Bull Durham

December 11, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 108 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DVD Quick Take

One of the best baseball movies ever made, and probably the definitive work to date on life in the minor leagues.

This is Ron Shelton’s first film, he wrote and directed it. He also played some minor league ball himself, and it’s evident in the attention to the little nuances of the game and it’s traditions. If you’ve enjoyed some of Shelton’s more recent works on sports movies such as White Men Cant Jump, Tin Cup or Play it to the Bone, you owe it to yourself to go back and catch this classic, which is still some of his best work even though shot on a shoe string budget. This is also the breakout movie for Tim Robbins who is now considered among Hollywood’s best actors.

Like most baseball movies this is a relationship movie, and as such you should have no trouble watching this in peace while the females of the household are around. The triangle in this case is between the young bonus baby pitcher (Tim Robbins), his old school catcher who is brought in to mature him (Kevin Costner) and the girl they both want and who is attracted to both of them (Susan Sarandon). But inbetween the sappy romantic moments there’s a lot of good comedy and a darned good baseball movie with some truly timeless classic moments which make this one a must see for any baseball fan.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Comedy, DVD, Kevin Costner, R, Robert Wuhl, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins