Eight Men Out (1988)

Directed by John Sayles. Starring John Cusack, Clifton James, David Strathairn, Gordon Clapp, D. B. Sweeney, James Read, Kevin Tighe, Michael Lerner, Michael Rooker, John Mahoney, John Sayles, Studs Terkel, Christopher Lloyd, Don Harvey, Bill Irwin, Charlie Sheen, Perry Lang, Richard Edson, Michael Mantell, John Anderson, Maggie Renzi, Nancy Travis. [PG]

An absorbing look into one of professional baseball’s bleakest chapters: the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal when several members of the seemingly unbeatable Chicago White Sox, irritated by the shabby treatment and stingy compensation from owner Charles Comiskey (James), accepted payoffs to throw the World Series and make a fortune for the seedy gamblers and gangsters pulling the strings. Gallops along at a frenzied pace, unloading a wealth of information and a cavalcade of players both on and off the field, and featuring dialogue that often has an ear for eavesdropping, as if the viewer is privy to secret conversations instead of characters just spouting exposition for the sake of the uninitiated. As such, although it’s hardly confusing—and potentially writer/director Sayles’ most purely entertaining film—it will play better for pop culture historians and baseball enthusiasts than those who wouldn’t know “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from “Steppin’ Out” Joe Jackson. Some of the more sentimental moments (“Say it ain’t so, Joe!”) are jarring as they go against the appropriately cynical grain of Sayles’ idealism-corrupted-by-truth, but there’s so much loving detail from the writing and old-timey-styled direction to the sharply-tailored performances and period design elements, why spit out the kernels? Aptly photographed in slightly faded, dusky tones by Robert Richardson.

85/100