The Natural

The Natural is a 1984 American sports drama film adapted from Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Robert Duvall.

Plot
The film is about a man named Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) who goes from an unknown to a legend when it's discovered that he has a natural talent for baseball.

The movie spans decades of the ups and downs of Roy's baseball career.

Cast

 * Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs
 * Robert Duvall as Max Mercy
 * Glenn Close as Iris Gaines
 * Kim Basinger as Memo Paris
 * Wilford Brimley as Pop Fisher
 * Barbara Hershey as Harriet Bird
 * Robert Prosky as The Judge
 * Richard Farnsworth as Red Blow
 * Joe Don Baker as The Whammer
 * Darren McGavin as Gus Sands (uncredited)
 * Michael Madsen as Bartholomew "Bump" Bailey
 * John Finnegan as Sam Simpson
 * Alan Fudge as Ed Hobbs
 * Ken Grassano as Al Fowler
 * Mike Starr as Boone
 * Mickey Treanor as Doc Dizzy
 * Jon Van Ness as John Olsen
 * Anthony J. Ferrara as Coach Wilson
 * George Wilkosz as Bobby Savoy
 * Paul Sullivan Jr. as Young Roy
 * Rachel Hall as Young Iris

Production
According to the producers on the DVD extras, "The Natural" wasn't intended to be a literal adaptation of the novel, it was merely based on it.

The movie was filmed from August 1st to October of 1983. Two-thirds of the scenes were filmed mostly at the War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York. The scenes at Wrigley Field were actually filmed at the All-High Stadium in Buffalo.

The wheatfield and the farmhouse scenes were filmed in Stafford, New York.

Darren McGavin (who played Gus Sands) chose not to be credited in the film because he was cast late in the production and he would've received a lesser billing that the other stars of the film.

Reception
The movie debuted at #1 at the box office, grossing $5,088,381 during its opening weekend. Domestically, it made $47,951,979.

Critical Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Natural" was given a score of 81% based on 36 reviews with an average rating of 7.1\10.

Variety called it an "impeccably made...fable about success and failure in America."

James Berardinelli praised the film as "[a]rguably the best baseball movie ever made."

ESPN's Page 2 selected it as the 6th best sports movie of all time and sports writer Bill Simmons has argued, "Any 'Best Sports Movies' list that doesn't feature either Hoosiers or The Natural as the No. 1 pick shouldn't even count."

Director Barry Levinson said on MLB Network's "Costas at the Movies" in 2013 that while the movie is based in fantasy, "through the years, these things which are outlandish actually [happen]…like Kirk Gibson hitting the home run and limping around the bases…Curt Schilling with the blood on the sock in the World Series".

Leonard Maltin's annual Movie Guide in its 1985 edition called it "too long and inconsistent."

Dan Craft, longtime critic for the Bloomington, Illinois paper, The Pantagraph wrote, "The storybook ending is so preposterous you don't know whether to cheer or jeer".

Sports Illustrated's Frank Deford had faint praise for it: "The Natural almost manages to be a swell movie".

John Simon of the National Review and Richard Schickel of Time were disappointed with the adaptation. Simon contrasted Malamud's story about the "failure of American innocence" with Levinson's "fable of success . . . [and] the ultimate triumph of semi-doltish purity," declaring "you have, not Malamud's novel, but a sorry illustration of its theme''".

Schickel lamented that "Malamud's intricate ending (it is a victory that looks like a defeat) is vulgarized (the victory is now an unambiguous triumph, fireworks included)," and that "watching this movie is all too often like reading about The Natural in the College Outline series."

Roger Ebert called it "idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford".

Ebert's television collaborator Gene Siskel praised it, giving it four stars, also putting down other critics that he suggested might have just recently read the novel for the first time.

In a lengthy New Yorker article on baseball movies, Roger Angell pointed out that Malamud had intentionally treated Hobbs' story as a baseball version of the King Arthur legend, which came across in the film as a bit heavy-handed, "portentous and stuffy" & that the book's ending should have been kept.

He also cited a number of excellent visuals and funny bits, and noted that Robert Redford had prepared so carefully for the role, modeling his swing on that of Ted Williams, that "you want to sign him up".

Accolades
1985 Academy Awards
 * Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kim Basinger (nominated)
 * Best Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel (nominated)
 * Best Art Direction- Set Direction: Mel Bourne, Angelo P. Graham & Bruce Weintraub (nominated)
 * Best Music, Original Score: Randy Newman (nominated)

1985 Golden Globes Awards
 * Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Kim Basinger (nominated)

1985 Awards of the Japanese Academy
 * Best Foreign Language Film (nominated)

1985 Casting Society of America, USA
 * Best Casting for Feature Film: Ellen Chenowith (nominated)

1985 Grammy Awards
 * Best Instrumental Composition: Randy Newman (won)

1984 Heartland Film
 * Truly Moving Picture Award: Barry Levinson (won)

1984 Hochi Film Awards
 * Best Foreign Language Film: Barry Levinson (won)

1985 Writers Guild of America, USA
 * Best Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium: Phil Dusenberry & Roger Towne (nominated)