Bull Durham (1988)

Directed by Ron Shelton. Starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl, Jenny Robertson, William O’Leary, Max Patkin. [R]

Whether you see it as a sexy romance in the world of minor-league baseball, or as a salute to America’s pastime with a love triangle in the middle, it adds up to a darn good time. Sarandon plays a sultry, devoted member of the “Church of Baseball,” and every season, she chooses a player on her beloved Durham Bulls single-A team to become her temporary student and lover. This year, she has trouble deciding between a rookie pitcher (Robbins), a brash dim-wit with a rocket for an arm, and a seasoned catcher (Costner), the level-headed veteran who’s been brought in to “tame” the wild phenom’s control issues. As written by ex-minor-leaguer Ron Shelton (also making a solid directorial debut), the screenplay is ripe with the sort of knowing details that can only come from the initiated, and the lead performances are all just right (casting each role to the actor’s strengths helped a lot, even though, reportedly, none of them were the first choice). Aside from the surfeit of figurative sports memorabilia, it’s the energy generated among the three of them that makes the proverbial bull billboard snort; there’s amiable friction between Costner and Robbins, a goofy give-and-take between Sarandon and Robbins, and chemistry to burn between Costner and Sarandon (even though she’d hook up in real life with her other co-star)…just don’t look for any psychological reality to the romantic complications. The focus on the minutia of the game played both on the diamond and between the sheets helps the film avoid a conventional ending (no big game to play, no grand romantic gesture/speech needed), but it also leads to an exit that feels like more of an afterthought than a finale. Patkin, the so-called “Clown Prince of Baseball,” has a minor role where he’s apparently playing himself, and was actually killed off in a deleted scene!

82/100