The Legend of Bagger Vance

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 127 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Legend of Bagger Vance wants very badly to be another Field of Dreams, and I have to admit that it does a very good job at it. Unfortunately, no matter how good the writing or acting is, this is still golf… not baseball.

Matt Damon plays Rannulph Junuh (gotta love that name!) who is a golf star from the southern town of Savannah, GA. Unfortunately for him World War II interrupts his game and he joins the army to help lead other Savannah boys into battle. As good as he is in golf, that obviously doesn’t translate in military skills and his entire squad is killed. Granted, it mostly likely wasn’t his fault, but he thinks it is, and that’s the problem.

Ten years or so later he’s asked to join an exhibition tournament where he will be representing the town he once fled from against golfing legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. This movie is about golf, but its really about facing ones own personal demons and coming to grips with things that happen which are beyond your control. Can Junuh get back the glory he lost in the war? Can he become the hero he so desperately wanted to be?

The critics aren’t being very kind to this film, and I do understand why. Considering the star power on the screen and behind it, and considering how people were talking about it winning an Oscar well before it was released, one tends to get high expectations. When you go into a movie expecting it to be great, it very rarely is. I went into this movie expecting something on the lines of Field of Dreams, and that’s exactly what I took from it. It’s a good sports/life metaphase movie that is very well acted and directed, what more do you want?

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Bruce McGill, Charlize Theron, Dermot Crowley, Drama, Matt Damon, PG-13, Theatrical, Will Smith