|
Product Description: His talent made him a legend. His courage made him a hero. Gary Cooper is nothing short of wonderful (The Motion Picture Guide) in this moving true story of Lou Gehrig the Hall-of-Fame ballplayer who reached the heights of stardom only to face tragedy with a dignity that inspired a nation. Nominated* for eleven Academy Awards® including Best Picture The Pride of the Yankees is a glorious [and] inspiring (The Hollywood Reporter) sports classic. LouGehrig's boyhood dreams come true when he signs on with the New York Yankees and takes the field alongside his idol Babe Ruth. In fact Lou considers himself 'the luckiest man in the world until unthinkable misfortune strikes and he must summon all his courage to face his toughest battle yet.System Requirements:Running Time: 125 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883904102984 Manufacturer No: M110298Amazon.com essential video: When people say, "They don't make them like they used to," Pride of the Yankees is just the kind of film they're wistfully remembering. Nominated for 11 Academy awards (winning one for film editing), this handsome biographical drama of baseball legend Lou Gehrig is one of the most finely crafted films ever to emerge from Hollywood. Gary Cooper, that great oak of an American actor, progresses from the awkward and naively shy rookie to the seasoned "Iron Horse" first baseman of the New York Yankees without losing his idealism or modesty. Teresa Wright captures the same slice of Americana with her mixture of girl-next-door sweetness and urban sophistication as his supportive wife, Eleanor. After he's diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disease (known today simply as Lou Gehrig's disease), Cooper delivers Gehrig's famous retirement speech from the mound of Yankee Stadium with the courage and spirit of a winner: "I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth." One of the finest sports films ever made, Pride is about more than simply baseball: Gehrig, the hard-working, uncommonly talented son of immigrant parents, is the living embodiment of the American Dream. Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea costar as a Greek chorus of sportswriters, and real-life Yankees Bill Dickey, Mark Koenig, Bob Meusel, and Babe Ruth appear as themselves. --Sean AxmakerAmazon.com: You'll be proud to introduce your kids to this film about virtue, courage, and an indomitable spirit. Like Treasure Island and Tom Sawyer, Pride should be required viewing for every family. Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig, the "Iron Horse" New York Yankee first baseman who became a record-setting legend in baseball. Sure, Cooper's a little long in the tooth to play a collegian, and he tries to capture Gehrig's innocence with a kind of eye-batting dopiness. But the last moments of the film, before Gehrig's final, famous farewell, transform the picture. Gehrig happens across a young man whom he had encountered years before in a children's hospital, and with this sequence, Pride becomes something more than a movie about innate talent and athleticism, or a lost era of America, it crystallizes into a film about (gulp!) human will. An absolute must. --Keith Simanton
Customer Reviews:
- Vintage Gary Cooper: Pride of the Yankees is one of the best sports movies of all time and many people rank it as the best baseball movie ever. I would rank Bull Durham as the best baseball film and if you're interested in cultural change, they're great to watch in tandem.
Although overly sentimental,the movie is a fairly honest biopic. A special treat is that Babe Ruth plays himself in the movie. The script doesn't ignore, but does soft-peddles the sometime bitter competition between Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Pride of the Yankees was nominated for ten academy awards, but only won Best Film Editing. Mrs. Miniver took away all the top honors in 1942. When Pride of the Yankees was put into production, the U.S. hadn't yet entered the WWII. War raged on the opposite side of both oceans and Hollywood tried to ignore it with Pride of the Yankees and Yankee Doodle Dandy (Two-Disc Special Edition). (Cagney won for best actor.) We were in the war deep by the time of Oscar voting, so baseball didn't stand a chance against a great war film from England.
Here's a piece of trivia from Encarta: Gary Cooper was not left handed and some scenes were shot with his number backwards and the film reversed during processing. Another piece of trivia: by the time this movie was filmed, Walter Brennan had already won three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor.
I wish Amazon would start listing DVD special features in the product Detail section. There are no special features on the DVD I own and with 4 versions it would be nice to know if some had material beyond the movie.
The Shopkeeper - The Pride of Hollywood: Back when the country was suffering through world wars and the great depression the primary focus of Hollywood and Sports was to give people a reason to smile. This movie is one of the golden moments in entertainment taking an essential personal sports story and retelling it in the way that only Hollywood could do it.
Every time I sit down to watch this film I wonder at how the story of a man losing his life can make me feel so good. The simple answer is that the story isn't about losing life, it is about living life. Like Gehrig, my father died at an early age. And like Gehrig, he lived more in the 47 years he had then most people live in 74. It is that quality of living in the right way no matter how long you have that makes this movie special to me.
For a baseball fan (another gift from my father) this is the ultimate story of a guy who went to work every day without fail until he couldn't do it any more. And in the end he could look back and be proud of the job he had done and the life he had lived.
We all should be so fortunate. - pride of the yankees: i have the annuversery edition and just ordered the coolectors edition. the film is one of base balls famouse films to come out. back then and still today. give it a shot
- Corny but essential: "Pride of the Yankees" is "the" baseball movie from the "golden age" of Hollywood. If for no other reason it can be called that becauise it has Babe Ruth (as himself) along with Bill Dickey (as himself). Gary Cooper is a legend on the screen but a pretty embarassing batter on screen. Teresa Wright is wonderful as Eleanor Gehrig, as is Walter Brennan as a sportswriter. The shots of Yankee Stadium from before its remuddling in the mid 70's are also wonderful. Cooper still brings a tear to the eye in his farewell speech. If you want to get this movie buy the 2008 re-release which has some extras in it, the lack of which is the only downside to the long standing dvd release. Even though I can't stand the modern day Yankees this movie is a classic!
- bonus features nice but sleight: Hello,
This is still a 5 star movie...the sports biopic by which all have been judged for the 60 years since it was made...nuff said.
Should you get rid of your previous copy and upgrade? There isn't much here...2 to 8 minute featurettes without much meat. It almost takes as much time to read the titles of the featurettes as to watch them. The Curt Schilling a Legend on a Legend is a whopping 2 minutes.
If you don't have the movie this is certainly the one to buy...if you do and you just have to have every scrap on Gehrig..then go for it. If you want to learn more ..I'd invest in the Yankeeology DVD with an hour on Lou Gehrig...its got this beat by a mile.
|
