Take me out to the ball game, throw a box of stale Cracker Jacks in front of me and I’ll be happy, even if the once glamorous prize has been reduced to a sticker for a yo-yo I don’t have or a light switch sticker that’s too small for a light switch. Plug in a baseball movie with Kevin Costner and toss some hot popcorn in front of me and I’ll be equally content. Bull Durham marks the first instalment of Kevin Costner’s unofficial baseball trilogy (to be followed by Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game). This is easily the funniest, wittiest and sexiest of the three. I would say it’s the best too, but then I’d be bashing Field of Dreams and I don’t want to do that.
With his scruffy face, saddened gaze and healthy but not hulking physique, Costner plays the role that was born his: the grizzled veteran. He plays Crash Davis, a catcher with big-league experience who is now barely hanging around as a minor league catcher for the Durham Bulls. Crash’s role with the team is simple: tame the wild arm and lifestyle of hotshot rookie pitcher Nuke Laloosh (Tim Robbins). But Crash isn’t the only one to take Nuke in. Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), the Bulls’ muse and guru, takes on one project a year. This year is Nuke’s turn to experience the passion and sexual frustration that comes with being Annie’s minor league endeavour.
As in the other sports-themed films he wrote and directed (White Men Can’t Jump, Tin Cup), Ron Shelton pays keen attention to dialogue. It’s not Tarantino slick, but instead a good blend of street snap and clever twang. This goes a long way in establishing the film’s greatest strength, its characters. They’re a motley cast of dreamers, realists and those who are just hanging on. While few in real life get the chance to play professional baseball at any level, the struggles of the various Bulls players still seem like everyone’s struggles, and they seem timeless. There isn’t a character in Bull Durham that doesn’t remind you of someone you know.
Toward the middle of the film, the focus takes a noticeable shift from the characters to the game. While I love my baseball, I love a good character even more. The opening of Bull Durham is great because it has interesting people. What they’re doing is menial and is made interesting because of the people doing them. Later, the film switches to more of a soap opera approach that pays more attention to the action than the characters. Because this action seems so much less important than the people, the follow through seems like a limp pop-up to the third baseman.
The good thing about Bull Durham is that the characters are so fun that they manage to overshadow many of the film’s shortcomings. Comedy is mixed in with the serious. The humour is intelligent and not insulting. Plus it takes place during the best season of the year: baseball season. As a result, Bull Durham will forever have a place not only among my favourite sports movies, but favourite movies, period.
