Bull Durham: 20th Anniversary Edition | Christian Toto saw, Comedy | ENTERTAINMENT
Bull Durham: 20th Anniversary Edition
March/24/08 10:04 PM Filed in: Christian Toto
saw | Comedy
The film follows a ragtag group of minor leaguers and their ultimate fan, Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon at her flaky best). Each year, Annie sidles up to a new kid ("sort of my own spring training," she purrs) and makes him her beau for the summer. She reads them poetry, teaches them how to breathe out of their eyes and makes passionate love to them, but not always in that order.
This time it's Ebby "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins, a goofy delight) who gets Annie's attention. He's a flame-throwing prospect with plenty of room for rent between his ears. That's why the team acquired veteran catcher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) to be his battery mate. They hope Crash's wisdom rubs off on Ebby, but as it turns out he learns just as much about baseball, and life, from Annie.
An awkward love triangle emerges. Annie is dating Ebby but she's clearly a better match for Crash, and Crash would love to romance Annie, but he doesn't want to mess with the star pitcher's head.
Oh, and Nuke and Crash play some baseball, too. Shelton stages realistic game scenes which add to the film's down-home flavor. He's also unsparing in the details of life as a minor leaguer. Players schlep from small town to smaller town, lugging fat suitcases on and off the team bus with the hopes that The Show will come calling for them.
Shelton did some time in the minor leagues, and it shows. The insights he brings to the game are just as sharp as the observations which make Annie, Nuke and Crash jump off the screen and into our hearts.
If anything, "Bull Durham" is a better movie today than it was in 1988, and with the steroid scandal still clogging sports pages, we could use a little bit of Annie's passion to remind us why we love the Boys of Summer.
1. The goods: "Bull Durham" entered the upper echelon of baseball movies upon its release, and nothing has happened over the last 20 years to change that status. Baseball movies remain a tough sell at the box office, but "Bull Durham" smashed those expectations back in 1988. And let's hear it for a sports film which doesn't culminate with a swing of the bat or a play at the plate. "Bull Durham" is different, and it's one key reason it endures.
2. The Mandatory Extras: "The Greatest Show on Dirt" is a cut above the usual "making of" segment, with Shelton sharing fine details about how he crafted the film. He drove around some of the towns that the actual Durham Bulls visit, all the while dictating into a micro recorder what would end up as Annie's opening monologue. And he describes the sex scenes as a welcome respite from the AIDS headlines of the era. Sex can be fun, and silly, and revealing of one's character, Shelton says, and he made sure "Bull Durham's" sex scenes had a little of all three. "Diamonds in the Dirt" showcases the minor leagues, while a second "making of" segment lets Sarandon share how hard she fought to play Annie - and how she alleges other actresses wouldn't touch it because of its sensuality.
3. Above and Beyond: This edition offers two separate audio commentaries - one with Shelton and the other teaming up Costner and Robbins. Feel free to skip over two antique extras -- both shot years ago and featuring fuzzy footage regarding the film and Costner's young career.
— Christian Toto
