The score and editing in this film are just magic, as is the entire film. I still recall seeing it in the theater with my mother upon first release. One of my fondest memories with her. At one time, Hollywood often made genuine art. Now they do live action comic books. What a sad tragedy.
I just like this scene for the insults that flew back and forth. "red nose", "green horn", "rum pot". Scary to think what the insults would be nowadays.
So true. She was watching whammer from a distance on the train then rode w him. And a mention before this scene of another athlete killed by silver bullet. She was shooting athletes. Then later scene yrs later w old pic of Hobbs laid out shot and she was dead in the street. ☹️
One of the Best movies ever, in my opinion. When I was about 14ish, I watched it on VHS everyday after school for at least a month straight. Those movie rental late fees I paid where outrageous.
I think what I love so much about this scene is how it was shot. The beautiful sunset bathing everyone in the glow, playing ball in an open field. No matter how big the game can get, it always boils down to the beauty of it all.
Difficult to impossible to time the filming of a scene with the real sun. It takes all day to film a scene like this. The "sun" was probably faked with powerful lights.
You can tell this is a warm summer night, with the moths flying around, and the ferris wheel in the background, and the men wearing buttoned up shirts, even in the heat. Beautiful cinematography.
What about Major League Back To The Minors? What about Angels In The Outfield? What about The Bad News Bears Go To Japan? What about Airbud: Seventh Inning Stretch? What about Ed? You have seriously got to watch more baseball movies! Live a little, FFS!
@@shelbyseelbach9568 What about the movies you mentioned. I can guarantee you are referring to Angels In The Outfield made in 1994 and not the original made in 1951. The better baseball movies are the bio-pics, Cobb, The Babe, Don't Look Back: The Satchel Paige Story and Eight Men Out. You can also back to vintage movies with Pride Of the Yankees, The Stratton Story and Rhubarb. You do not have a very good taste in baseball movies. Get a life FFS.
This is such a classic sports movie, right up there with Hoosiers and Rudy. It's interesting that the music here is very similar to the music in Hoosiers.
The Natural has a great story and a very good cast. For me though, I really loved the cinematography. The sets, costumes and the shadows and light really set this film apart. It's like it wrapped you up and took you back to an era and said, 'Here, look at this beautiful dream.'
One of the greatest movies. Spendid cast, production elements, score, script. All of it. One of Redfords best movies. Don't make movies like this a anymore.
@@christopherfoote4643 @cac productions the 1952 novel The Natural has a very dark ending, where Roy strikes out after having taken the Judge’s bribe to throw the game. No way Hollywood would have Robert Redford end up like that.
@@christopherfoote4643 Remember they are trying to sell the movie, not copy a book that's already been written, when the public puts down money to see a movie, they want a happy ending!
@@christopherfoote4643 Maybe Max was supposed to be the shadow of the devil, always using muses to temp you to the darkside, while he(Max) sits in the shadows, like the dark office at the ballpark??
It's the editing for me. The pacing is completely different. There are very good cinematographers still but the editing back then could allow a scene to breathe. They aren't like that now. It's rapid-paced. Everything's cut like a music video or an advertisement commercial. It's a mess.
The look on Harriet's face when she shifted from Whammer to Hobbs was very telling. Hobbs saved Whammer and changed his own life on those 3 pitches and he didn't even know it.
Today a Marvel film would pander to the stupid and have character express this via unnecessary dialogue speech. In 1984 you could do it visually with just a look.
I really love this film by Barry levinsion he got a fantastic cast in the script was beautiful written also Robert redford was a fine thing in this movie also glenn close and kim basinger they were beautiful in this movie as well robert duvall was brilliant as the sports writer as well
This scene was filmed in my hometown of South Dayton, NY. I remember news broadcasts looking for background characters. A classmate had a speaking role in the next scene (train chase scene) that boy is 51 yo now.
Three years later the train station scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" would be filmed in the same location. If you're ever in South Dayton, make sure to stop by the supermarket across the street from the old train stop and pick up some donuts. Best you'll ever have.
Part of why I hate Hollywood. In the book Roy strikes out at the end, but the folks in tinsel-town couldn’t have that so they changed it to him hitting a home run and busting all of the lights. It’s a much more emotional story the original way.
@@Alvan81 The dumbing down of Americans is a real thing. That's a part of it. People don't remember how scary WWII was, how uncertain it was and how much suffering happened for 15 + years
Two guys; one a pitcher with a 3 inch diameter ball and the other a batter with a 34 inch long chunk of an ash tree - can it get any better? Only if I am there watching them with a dog in one hand, a scorecard in the other and a cold one in the armrest. "It's a great day, let's play two!" Thanks Ernie . . .
@@wexwuthor1776 I was doing that once in little league practice and a foul tip caught me on the eyebrow and opened up a nice cut that bled into my eye and ended that practice session for me.......60 years ago now.
Why so many comments about his age? It’s a movie, not real life., and it’s for a small portion at the start of the movie. You could say the same about RR and Streisand in The Way we Were being high school students. Back in the 70s and 80s people probably didn’t want to see “younger versions” cast in their starring roles.
