Bull Durham

I reckon this is one of the five or so best baseball films ever made. If you include only the funny ones, it's one of the three best, and probably the best which is specifically about baseball. Most of the really great movies about baseball are serious ones.

Bull Durham is very incisive because it was written by a guy who was actually there, and that guy also has a great sense of humor. And, by God, he's literate and thoughtful as well.

And I suppose Susan Sarandon, in her prime, may be have been one of the five sexiest women ever to walk on the planet. Hell, she still looks sexy and she used to party with Hannibal. So one of the greatest women in one of the greatest baseball flicks. What more do I need to say?

As the tagline says, "It's all about sex and sport. What else is there?"

The top theatrical baseball movies, by IMDb ratings. Comedies highlighted

1	Pride of the Yankees, The (1942)	7.7
2	Field of Dreams (1989)	7.6
3	Eight Men Out (1988)	7.4
4	Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The (1988)	7.3
5	Natural, The (1984)	7.3
6	Bull Durham (1988)	7.2
7	Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)	7.2
8	Damn Yankees! (1958)	7.1
9	League of Their Own, A (1992)	6.9

Rated higher than those are two which were made for television:

1	"Baseball" (1994) (PBS mini-series)	9.2
3	61* (2001) (made-for-cable)	8.0

When I was 14 years old I had the strange privilege of watching Steve Dalkowski, the fastest pitcher who ever lived. By that time, after seven hard years in pro ball, about a million drinks, and a severe elbow injury that spring, his fastball had diminished to "mere" Nolan Ryan levels, but he was still something to see. He had gone to Spring training with the Orioles that year, and was unhittable. He had made the big club, and he even got his picture on a 1963 baseball card, but his spring injury got him sent down to Rochester, and he never made it back up. Sorry to say, Dalkowski didn't do anything extraordinary when I watched him, but he did plenty throughout his career.

NUDITY REPORT

Tim Robbins showed his butt in a sex scene. In the special features, he also shows his butt while pitching in his jock strap

Susan Sarandon shows her breasts while housekeeping, and a brief nipple in a sex scene.

Dalkowski was a small guy, maybe 5'8', 160, with a gift like nobody ever had before or since. His skinny left arm could propel a fastball about 105 mph when he was young. Unfortunately, he had two major weaknesses to keep him from the majors:

1. The bottle

2. Severe control problems.

DVD info from Amazon.

Commentary by Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins
second commentary track from Ron Shelton
Making of documentary including all new interviews with cast
"Sports Wrap" featurette
Widescreen anamorphic format. 1.85

On August 31, 1957, he struck out 24 batters in a minor league game - and lost! He also issued 18 walks in that game, hit four very unlucky guys, threw six wild pitches, and allowed 9 runs. He finished that year with an average of 18 strikeouts per game, but actually walked more than he struck out. Former Yankees manager Bob Lemon said the best Dalkowski exploit he saw was when Steve hit a guy in the back - and the guy was standing in line to buy a hot dog! He also hit an announcer up in the booth once, and finished the one season at Stockton with 262 strikeouts and 262 walks.

Sound familiar? Dalkowski crossed paths in the minors with a guy named Ron Shelton, although they never played together. Shelton is the guy who wrote the screenplay for Bull Durham. The character of Nuke la Loosh was a tall good-looking version of Dalkowski, right down to the exact stats from his 1960 Stockton season!

For more about this fireballing legend, his strange baseball career, and his sad post-baseball decline, go to my comments on White Men Can't Jump.

The Critics Vote

General consensus: three and a half stars. Ebert 3.5/4, filmcritic.com 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes summary. 25 articles on file. 100% positive.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 7.2/10

with their dollars: a solid hit at $51 million

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B. It is one of the few sports movies that is fun to watch even if you don't like sports movies, and a romantic comedy that's fun to watch even if you hate romantic comedies.