The Natural (1984)

Directed by: Barry Levinson | 138 minutes | drama, sports | Actors: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky, Richard Farnsworth, Joe Don Baker, John Finnegan, Alan Fudge, Paul Sullivan Jr., Rachel Hall, Robert Rich III, Michael Madsen , Jon Van Ness, Mickey Treanor, George Wilkosz

New York 1939. The unknown baseball player Roy Hobbs enters the locker room of The New York Knights. This professional baseball team loses more than it wins, with more people on the field than in the stands. Roy Hobbs was an accomplished pitcher sixteen years earlier on his way to a glittering baseball career. Something came up, and Roy has long been forgotten. Now he’s back, hoping to revive a career that died in the cradle.

So much for the synopsis of ‘The Natural’, a 1984 feature that makes you dizzy from the big names. We know director Barry Levinson from ‘Good Morning Vietnam’, ‘Rain Man’ and ‘Wag the Dog’. Composer Randy Newman was previously featured in ‘Ragtime’, ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Meet the Fockers’. The film is based on the debut of renowned author Bernard Malamud (“The Fixer”, “The Tenants”). And then there are the actors: Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger and Barbara Hershey.

So it’s not the names. Redford and Duvall are perfect for their roles, but Basinger also feels at home, as the femme fatale with the glorious Bond name Memo Paris. The story is cleverly put together, especially the double tension arc stands out. We don’t just look ahead to the possible exploits of Hobbs and his well-meaning crew of The New York Knights. We’re also always curious about Hobbs’ 16-year hiatus. How could such a talent suddenly suffer such a setback?

Also successful is the smooth way in which different genres have been blended. ‘The Natural’ is not only a sports drama, but also a romantic drama and a (little) crime thriller. The film also does well in portraying American baseball culture (a lot of superstitions, a lot of legends) and with the portrayal of pre-war America. There is no shortage of humor either.

You would think that all this makes for a masterpiece, but alas. Both tensions lead to a miserable denouement in duplicate. The 16-year hiatus turns out to be a not too interesting episode, of which we do not get to know everything. The sporty tension ends even worse. Every cliché of the sports drama comes to the fore in the far too long finale, a championship match, of course. Those clichés make the course so predictable that you end up with a hangover. Nice movie, yes. But a waste of talent.