Thanks! Yeah... it gets old seeing the same comments day after day. These are the same people who have no problems with the latest overblown comic book adaptation.
I always love the moment when Robert Duvall realizes he remembers Hobbs from many years earlier. Time does that sometimes. He's trying and trying and just can't put a finger on where he remembers this guy then it hits him.
Actually I thought that was a little hokey. Certainly he would remember but maybe since it was sixteen years later he might have compartmentalized it. The whole jist of this sequence I think is lost in the subplot of Hobbs regaining his status. The Whammer said he would hit it to the Moon. It was meant to impress the lady figure who eventually cut Hobbs down to size. Hobbs took initiative into something he thought he should have seen coming but was too enraptured with the spectacle of it all. The ending really doesn't fit within the plotline. Probably what ought to have happened irrespective of what they presented was Hobbs at his peak. Striking out to a Whammer figure equally so enraptured. They kind of touched upon it. They just didn't follow through. Hobbs hitting a home run was ridiculous in that scenario because he was already corrupted. Am I the only one to notice it? He was already caught up in it.
@@christopherfoote4643 The novel takes more of the approach to which you allude, but then Hobbs is much more of a doomed and flawed figure in the book than he is portrayed in the movie. In the book, Hobbs’ ambition to be the best ever to the exclusion of other people and sensibilities is a tragic flaw that not only haunts his early life but continues to vex him to the end.
“You've got a gift Roy, but it's not enough -you've got to develop yourself. If you rely too much on your own gift then you'll fail.” Ed Hobbs (Roy’s father)
I'm pretty sure that "You've got a gift, Roy, but it's not enough" is echoed several times throughout the film, by Pop, The Judge, Max Mercy, and maybe Iris.
I love everything about the Natural except the ending. In the original novel (one of the best sports novel ever), Hobbs is a much more flawed character. In fact, he strikes out (the reason he decided to play was because Iris is pregnant with his child so he needed to be able to support them). In the end Muncie (the reporter) discovers that Hobbs was paid to throw the game. The novel is as much about the loss of innocence, something that was basically ignored in the movie. While I appreciate the movie for bringing out what we love about the game, I wish it had been a little more realistic - like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.
@@jamesrawlins735 I appreciate your opinion, however I think with this film both instances could work. In this case, I really really enjoy this ending. It's not like typical you win it and everyone runs over and does their whole speech about how they knew, rather its majestic with the lights burning out, everyone cheering and its still not the championship game. So they could still have gone on to lose. All they do is secure a bid into the World Series and pop keeps the team. I also love the fact that when it does flash forward, he's out enjoying his time with his family and his son who he's rekindled a relationship with.
@@drfunk1986 I think as well the movie does show Hobbs as a flawed character, the difference being that he overcomes those flaws in the end compared to the book. The whole middle of the movie is about showing Roy Hobbs' flaws. I really don't see anything wrong with that. There's places for downer endings I suppose, but if a movie chooses to have a happy and hopeful ending I'm not going to fault it. There's enough things wrong with the world, we don't need fantasy and fiction bringing us down too, especially when it's the only thing we can guarantee to lift our spirits.
The film is good, but I love the score much much more, & even though he still had his leading man looks, Redford was clearly too old to play Roy Hobbs, too bad de-aging wasn't around yet!
Baseball is the best non-contact sport shown perfectly in this clip. It's the pitcher versus the batter one on one. No help from anyone. And the best man wins in front of everyone.
A perfect example of this was the Tigers' Dave Bergman's At Bat against the Blue Jays' Roy Lee Jackson on 4 June 1984... I wish this video showed the At Bat in its entirety-without the choppy graphic insertions-as it takes out the tense drama of the moment, but... ua-cam.com/video/xn44Rsn9WlY/v-deo.html
Too idealized for my liking. Not that I didn't watch & enjoy, just not my favorite. I saw Eddie Brinkman for the Tigers hit a two-run homer opening day 1972 (first in-person pro game I ever saw) for the win against the Red Sox, stadium went nuts as Brinkman was aging and not expected to be the hitting hero (great, dependable shortstop, hitting not so much) Still one of the best sports moments I've ever seen. Of course I was a Tigers fan, that helped!
Loved this movie when I Was a kid 11 yrs old and watched it back in 83 or 84 on HBO… played baseball as a kid and me and my friends took a magic marker and wrote “ wonder boy “ on our bats in hopes that we would hit a Homer.
That is a great moment but I love when Barbara Hershey's homicidal fan from hell Harriet Bird switches her attention to Roy after the third strike. "You can't fight fate."- Clarence Darby
@@Corkfish1 Ha!!! Exactly!!! Roy never should have struck out the Whammer. Harriet had her eyes on him until she realized Roy Hobbs is the superior ballplayer. Great word! Thank you.
This is just my opinion but a much younger actor should have been chosen to portray Roy Hobbs in this opening scene of the film. He is only supposed to be nineteen but Robert Redford was actually in his forties at the time and unconvincing as a nineteen-year old.
@@ThePropertyHatsTeamatRNYRNJ Brad Pitt just might have been a good choice. I think he was only in his early twenties at the time this film was released.
