On B List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Bull Durham (1988)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
12/03, 8/25
8/25:
Bull Durham...yeah, all right.
The Triple A team is called Durham Bulls, and it's a real one that's affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Imagine calling a film: Bull Chicago. But honestly, the switch in the wording is due to an actual
product called Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco. Okay, that's enough nonsense by getting down to brass tacks.
Bull Durham is a popular baseball picture, but I've never been a fan. I wondered
why while watching it, and immediately, the answer came: Susan Sarandon. Everything I said in my review of
White Palace applies here. She isn't attractive by any means and has
virtually zero sex appeal. Had somebody like Michelle Johnson or Ellen Barkin been cast instead, I might
have given the film a '9'.
Then, there's the writing. Ron Shelton thinks he's a brilliant wordsmith or something, but the more I listen
to the dialogue, the more pretentious the screenplay is overall. Is Bull Durham a baseball film or a
film about sex? To me, it's been the latter with baseball mostly relegated to the background.
However, I have to give props to Kevin Costner. He's perfect as Crash Davis. Without him, there's no
Bull Durham, period. What a surprise he wasn't Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor. This is
the closest he could've won the statuette for acting, but that's
okay...Dances With Wolves will come along soon.
Tim Robbins has done an excellent job of never falling off the thin line between corny and annoying. He's
right for the role, and I like how coolly he reacted to different situations. Obviously, Susan Sarandon was
too old for him, often appearing as his mother. They're 12 years apart in age yet got together during the
filming before breaking up in 2009.
If there's any scene that made me laugh, it's the convention on the pitching mound with everybody talking about
whatever but the baseball game at hand. Another funny moment is when Kevin Costner thought Lee Harvey Oswald
acted alone and yet he appeared in JFK trying to prove that the opposite happened.
All in all, Bull Durham works because of Kevin Costner, but it's ultimately ruined by Susan Sarandon.