Bull Durham Movie Review

Rent Bull Durham on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Ron Shelton
Directed by: Ron Shelton
Starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Robert Wuhl
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A fan who has an affair with one minor-league baseball player each season meets an up-and-coming pitcher and the experienced catcher assigned to him.

Verdict
It’s a sports movie about a mentor and a ward, but with this their are two mentors. We get three main characters, and they are all written with depth and goals. It’s a solid story, but this is a baseball movie written by someone that knows and loves the game. With the baseball players, it makes it easy to relate to this movie. One is the young hotshot, the other the veteran nearing the end. You’ll find yourself in one or both of them. With Annie, she’s content until she meets someone with whom she forms a connection. This movie endures, because it captures a moment and it also captures the sport.
Watch It.

Review
One of the most popular baseball movies, this follows minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls in North Carolina. At the time of the movie they were an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Now the team is affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays.

This isn’t Costner’s only baseball movie. He also starred in the classic Field of Dreams a year later and the less esteemed For Love of the Game.

Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) is a young pitcher with a lot of talent and a lot to learn. He strikes out a lot of batters, but walks just as many. He won’t last in the league like that, so the club brings veteran Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) down to single A to mentor the young pitcher. Crash was in triple A, just a step below the major leagues, and he’s not happy about the demotion. While Crash has bounced around the minors for years, at least he was one step away from the highest level. Now he’s exponentially farther.

Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins play Crash Davis, Nuke LaLoosh

Crash and Nuke’s first meeting is contentious. Nuke doesn’t realize who Crash is, and Crash is already testing him. Crash is here to train Nuke. Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) is a baseball fan that also has a relationship with one of the top prospects every year. This year it’s Nuke. It’s a way for her to be close to the game and fulfill her needs, but she also sees it as her job to mentor prospects. She teaches them about life and baseball.

Crash and Annie are at odds as they both see their role as to train Nuke. They both know and love the game. It’s clear Crash respects the game, and that’s his problem with Nuke. Nuke doesn’t respect the game. He got a big signing bonus and is cocky enough to think he’s ready for the big leagues. That and it seems that Crash and Annie are a better fit than Crash and Nuke, but Annie has already made her decision. The problem is that Annie and Crash develop an interest in each other.

Crash has been in the big leagues, and he relays his time to the young team as a legendary time where everything was amazing and the wind is always at your back. I’m sure Crash does look back on his time in the bigs like that, and he’s been trying to get back ever since. This does get into how baseball is a thinking game. Being slower paced, it provides time for players to think and overthink. We get voice over from both Crash and Nuke as they try to succeed in the moment.

The three main characters are well written with dreams, goals, and faults. Many movies would have developed Annie as little as Millie, a throwaway team groupie that is friends with Annie.

Susan Sarandon, Kevin Costner play Annie Savoy, Crash Davis

You can tell this is written by a baseball guy with a love of the game with Crash’s story about playing in the show, and his rant about the difference between batting .250 and .300. It’s just one bloop a week, and baseball is a game of inches.

What makes this movie so popular, and rightfully so, are the great characters and solid story. Baseball is difficult. Nuke is talented but ignorant which is why the team gambled on him. Crash is knowledgeable, but lacks the talent. Both of them could be off the team within the year, but Nuke has upside. Crash is on the wrong side of thirty.  Through Nuke, both Crash and Annie are trying to stay close to the game and feel that optimism that raw talent exudes. They are both using Nuke to stay close to a game that is slowly escaping from their grasp. Both Crash and Annie need to realize when to call it quits. It’s with each other that they can make a fresh start. It wasn’t until they met each other that they ever considered change.