Channel surfing over the weekend. Found a few baseball flicks of varying quality.
Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, a 1981 biopic starring Lou Gossett, Jr. as Paige, Cleavon Little as some annoying sidekick named “Rabbit,” and Clifton Davis as Cool Papa Bell. Came in on a scene where Paige is auditioning for a spot with Bill Veeck’s Cleveland Indians. Lots of close-ups of a determined ballplayer, mixed with long shots of the stand-in throwing strikes to an ersatz Lou Boudreau. Generally wooden performances, full of cliches and the obligatory homespun Paige quotations. One thing that struck me: Gossett’s glove was waaay too modern for the 1940s. Shame, shame, set dresser!
The other movie — The Final Season — was also a time-worn story or good vs. evil, earnest little vs. unfeeling, more powerful entity. In this case, it’s Norway High School, a small time institution that’s doomed to merge with a larger, more efficient “big city” school. Too bad, because their baseball team was one of the best, a dynasty, in fact. Based on a true story, it’s a combination of Field of Dreams meets The Rookie. Underdog triumphs in the wake of overwhelming odds. Yawn. Good cast, including Powers Booth, Sean (Rudy) Astin, Tom Arnold, Larry Miller as a stereotypical sports reporter, James Gammon (manager Lou Brown in the Major League franchise), and Dayton Callie (Charlie Utter from Deadwood), but, again, a cliche-lidden flic.
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