I've always loved the first pitch in it being so fast, Whammer didn't even see it and reacts stunned after it hits the glove. That must've been how batters felt facing Nolan Ryan when he was throwing 105-108mph back in the 70's.
The Natural is a 1984 American sports film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall.
Ordinarily, I don't like it when film versions of novels by good writers drastically change their source material (the novel "The Natural" not only ends tragically, but makes Roy venal and corrupt); but this film was so damned good -- and made me FEEL so damned good -- that I didn't care. Apart from its other virtues, Randy Newman's wonderful score was such a delightful homage to Aaron Copland that I half-expected to see Copland thanked in the final credits.
I wish I felt the same way, I really do, but the way they butchered the end really bothered me. The ending of the book was poignant while the movie ending felt very much like pandering. I’m not against happy endings, but I am when the feel shoehorned and forced, which the end of this one really was. I wish I could look past it because the rest of the movie is so fantastic, but I just can’t.
@@aaronstark5060 I know how you feel, and I have felt exactly the same way about some films (just not this one). "The Searchers", with John Wayne, is one such example. It is simply ridiculous, after an entire film in which Wayne looks all over the West for his niece (Natalie Wood), to kill her for what he sees as the unforgivable sin of her having lived with the Comanches who abducted her as a child, for him to simply relent and back off (for no better reason than that the studio couldn't have John Wayne killing Natalie Wood). "Gilda" is another example: a GREAT film noir, marred by asinine American moralizing, in which Glenn Ford is told at the end that the vivacious Gilda has never engaged in anything beyond advanced handholding with her (numerous) gentlemen. It always reminds me of Frank Burns on "M*A*S*H", when he's delirious from medication, whispering to Hawkeye and B.J.: "I have a secret to tell you guys. Margaret and I (leans in confidentially) ARE DATING".
@@tadimaggio Totally agree about Gilda. The ending felt so forced and insincere. However, while it may be as egregious, I find it a bit more understandable because of the Hays Code. A lot, I mean A LOT of movies from that era were handcuffed, particularly when it came to their endings. They always had to end a certain way or no Hays Office endorsement for you, which was a death sentence for your movie. They couldn’t have given that movie the ending it deserved even if they had wanted to. They didn’t have that excuse in 1984. BTW, it’s funny that you mentioned The Searchers, because what you described was EXACTLY mirrored what was wrong about Red River, another John Wayne movie. The way he just out of nowhere made nice with Garth after tracking him across half the country in a murderous rage made zero sense.
@@aaronstark5060 I really wish that you and I could sit down over cappuccino and talk about movies for a good many hours; you sound like a truly knowledgeable person. As to "Red River", there is a possible explanation for John Wayne relenting at the end: he may have been as overcome by Clift's astonishing male beauty as was the rest of the world. When George Stevens directed Clift with Elizabeth Taylor in "A Place in the Sun" a few years later, he commented to one of his crew: "I'd never have believed that I could be directing Liz Taylor, and not be entirely sure of just who 'the pretty one' in the picture is supposed to be."
This was a well done movie. Roy was missed cast with Robert Redford. The character was supposed to be 19 or 20. Robert Redford was clearly in his forties. If you read the novel it's a lot darker than the film. It does not have a happy ending.
Good scene, but they missed on the editing. You see Max Mercy back way off before the 2nd pitch, but as it's being thrown, he's right behind the catcher.
There are a few movies where Wrigley was used but this isn't one of them. You can be forgiven for thinking it was with those lights on top of the stands. I thought the same until I looked it up.
Great scene in a terrific movie! I love how this scene, in the bright sunny part of the day, foreshadows the climactic ending with Hobbs batting against a young phenom at night with a storm approaching. Brilliant.
![⟨I'M GOOD⭐️⟩ bebe rexha & david guetta [edit audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dPgWfryNJHI/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the smell of strikeouts in the morning.
Oh, that’s classic!
Completely CLASSIC!
@@paulsimmons5726 You get it. 😉
Smells like.......Victory!!!!
@@bensisko4651 ...some day this ballgame's gonna end.
@@KidFreshie that's true, but CHARLIE DON'T SURF!!!
The locomotive is this clip is GTW 4070. She was sent to Dayton NY for the filming of this movie and is being restored to run again.
The score and editing in this film are just magic, as is the entire film. I still recall seeing it in the theater with my mother upon first release. One of my fondest memories with her.
At one time, Hollywood often made genuine art. Now they do live action comic books. What a sad tragedy.
Cry me a river, there's still plenty of great films being made
@@imandan1966no there aren’t. There are a few, and they are far between.
Infected by Wokeness and DEI. The days of Shawshank Redemption, The Good -Bad-Ugly, Field of Dreams, and Forest Gump are gone.
@@imandan1966go watch another superhero movie 😂
Oh, shut up, grandad.
Can’t get any better than this
There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was.
I just like this scene for the insults that flew back and forth. "red nose", "green horn", "rum pot". Scary to think what the insults would be nowadays.
Probably something along the lines of snowflake or Trumpy
"You watch your mouth, mister!"
