Robert Redford, magnetic Hollywood icon known for his roles in classics like ‘All the President’s Men,’ dies at 89.








The Natural is a magical movie for a sports geek like myself but Jeremiah Johnson along with Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid are two (2) of my favorite flicks of all time.

You did good, Mr. Redford...RIP.

As a sports geek, I actually really dislike The Natural.

While Redford was as fine as always, a large part of it was he 48 years old when it was released. It really stretched credibility that he could portray any kind of an MLB player. I think the scene with "The Whammer" he was supposed to be 19 yrs old.

As an aside, Joe Don Blake who portrayed "The Whammer" also recently passed away earlier this year.
 
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My guess is you're on a very small island here but we like what we like.

Apologies in advance for discussing one of my least favorite Redford roles in which should be a celebration of such a Hollywood legend.

Additionally, I edited my previous post regarding what I thought was miscasting Redford which is a significant part of why I do not view the film favorably.

While I am definitely in the minority, I do not think it's a small island. Regardless, I will have the company of Roger Ebert who ripped it.


His closing critique:

As for the baseball, the movie isn’t even subtle. When a team is losing, it makes Little League errors. When it’s winning, the hits are so accurate they even smash the bad guy’s windows. There’s not a second of real baseball strategy in the whole film. The message is: Baseball is purely and simply a matter of divine intervention. At about the 130-minute mark, I got the idea that God’s only begotten son was playing right field for the New York team.

Gene Siskel was on your side though. He gave it Thumbs Up.
 




I give the People who loved the natural book the right to dislike the movie. Only them!
 

Apologies in advance for discussing one of my least favorite Redford roles in which should be a celebration of such a Hollywood legend.

Additionally, I edited my previous post regarding what I thought was miscasting Redford which is a significant part of why I do not view the film favorably.

While I am definitely in the minority, I do not think it's a small island. Regardless, I will have the company of Roger Ebert who ripped it.


His closing critique:

As for the baseball, the movie isn’t even subtle. When a team is losing, it makes Little League errors. When it’s winning, the hits are so accurate they even smash the bad guy’s windows. There’s not a second of real baseball strategy in the whole film. The message is: Baseball is purely and simply a matter of divine intervention. At about the 130-minute mark, I got the idea that God’s only begotten son was playing right field for the New York team.

Gene Siskel was on your side though. He gave it Thumbs Up.
Thanks for the further explanation you provided and I understand where you're coming from. For me, it was a fictional character and plot which allows for more creative leeway and sensationalism.

You don't really believe that Luke Skywalker could singlehandedly destroy the Death Star, do you? 😉
 









Apologies in advance for discussing one of my least favorite Redford roles in which should be a celebration of such a Hollywood legend.

Additionally, I edited my previous post regarding what I thought was miscasting Redford which is a significant part of why I do not view the film favorably.

While I am definitely in the minority, I do not think it's a small island. Regardless, I will have the company of Roger Ebert who ripped it.


His closing critique:

As for the baseball, the movie isn’t even subtle. When a team is losing, it makes Little League errors. When it’s winning, the hits are so accurate they even smash the bad guy’s windows. There’s not a second of real baseball strategy in the whole film. The message is: Baseball is purely and simply a matter of divine intervention. At about the 130-minute mark, I got the idea that God’s only begotten son was playing right field for the New York team.

Gene Siskel was on your side though. He gave it Thumbs Up.
Did he literally knock the cover off the baseball in this movie? For one of my friends that was way over the line, and made the movie laughable.
 

The pairing of Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand in “The Way We Were” was inspired. Somehow I got it into my 4th grade mind it was a World War ll movie (not knowing it was a love story with a backdrop of World War ll) so I asked my mom to take me to the old Hopkins Theater to see it. It was a long afternoon. My grandfather took me to see “Jeremiah Johnson” at the iconic Cooper Theater. Seeing the adventure movie/western on the huge Cooper screen was amazing.
 

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RIP to one of the greats.
 




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