61* (2001)

Directed by Billy Crystal. Starring Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Bruce McGill, Richard Masur, Peter Jacobson, Chris Bauer, Jennifer Crystal Foley, Seymour Cassel, Christopher McDonald, Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Joy, Joe Grifasi, Bob Gunton, Donald Moffat, Renée Taylor.

Passable period sports drama chronicling the 1961 homerun race between New York Yankees teammates Roger Maris (Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Jane) as they try to beat Babe Ruth’s single-season record. Tension isn’t generated in the chase—it’s a foregone conclusion, after all—but in the divergent personalities, backgrounds, and fan opinions of the two stars; Maris is reticent, sober, unemotional, and something of an outsider to the biased and dogmatic fanbase (he spent the early part of his career with other teams), while Mantle is a “homegrown hero” who is far more open and outgoing, and beloved in similar terms as Ruth, flaws and all (alcoholism, womanizing, etc.). The shadow of Ruth is also felt in the commissioner’s office, where it’s decided that should the record be broken, the number will be accompanied by an asterisk due to the baseball season now being eight games longer than it was back in 1927. Although he does not appear in the film, lifelong baseball fan Crystal directs with a reverent yet honest heart, static without being inert, and he handles most of his actors well—I’ll leave it to those more in the know to decide how well they recreate the real-life figures, but they successfully ride the more melodramatic moments without fully breaking character. Overlong, but not to the point where interest ever fades completely. The framing sequences showing Mark McGwire chasing the record himself in the late-90s are unnecessary, and not just because those newer records have become tainted from the so-called “steroid era.” Debuted on HBO.

61/100 (no asterisk)