I don't think it was rum pot.
@@christopherfoote4643 it was definitely rumpot. It means a drunk.
Most likely nothing.
The score for this is some of the greatest film music ever
@Crumphorn: Yep. Randy Newman - what a genius. He is also the one who wrote and sang the song "SHORT PEOPLE".
Along with Silverado. Agree.
@@hehhehhuhhuh7014And "Sail Away" which breaks my heart every time I hear it.
@@Brunoburningbright I just now gave it a listen. Good song - totally different than SHORT PEOPLE, and the score to THE NATURAL.
This is movie making at its absolute best
I believe we have two lives.
The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.
This is one of the few quotes from a film that I have put to memory.
2:48: Barbera Hershey's character Harriet Bird looks (and moves her attention) from The Whammer, to Roy. PERFECTION.
Leech
That cold, empty stare when it shifts from the Whammer to Roy. Still gives me chills nearly 40 years later…
Right? Evil incarnate
Whammer is saved, but The Black Widow gets her tentacles into Roy's heart.
Was thinking the same thing. The actress did a great job there. Very believable.
So true. She was watching whammer from a distance on the train then rode w him. And a mention before this scene of another athlete killed by silver bullet. She was shooting athletes. Then later scene yrs later w old pic of Hobbs laid out shot and she was dead in the street. ☹️
One of the Best movies ever, in my opinion. When I was about 14ish, I watched it on VHS everyday after school for at least a month straight. Those movie rental late fees I paid where outrageous.
I got a couple of those late fees to from pornos. 😁
I think what I love so much about this scene is how it was shot. The beautiful sunset bathing everyone in the glow, playing ball in an open field. No matter how big the game can get, it always boils down to the beauty of it all.
Difficult to impossible to time the filming of a scene with the real sun. It takes all day to film a scene like this. The "sun" was probably faked with powerful lights.
@@aliendroneservices6621 perhaps, but boy did it look nice.
And Then you realize baseball sucks
@@bigassdummy46
Feel bad for you.
It's a thing of beauty, the suspense, the skills... it's unique in how it highlights those things
Well said.
You can tell this is a warm summer night, with the moths flying around, and the ferris wheel in the background, and the men wearing buttoned up shirts, even in the heat. Beautiful cinematography.
With their shirt tails tucked in.
I can't for the life of me understand how folks back then were all dressed up in the hot weather.
One of my ALL TIME Favorite movies!
Great film. One of my favorites. Thanks.
One of the absolute best baseball movies ever made.
If there is a better baseball movie, I haven't seen it. I've even seen Rhubarb!
Wrong, one of the best movies period...
Yep! Field of dreams is second.
What about Major League Back To The Minors? What about Angels In The Outfield? What about The Bad News Bears Go To Japan? What about Airbud: Seventh Inning Stretch? What about Ed? You have seriously got to watch more baseball movies! Live a little, FFS!
@@shelbyseelbach9568 What about the movies you mentioned. I can guarantee you are referring to Angels In The Outfield made in 1994 and not the original made in 1951.
The better baseball movies are the bio-pics, Cobb, The Babe, Don't Look Back: The Satchel Paige Story and Eight Men Out.
You can also back to vintage movies with Pride Of the Yankees, The Stratton Story and Rhubarb. You do not have a very good taste in baseball movies. Get a life FFS.
This is such a classic sports movie, right up there with Hoosiers and Rudy. It's interesting that the music here is very similar to the music in Hoosiers.
I’ve always loved this Film.
beautiful cinematography
Great movie, I remember seeing this with my Dad
Such an uplifting score at the strikeout betraying Barbara Hershey's shift in focus, sealing Roy's fate...
How they found someone who so closely resembles Babe Ruth is cool.
Is a long time character actor, he's been in a lot of films and tv shows.
@@Eadweard76
Fletch 👍
Cape Fear
Walking Tall
@@chrisbernardo5500 Joe Don Baker
@@Luckyrider1958 MITCHELL!!!!
The Natural has a great story and a very good cast. For me though, I really loved the cinematography. The sets, costumes and the shadows and light really set this film apart. It's like it wrapped you up and took you back to an era and said, 'Here, look at this beautiful dream.'
"you watch your mouth mister!" love Roy
Cinematography, diesel score, this movie had it all, one of your time great movies
My life didn't turn out the way I expected.
Great movie! Love the way you can tell Barbra Hershey is a little phyco just by hers eyes!
Hobbs possibly saved the Whammers life
Maybe, but she was still a gorgeous woman. Loved her in Hoosiers.
That Barbara Hershey scared the heck out of me with that emotionless face in search of prey.
she was gettin ready to do some shootin!
Hot even while crazy.
@Hagmire84
Check the bed before just jumping in.
@Hagmire84 yeah, but Amber ain’t acting!
@Hagmire84 😅🤣👍
One of the greatest movies. Spendid cast, production elements, score, script. All of it. One of Redfords best movies. Don't make movies like this a anymore.
@@christopherfoote4643 @cac productions the 1952 novel The Natural has a very dark ending, where Roy strikes out after having taken the Judge’s bribe to throw the game. No way Hollywood would have Robert Redford end up like that.
