I will watch any movie or TV program that has baseball as a main component of the story. So I was quite disappointed when I didn’t get to see The Catcher Was a Spy, based on Nicholas Dawidoff’s wonderful 1994 bio of Moe Berg, at the theaters. Should have realized by how quickly it moved on that something was amiss.
I finally watched it on Netflix. Let’s just say I was disappointed. The reviews were not very kind and I have to agree. Any time you have the words “based on a true story” in the title or an early scene, you know certain events have been adapted and compressed in an attempt to tell as much of the story in as small a window as possible (note Jeff Daniel’s exposition on Berg’s accomplishments in the trailer). That was one of the observations by baseball purists about 42, the 2013 Jackie Robinson bio-pic. Of course, for those who aren’t students of the game, such complaints are considered too picayune.
For one thing, Paul Rudd, tasked with portraying the ball-player-turned-spy, bore absolutely no resemblance to his subject. Berg was 6’1″, 185 pounds, fairly big for his day. And you might expect him to put on a few pounds after his playing days were over in 1939. He was also quite swarthy. Rudd — who most recently reprised his role as the shrinking superhero, Ant Man — is 5’10”, slight, and looks like he never shaves. The image of Rudd/Berg visiting the Japanese hospital during a MLB All-Star trip in 1934 is similarly incongruous.
That aside, the story is almost exclusively spy-oriented. What little baseball is there is practically tangential. There’s one scene in which he’s playing ball with a bunch of servicemen in Europe while on a mission and they’re thrilled to have a real-life big leaguer among them. (Of course he hits a home run in their little game.)
Then there’s the bizarre insistence of the film to allude to Berg’s “fluid” sexuality, something I don’t recall being a major component of the book. There is brief speculation by people who knew him)that he may have been attracted to men as well as women, but that was only speculation; all we know for certain about his personal life is that he had relations with women.
One of the early scenes has a teammate questioning — in the parlance of the day — if Berg was gay. The player even follows Berg around, catching him coming out of what I guess is supposed to be a classy gay bar. Berg confronts him and beats the crap out of him, as if to prove his masculinity. Later, Wild Bill Donovan (Daniels) comes out straight and asks whether Berg is queer. In another scene, Berg has an intense liaison with his love interest, again, as if to prove something. IMO, way too much time was spent on this. Seems that a dramatic film and a written biography have different obligations to reporting the facts.
Another “sore spot” — Berg’s Judaism, which is an major aspect of his life. He points out on more than one occasion that he is a “cultural,” not religious, Jew in response to veiled anti-Semitic comments.
One plus: This is nevertheless a strong cast, including Rudd, Daniels, Paul Giammatti (son of the late baseball commissioner, Bart), Guy Pearce, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, and Connie Nielsen. Too bad they couldn’t do anything with the screenplay with the story. It is my understanding that author Dawidoff was not involved in the project.
The Cather Was a Spy isn’t the worst baseball flic ever made, but it certainly wasn’t very good. Think of it as following your favorite team, knowing that the best they can do is finish around the .500 mark.
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