you close your eyes, you would think he was just reading from a piece of paper. The other times, if you plug your ears, you get the idea that Costner is thinking more about his laundry than he is the scene he is currently in. He just can't ever seem to get the two together on the screen at one time. Robbins is absolutely perfect as the ever vapid Laloosh. He plays it with the perfect amount of comic assholishness and never takes his character for granted as the comic relief of the film. But the real standout of this movie is Sarandon. Her presence is impeccable every time she's on the screen and her narration is perfect. The writing is good, it's just a shame Costner couldn't have done more with the gold he was given.

If you're a hardcore fan of the film, then the DVD is the perfect tribute to you. The "making of" featurette is full of interviews with the cast and crew recalling their experiences of working on this film after having twelve years to reflect on the subject. It is very refreshing to have one of these mini-documentaries that isn't full of actors only talking about what a dream it is to work with the other actors and directors. The Costner profile is sort of ironically nostalgic. It's a docu on Costner that was put together around the time of the original release, and it talks about what a "rising young star" Costner is. Gah. The Sports Wrap featurette is from around the same time, and it merely skims the surface of the film and, in my opinion, doesn't really do a good job of even skimming. The Cocker video is a Cocker video. What more can you really need to say about that?

The two commentary tracks, however, are really nice. The track with Costner and Robbins starts out kind of just covering a lot of the same material that we heard in the "making-of" featurette, but, eventually, they settle down and actually begin to share even more than that. The real gem, though, is the commentary by Shelton. He once played in the Minor Leagues and you can hear his love of the sport oozing out of your speakers with every new scene in the movie. The really interesting tidbit that came out of this was about the production companies not wanting to cast Robbins because they thought a woman of Sarandon's class would never be attracted to a guy like him. As most of us know, they are still happily together and have three children; they met on the set. Take this as a small example of how stupid and blind the production companies can really be when it comes to making movies. Somehow, they forget that, for the most part, this art is imitating (or trying to imitate, anyway) life. Perhaps they should get one and they might make better films, and for less money.

So, stepping down from my soapbox, I think that for the die hard fan of this movie, it's definitely a purchase (if you haven't already)--but if you've never seen the movie, you will want to rent this one before adding it to your collection permanently.