Redford has a habit of being in and making good movies.
Teenagers wouldn’t be interested.
@@christopherfoote4643 Remember they are trying to sell the movie, not copy a book that's already been written, when the public puts down money to see a movie, they want a happy ending!
@@christopherfoote4643 Maybe Max was supposed to be the shadow of the devil, always using muses to temp you to the darkside, while he(Max) sits in the shadows, like the dark office at the ballpark??
Greatest baseball movie ever! Sad thing is it will never be this innocent & pure again.
TV big corporations money 💰 have ruined all sports.
Soto turned down 440 million. Let that sink in. Happy Friday!
Maybe after the next big comet strike resets the planet again, it can be that way for a little while.
Tin Cup was a better baseball movie and it was about golf.
One of the best soundtracks as well.
Just love the way this is shot with the sun and the shadows. Amazing. We don't see that kind of movie making these days.
Watching the Academy Awards I kept thinking the same thing. Where have all the big stars gone?
LOL yes we fucking do.
You sound like old Abe Simpson lol. Plenty of gorgeous cinematography out there today if you actually watch films.
It's the editing for me. The pacing is completely different. There are very good cinematographers still but the editing back then could allow a scene to breathe. They aren't like that now. It's rapid-paced. Everything's cut like a music video or an advertisement commercial. It's a mess.
In big budget movies the shadows are CGI.
Absolutely love this movie. Saw it in the theater when I was a kid. A classic!
Yup, me too. Remember being struck by the music
The look on Harriet's face when she shifted from Whammer to Hobbs was very telling. Hobbs saved Whammer and changed his own life on those 3 pitches and he didn't even know it.
Never thought about it like that. Saved his life.
Today a Marvel film would pander to the stupid and have character express this via unnecessary dialogue speech. In 1984 you could do it visually with just a look.
Perhaps...perhaps she was never going to harm the Whammer. She still loved him...she saw Hobbs as a threat...to b eliminated.
@@JACKnJESUS it was revealed that she's a serial killer and she was most definitely going to kill Whammer.
@@Rockhound6165 Oh...okay...a bit of pertinent information...thank you. Now it makes sense.
Great score by the incomparable Randy Newman.
Nephew of Alfred Newman the film score composer
“You watch your mouth mister” love it!
Listen to the music
F'n Roy Hobbs! I love him! Even though he'd set me and my potty mouth straight! 😅
Robert Redford actually had good throwing and batting form.
He earned a baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado.
The music 🎶 absolutely makes this film iconic!
GREAT Movie. GREAT musical score!
Barbara Hershey’s character refocusing her gaze is the best part of that scene.
The reason I posted this. It was such a brilliant moment of filmmaking.
Full on cuckoo crazy.
I had no idea Duvall was in this. Just came across an Outer Limits with a very young Duvall.
His first film role, 'To Kill A Mockingbird."
"I believe we live 2 lives, the one we learn with, the one we live with after that"
Iconic Scene
I really love this film by Barry levinsion he got a fantastic cast in the script was beautiful written also Robert redford was a fine thing in this movie also glenn close and kim basinger they were beautiful in this movie as well robert duvall was brilliant as the sports writer as well
And this was only Levinson’s second film. Amazing work.
This scene was filmed in my hometown of South Dayton, NY. I remember news broadcasts looking for background characters. A classmate had a speaking role in the next scene (train chase scene) that boy is 51 yo now.
How cool!
Three years later the train station scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" would be filmed in the same location. If you're ever in South Dayton, make sure to stop by the supermarket across the street from the old train stop and pick up some donuts. Best you'll ever have.
I love how honest yet shocked Max is. “Strike 3…you’re out?” *shrugs*
Two of my all time favorite films are Redford films: The Natural and Jeremiah Johnson.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!
'Electric Horseman'.
Boozy Sonny Steele
How good is Robert Duvall tho, this guy is in absolutely EVERYTHING ...
And he tends to be great in everything.
Lonesome DOve!
Tender Mercies!
@@slatsgrobneck7515
The moment at the end where the woman’s gaze shifts from the “whammer” to Roy (in hindsight) has to be the saddest point in the movie.
Welcome to the world of screenwriting. How to “shift” built up tension to move the story forwards…
Part of why I hate Hollywood. In the book Roy strikes out at the end, but the folks in tinsel-town couldn’t have that so they changed it to him hitting a home run and busting all of the lights. It’s a much more emotional story the original way.
@@broughswenson651 Shouldn't you hate the audiences for rejecting movies with those endings?
@@Alvan81
The dumbing down of Americans is a real thing.
That's a part of it.
People don't remember how scary WWII was, how uncertain it was and how much suffering happened for 15 + years
@@jayclark5034 Enjoying a feel good movie with a happy ending doesn't make Americans "dumb". You despising it makes you a d-bag.
Two guys; one a pitcher with a 3 inch diameter ball and the other a batter with a 34 inch long chunk of an ash tree - can it get any better? Only if I am there watching them with a dog in one hand, a scorecard in the other and a cold one in the armrest. "It's a great day, let's play two!" Thanks Ernie . . .
