Bull Durham

Customer Reviews:

• If you like baseball, Bull Duram is a don't miss: Bull Duram is one of the top Baseball Movies out there. But it's not just a baseball movie. The development of the love triangle between Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner gives the movie a nice story line. There is also a good bit of humor thrown into the mix. Bull Duram is a winner
• the lady and baseball: Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a groupie who has affairs with a minor-league baseball player each season, meets two men, LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) and Crash (Kevin Costner), the experienced catched assigned to LaLoosh. A comical story about baseball and sex. After all, "what else is there?"
  
  Great roles for Sarandon, Robbins and Costner. Can't imagine anyone else playing these roles. Robbins is excellent as the dim "Nuke" LaLoosh.
  
  Even if you don't know anything about baseball (like me), this drama is still decent, enjoyable... and pretty much a classic.
• Pure Baseball - I'm Not Kidding: I was a huge baseball fan when I worked in radio in the Kansas City area during the 70s and 80s when the Royals were a great team to watch. Part of the joy of watching them play was team leaders like George Brett and Frank White who were so passionate and honest about their love for the game, you couldn't help but enjoy watching them play. What does this have to do with a romantic comedy about minor leaguers and the absurdities of their team's misadventures in the Carolina league? Because ultimately, that's what Bull Durham is about - pure passion for baseball. You see it when Skip and Larry watch Crash Davis rant about being demoted to Class A and threaten to quit, only to turn and ask when batting practice starts. They're all hooked and no amount of misfortune or indignity will ever separate them from this game and they all know it. You see it in Annie Savoy whose passion for men and spirituality, as great as they are, are clearly second to her passion for baseball. You see it in Max Patkin, the 'Clown Prince' who joyously proclaims, "I love this game" when talking about his work in a bar. And you see them all trying to teach it to bonus baby, Nuke LaLoosh. Yes, the movie has foul language, sex, absurd pranks, and lots of other non-baseball stuff throughout. But what the movie is actually ABOUT is a pure passion for the game of baseball. And therein lies its charm. Bull Durham's essential message is this: whether you're in the bigs or in pee-wee ball, whether you get laid or not, whether you succeed or not, whether you have a crowd watching or not, the game is always there for you.
  
  Twice if it's a Sunday double-header.
• Vulgar and Offensive: Before I begin the review, I should take time to mention that I am a huge baseball fan. I rarely miss a game, follow it as if my life depends on it, and see more baseball games at the ballyard every year than I do movies. I also played when I was younger and have worked on baseball-related projects for my alma mater.
  
  I had heard that Bull Durham was one of the best, if not the best, baseball movies ever made. As a fan of Field of Dreams and The Natural, I decided to go and rent this one. Figuring that it was about baseball I thought I couldn't go wrong, so I didn't check the ratings on any of the sites as I normally do for a movie. Big mistake on my part there.
  
  I couldn't even make it through a half hour of this movie. There was a little bit of baseball but nothing else worth mentioning. The entire thing was about sex, and I had to look away from the TV for some time. I was hoping it would get better but it never did, and after all the sex and foul language I stopped the movie, never bothering to finish it.
  
  I was surprised that so many people gave this vulgar excuse for a baseball film such high ratings. Looking at the summaries of the ending of the movie, it looks as if there is some baseball action later on but the female characters, who I did not like at all, seemed to persist. Unfortunately this movie is filled with sex, and I feel that it was far too inappropriate for any release.
  
  I'm not some kid writing this, I am a mature conservative Christian. This movie should offend anyone who believes in Him. Don't believe the hype from some of the sportswriters about this one. Go and watch a real baseball game--always a much safer bet for good clean family entertainment, plus it's very unpredictable and you never know what the results will be.
• Best Treatment of Baseball's Boys of Summer: "Bull Durham" was released in 1988. It was written and directed by Ron Shelton, who knew his way around a baseball field, and runs the bases in a swift,witty 108 minutes. It stars Kevin Costner, in what may be the first of his successful sports-themed movies, Susan Sarondon, and a young Tim Robbins, at the outset of his career. It happily combines romantic comedy and baseball: many people still consider this the best movie about the boys of summer.
  
  It's set in Durham, North Carolina, then, as now, a minor league southern town, with advertisements for the simpler regional remedies of the time on the stadium's walls, many reminders of its tobacco-dependent local agricultural economy, and the plentifully blooming oleander, one of the glories of the south, all around the town. (But, you will recall, the decidedly major league Duke University is also in town.)
  
  At any rate, as it opens, young "Nuke" LaLoosh (Robbins), a cocky, extravagantly talented but wild pitcher, has just reported for duty. He's shortly followed by Crash Davis (Costner), a seasoned catcher, the player to be named of the contract,sent to help tame LaLoosh. They form two sides of a romantic triangle with Annie Savoy (Sarandon), a part-time teacher of English at the local community college, and, more importantly, the team's unofficial trainer-handler. Every season she takes one player as her lover; he leaves her bed a better man, and a better player. Who's it to be?
  
  Trey Wilson and Robert Wuhl turn in winning performances as the team management. The film's three stars also turn in disciplined, light on their feet performances. The film apparently catches them before their powerful primes. Sarandon and Robbins, who real-life hooked up pretty darn permanently on this set, later became more interested in arguing politics. Costner, who became a very big star indeed, later began delivering home-made chaotic behemoths to the multiplex. Here, all three deliver their lines with gusto.
  
  Be warned, if you're looking for family viewing, the film's got some pretty salty, appropriate-to-ball players language. The film's also got an entertaining score, including several sly blues, and a vinyl Edith Piaf "No, Je Regrette Rien" on Savoy's old record player. Add flavorful interior decoration -- Savoy's house is a marvel of funky eclecticism. Also some pretty hot, sexy scenes; some witty, resonant dialogue that's passed into the national consciousness: "I believe in the church of baseball," Annie says. (It can't be coincidence that baseball players call their groupies "Annies.") And "Bull Durham" actually quotes famed American poet Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric;" it goes on to quote him further: "I see great things in baseball." If all baseball movies were as good as this, so would we all.