The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 sports drama film directed by Robert Redford, and stars Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron. The screenplay by Jeremy Leven is based on the 1995 book The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life by Steven Pressfield. It takes place in the U.S. state of Georgia in 1931. The film served as the final roles of Jack Lemmon before his death the following year and Lane Smith before his death five years later.
On release, the film was a box office bomb, grossing almost $40 million worldwide — only half of its budget — and received mixed reviews; criticism was targeted by several African American commentators and reviewers for employing the "magical negro" stereotype.
Plot[]
As a senior, having had his sixth heart attack while playing golf, Hardy Greaves contemplates how his late wife used to ask him why he kept playing "a game that seems destined to kill" him. Explaining his love for the game, the story begins with his childhood idol: Rannulph Junuh.
Junuh is the favorite son of Savannah, Georgia: a noteworthy golfer from a wealthy family; he and his beautiful girlfriend Adele Invergordon seem to have it all. While serving as a captain in the U.S. Army during World War I, Junuh is traumatized when his entire company is wiped out in battle. Though he receives the Medal of Honor, he disappears after the war, returning to Georgia years later as a broken-down alcoholic.
At the start of the Great Depression (circa 1930), Adele is trying to recover her family's lost fortune by holding a four-round, two-day exhibition match between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, the best golfers of the era, with a grand prize of $10,000, at the golf resort her family opened as the Depression struck. However, needing a local participant to gain local interest, a young Greaves speaks up for his hero, Junuh, prompting Adele to ask her estranged lover to play.
Junuh is approached by a mysterious traveler carrying a suitcase, who appears while he is trying to hit golf balls into the dark void of the night. The man identifies himself as Bagger Vance and says he will be his caddie. With Greaves as assistant caddie, Bagger helps Junuh come to grips with his personal demons and play golf again.
When the match starts, Jones and Hagen each play well in their distinctive ways, but the disengaged Junuh plays poorly and is far behind after the first round. With Bagger caddying for him and giving advice, Junuh rediscovers his "authentic swing" in the second round and makes up some ground. In the third round, he closes the gap even more, hitting a hole in one in the process. Meanwhile, Junuh and Adele rekindle their romance.
Late in the final round, an overconfident Junuh disregards Bagger's advice at a crucial point and, after that, plays poorly. He hits a ball into a forest, which triggers a war flashback, but Bagger's words help him focus on the game. Junuh pulls back to a tie with Jones and Hagen, then has a chance to win on the final hole, but has the integrity to call a penalty on himself when his ball moves after trying to remove a loose impediment.
Seeing Junuh has grown and matured, Bagger decides that his golfer does not need him any more. With the 18th hole left unfinished, Bagger gives the position of caddie to Greaves and leaves as mysteriously as he came.
Though losing a chance to win because of the penalty, Junuh sinks an improbable putt and the match ends in a gentlemanly three-way tie. The three golfers shake hands with all of Savannah cheering. Junuh and Adele get back together.
The old Greaves wakes up and sees Bagger Vance, not aged a day, on the golf course. As Bagger beckons, Greaves follows.
Cast[]
- Will Smith as Bagger Vance
- Matt Damon as Rannulph Junuh
- Charlize Theron as Adele Invergordon
- Bruce McGill as Walter Hagen
- Joel Gretsch as Bobby Jones
- J. Michael Moncrief as Hardy Greaves
- Lane Smith as Grantland Rice
- Peter Gerety as Neskaloosa
- Wilbur Fitzgerald as Roy
- E. Roger Mitchell as Aaron
- Jack Lemmon (uncredited) as Narrator / Old Hardy Greaves