"That ball is as dry as your granddaddy's skull." One of my favorite lines lol.
My son and I still laugh about that line and use it when we can.
Pretty sure he said Scalp
@@GeneralBuckNaked .... I've always said "skull" but you may be right.
What does he say right before that? "In a pig's poop" or something like that...?
@@doctorcXanthophyll ..”the pigs proof ..”…pretty sure
First pitch hits the catcher’s mitt pocket without him moving an inch.
‘He looks wild to me.’ 😄
How you catch or ump with no mask is beyond me. Foul tips are always possible
@@wexwuthor1776 Well they didn't look like hockey players!
Yea, plus he's like 20 feet away, lol
@@wexwuthor1776
They're playing in suits, vests, and ties, Wex. You new at this?
@@wexwuthor1776 I was doing that once in little league practice and a foul tip caught me on the eyebrow and opened up a nice cut that bled into my eye and ended that practice session for me.......60 years ago now.
There goes Roy Hobbs...the best that ever was
The best damn hitter I ever saw
Why so many comments about his age? It’s a movie, not real life., and it’s for a small portion at the start of the movie. You could say the same about RR and Streisand in The Way we Were being high school students. Back in the 70s and 80s people probably didn’t want to see “younger versions” cast in their starring roles.
Thanks! Yeah... it gets old seeing the same comments day after day. These are the same people who have no problems with the latest overblown comic book adaptation.
I always love the moment when Robert Duvall realizes he remembers Hobbs from many years earlier. Time does that sometimes. He's trying and trying and just can't put a finger on where he remembers this guy then it hits him.
Actually I thought that was a little hokey. Certainly he would remember but maybe since it was sixteen years later he might have compartmentalized it. The whole jist of this sequence I think is lost in the subplot of Hobbs regaining his status. The Whammer said he would hit it to the Moon. It was meant to impress the lady figure who eventually cut Hobbs down to size. Hobbs took initiative into something he thought he should have seen coming but was too enraptured with the spectacle of it all. The ending really doesn't fit within the plotline. Probably what ought to have happened irrespective of what they presented was Hobbs at his peak. Striking out to a Whammer figure equally so enraptured. They kind of touched upon it. They just didn't follow through. Hobbs hitting a home run was ridiculous in that scenario because he was already corrupted. Am I the only one to notice it? He was already caught up in it.
They come & they go
Max Mercy.
@@markturner1672 Mind your own business rednose and let's play ball
@@christopherfoote4643 The novel takes more of the approach to which you allude, but then Hobbs is much more of a doomed and flawed figure in the book than he is portrayed in the movie. In the book, Hobbs’ ambition to be the best ever to the exclusion of other people and sensibilities is a tragic flaw that not only haunts his early life but continues to vex him to the end.
This film is so well cast…RR is perfect as Roy Hobbs because he already seems touched by God.
Every other comment is about how he's too old for this particular scene, so thanks for this. It's a damned movie! EVERYthing is make believe!
“You've got a gift Roy, but it's not enough -you've got to develop yourself. If you rely too much on your own gift then you'll fail.”
Ed Hobbs (Roy’s father)
I'm pretty sure that "You've got a gift, Roy, but it's not enough" is echoed several times throughout the film, by Pop, The Judge, Max Mercy, and maybe Iris.
“Wasted Talent” - Bronx Tale
That applies to more than just baseball.
Joe Don Baker - great actor. Charley Varrick, Edge of Darkness and many more superb performances
He was good, but he was no Robert Shaw.
Buford Pusser-great real name, too.
This is scene is an instant classic 👌 👏 🙌 😂 🤣
@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?
One of the best feel good movies of all time
I must of watched this movie 100 times when I was growing up.
One of my all time favourite movies.
We sure could use more movies like this, something for everyone and a great story ending
I love everything about the Natural except the ending. In the original novel (one of the best sports novel ever), Hobbs is a much more flawed character. In fact, he strikes out (the reason he decided to play was because Iris is pregnant with his child so he needed to be able to support them). In the end Muncie (the reporter) discovers that Hobbs was paid to throw the game. The novel is as much about the loss of innocence, something that was basically ignored in the movie. While I appreciate the movie for bringing out what we love about the game, I wish it had been a little more realistic - like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.
@@jamesrawlins735 I appreciate your opinion, however I think with this film both instances could work. In this case, I really really enjoy this ending. It's not like typical you win it and everyone runs over and does their whole speech about how they knew, rather its majestic with the lights burning out, everyone cheering and its still not the championship game. So they could still have gone on to lose. All they do is secure a bid into the World Series and pop keeps the team. I also love the fact that when it does flash forward, he's out enjoying his time with his family and his son who he's rekindled a relationship with.
@@drfunk1986 I think as well the movie does show Hobbs as a flawed character, the difference being that he overcomes those flaws in the end compared to the book. The whole middle of the movie is about showing Roy Hobbs' flaws. I really don't see anything wrong with that. There's places for downer endings I suppose, but if a movie chooses to have a happy and hopeful ending I'm not going to fault it. There's enough things wrong with the world, we don't need fantasy and fiction bringing us down too, especially when it's the only thing we can guarantee to lift our spirits.
@@demgaming1480 This movie is almost 40 years old.
@@tomshea8382 What does that have to do with what I said?
The Whammer dodged that upcoming bullet.
The film is good, but I love the score much much more, & even though he still had his leading man looks, Redford was clearly too old to play Roy Hobbs, too bad de-aging wasn't around yet!
The look on Duvall's face when that 1st one goes pass cracks me up every time.
A rare movie were he plays kind of a jerk.
And after he strikes out the best hitter on 3 pitches it still takes Duvall half the movie to figure out Hobbs is the same guy?
@Anthony Licari
Well 20 plus years had gone by. After two years of mask restrictions I can’t remember half my family either.
Duvall's always great. A little expression, a word of two - always perfect
@@jogman262 - Duval is not playing the "Babe Ruth" wannabe. His Col Kilgore was something of a jerk. Certainly bizarre.
Baseball is the best non-contact sport shown perfectly in this clip. It's the pitcher versus the batter one on one. No help from anyone. And the best man wins in front of everyone.
A perfect example of this was the Tigers' Dave Bergman's At Bat against the Blue Jays' Roy Lee Jackson on 4 June 1984... I wish this video showed the At Bat in its entirety-without the choppy graphic insertions-as it takes out the tense drama of the moment, but... ua-cam.com/video/xn44Rsn9WlY/v-deo.html
I think you'll find that's cricket.
A sport were the defense is control of the ball.
Bowling? You against the pins 😜
Track and field?
One of my favourites beautiful movie and robert redfords legacy movie - forever roy hobbs!
In my personal 'Hall of Fame' movies one of THE GREATEST Baseball movies of all time.........Redford smashes it out of the stadium!!
Another gem from the 80s
I always loved that movie.
Loved this movie my whole life
The best sports film ever in my opinion. It was pure, beautiful.
Chariots Of Fire
@@Mark-Haddow ..Definitely a good 1.
Too idealized for my liking.
Not that I didn't watch & enjoy, just not my favorite.
I saw Eddie Brinkman for the Tigers hit a two-run homer opening day 1972 (first in-person pro game I ever saw) for the win against the Red Sox, stadium went nuts as Brinkman was aging and not expected to be the hitting hero (great, dependable shortstop, hitting not so much)
Still one of the best sports moments I've ever seen.
Of course I was a Tigers fan, that helped!
Loved this movie when I Was a kid 11 yrs old and watched it back in 83 or 84 on HBO… played baseball as a kid and me and my friends took a magic marker and wrote “ wonder boy “ on our bats in hopes that we would hit a Homer.
Prefer it over Field of Dreams
Collective eye roll
@@Cincinnatus1869 haha… yeah, I get it, it was a corny movie.
That is a great moment but I love when Barbara Hershey's homicidal fan from hell Harriet Bird switches her attention to Roy after the third strike. "You can't fight fate."- Clarence Darby
Hypergamy
@@Corkfish1 Ha!!! Exactly!!! Roy never should have struck out the Whammer. Harriet had her eyes on him until she realized Roy Hobbs is the superior ballplayer. Great word! Thank you.
@@Corkfish1 exactly but I never could figure out why she wanted to kill him. So as not to share him?
@@crisespinoza1979 Her initial ploy was to marry him and henpeck him to death, but ultimately decided she didn't have that kind of time. 😁
This is just my opinion but a much younger actor should have been chosen to portray Roy Hobbs in this opening scene of the film. He is only supposed to be nineteen but Robert Redford was actually in his forties at the time and unconvincing as a nineteen-year old.
Maybe Brad Pitt.
@@ThePropertyHatsTeamatRNYRNJ Brad Pitt just might have been a good choice. I think he was only in his early twenties at the time this film was released.
He struck out Mitchell !!! One of my fav baseball movies !!!!
M I T C H E L L
Who’s the puffy guy who’s a big blurry sex machine? Mitchell!
Of course he struck him out. He was pitching from about 30 feet away.
of course he struck him out, it was in the script
They paced 60 feet off
@@jerseywalcott6408 He was clearly not 60 feet away. It looked more like 15-20. I'm guessing they probably had him stand closer to make the shot work.
1:12 I never noticed this - he's pitching from about 25 feet away.
I noticed. A filming mistake.
No mound, no cleats, no pithing rubber, no glove. You can only improvise so much.
@@flamingfrancis his catcher had a glove. I was referring to the distance.
What a epic movie. This is really one of those special ones
I've always loved the first pitch in it being so fast, Whammer didn't even see it and reacts stunned after it hits the glove.
That must've been how batters felt facing Nolan Ryan when he was throwing 105-108mph back in the 70's.
I really love scenes in movies like this that show the silhouette and bugs flying
The illuminated bugs are somewhat echoed in the home run scene in which the sparks are falling all around him as he circles the bases.
The algorithms brought me here. I ended up buying the video.
The Natural is a 1984 American sports film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall.
Joe Don Baker really looks like the Babe in this.
Ordinarily, I don't like it when film versions of novels by good writers drastically change their source material (the novel "The Natural" not only ends tragically, but makes Roy venal and corrupt); but this film was so damned good -- and made me FEEL so damned good -- that I didn't care. Apart from its other virtues, Randy Newman's wonderful score was such a delightful homage to Aaron Copland that I half-expected to see Copland thanked in the final credits.
I wish I felt the same way, I really do, but the way they butchered the end really bothered me. The ending of the book was poignant while the movie ending felt very much like pandering. I’m not against happy endings, but I am when the feel shoehorned and forced, which the end of this one really was. I wish I could look past it because the rest of the movie is so fantastic, but I just can’t.
@@aaronstark5060 I know how you feel, and I have felt exactly the same way about some films (just not this one). "The Searchers", with John Wayne, is one such example. It is simply ridiculous, after an entire film in which Wayne looks all over the West for his niece (Natalie Wood), to kill her for what he sees as the unforgivable sin of her having lived with the Comanches who abducted her as a child, for him to simply relent and back off (for no better reason than that the studio couldn't have John Wayne killing Natalie Wood). "Gilda" is another example: a GREAT film noir, marred by asinine American moralizing, in which Glenn Ford is told at the end that the vivacious Gilda has never engaged in anything beyond advanced handholding with her (numerous) gentlemen. It always reminds me of Frank Burns on "M*A*S*H", when he's delirious from medication, whispering to Hawkeye and B.J.: "I have a secret to tell you guys. Margaret and I (leans in confidentially) ARE DATING".
@@tadimaggio
Totally agree about Gilda. The ending felt so forced and insincere. However, while it may be as egregious, I find it a bit more understandable because of the Hays Code. A lot, I mean A LOT of movies from that era were handcuffed, particularly when it came to their endings. They always had to end a certain way or no Hays Office endorsement for you, which was a death sentence for your movie. They couldn’t have given that movie the ending it deserved even if they had wanted to. They didn’t have that excuse in 1984.
BTW, it’s funny that you mentioned The Searchers, because what you described was EXACTLY mirrored what was wrong about Red River, another John Wayne movie. The way he just out of nowhere made nice with Garth after tracking him across half the country in a murderous rage made zero sense.
@@aaronstark5060 I really wish that you and I could sit down over cappuccino and talk about movies for a good many hours; you sound like a truly knowledgeable person.
As to "Red River", there is a possible explanation for John Wayne relenting at the end: he may have been as overcome by Clift's astonishing male beauty as was the rest of the world. When George Stevens directed Clift with Elizabeth Taylor in "A Place in the Sun" a few years later, he commented to one of his crew: "I'd never have believed that I could be directing Liz Taylor, and not be entirely sure of just who 'the pretty one' in the picture is supposed to be."
Hey, the catcher (0:29) was the judge in JFK. Also a Columbo collaborator.
This was a well done movie. Roy was missed cast with Robert Redford. The character was supposed to be 19 or 20. Robert Redford was clearly in his forties. If you read the novel it's a lot darker than the film. It does not have a happy ending.
Yes in retrospect Brad Pitt should have played Roy Hobbs
Back when they knew how to make movies.
After reading the title of this video, I thought The Whammer was going to hit a home run. Boy was I wrong…
Duly noted... I've added a bit more intrigue to the title.
Good scene, but they missed on the editing. You see Max Mercy back way off before the 2nd pitch, but as it's being thrown, he's right behind the catcher.
They really don't make movies like this anymore
A Masterpiece!
I always thought Redford looked too old for this scene. Huge fan of the movie tho.
Doesn’t have the look of a pro player…
@Michael Wall
Redford earned a baseball scholarship at the University of Colorado. He knew how to play baseball.
Yes, sadly, I agee. The only really glaring fault of the movie was that they didn't get a younger actor to play teenage Hobs.
@@unprofound Indeed, where was Brad Pitt when we needed him?
@@bernie57 YES! Brad was 20 in 1984.
nostalgia, what a curious drug.
Well cast. Well directed. And a great soundtrack beautifully laid. Wrigley Field never looked better later in the film.
Never was filmed at Wrigley, film was done in Buffalo
@@mjollnir68 The Rock Pile
And this scene was filmed in South Dayton, NY.
There are a few movies where Wrigley was used but this isn't one of them. You can be forgiven for thinking it was with those lights on top of the stands. I thought the same until I looked it up.
great clip and great movie.
Great scene in a terrific movie! I love how this scene, in the bright sunny part of the day, foreshadows the climactic ending with Hobbs batting against a young phenom at night with a storm approaching. Brilliant.
Excellent comment……great observation on your part.
And a left-handed farm boy at that.
sun going down 2:04, wasn't bright sunny, like the sunsetting on whammers career.
@@patrickpower3992 I always thought that’s who was pitching to Roy in the finale.
The kid he threw the ball to.
Don't watch the directors cut. 'It's a bit disappointing,and messes up the flow
who needs a facemask if there's a foul-tip? lol
Just imagine how different his life would have been if Whammer had hit the ball…
Read the book. Whole different ending than in the movie.