Rating  - I believe we live two lives...
This film has been recognized as a phenomenal use of lighting technique and light/dark metaphor.
But for me, this film is important to us for its retelling of one of the fundamental Homeric myths of our culture, the Iliad, where King Ullysses, which in Greek means "wounded thigh" (or one who travels slowly home) struggles to return to his island kingdom after great loss of time and friends and especially a home life in the process. Sound familiar?
Bernard Malamud translated "King" to "Roy", "limps" to "Hobbs", distracting "Psirens" to "Memo" and "Harriet Bird", and the Odyssey tale of hubric war to the mythic era of late 1930's American baseball.
The deep and deeply hidden psychological aspect of both stories (and in a comic facet of the same story "Oh Brother, where art thou?) is as Glenn Close's (Ulysses' waiting wife Penelope) character says, "I believe we have two lives- the one we learn with, and the one we live afterwards".
This is a phenomena many people experience, what Carl Jung called "the second half of life", when we do live with the life we have finally learned. It has been said that there are really only two stories- struggling to love and struggle to get home. Ancient Homer, 40's Malamud and 70's Levinson all have braided the two stories together well.
Rating  - Baseball Mysticism - Give us a choice
My all time favorite sports movie next to "PRIDE OF THE YANKEES" and "HOOSIERS". The only criticism I have is that they should have made TWO ENDINGS. The "upbeat one" used in the Hollywood release and the " gritty downer ending" as read from the final pages of the book. And let the viewer choose before watching the film. I'd still pick the one used by Hollywood but it would have been nice to have Malmed's literary ending also.
Rating - I would rate this 10 stars if they'd let me
This is THE baseball movie to me. It has a wonderful cast, a great story and a happy ending. I watch this show everytime I see it play.It IS the SULTAN of all baseball movies.
Rating - A baseball classic given the All-Star treatment - a Grand Slam!
"There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was to play this game." For admirers of the original theatrical and, later, DVD version, of "The Natural" this is obviously A MUST. The story of Roy Hobbs, a great young talent in the Ted Williams mode (they even share the same number - 9), struck down in his prime, and then, like a phoenix, reborn into athletic glory, is one of the classic American stories of all time, based on the fine novel by Bernard Malamud. This new "Director's Cut" version is like revisiting a great fairy tale from childhood and being given more - and often longer - scenes with some of your favorite characters. Director Barry Levinson explains, in a video introduction to the film, the reasons for this new edition: how the original film was somewhat rushed into theatres and how he and his editor (and others) wanted a much different first act to the film. And here it is: the new footage deepens and darkens and gradually brightens the film into a much more satisfying experience and still does not diminish the impact of the original at all. In a word, PERFECT. The musical score, by the great Randy Newman, perhaps a little too insistent in the original film, cueing us to how we should feel, sneaks up on you more in this version and makes all the wonderful moments in the film that come later that much more moving. Also, Robert Redford's performance as Roy Hobbs is immeasurably helped here: the new footage (often original scenes with more footage added), even certain quick cuts, make for a more layered, textured performance that gives us greater insights into this troubled, but noble character - and show how a once, great, guileless young ballplayer still exists inside the older, careworn, but still talented, man he has become. There are beautiful moments restored here - often wordless - and some original scenes have been edited, so that even though there is additional footage, the new version only runs about six minutes longer than the original. Personally, I felt all the performances benefited from the new version - Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Darren McGavin, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth, all doing splendid work here. And though my only quibble with the film was - and still is - the somewhat stilted staging of some of the scenes (I would have liked to have seen more reactions from the ballplayers and coaches during games - sometimes they just look blank even when watching something exciting going on), this is clearly a TRUE classic - and the new version will only add to its glory. The additional special features include a wealth of information about the making of the film, and a splendid featurette on "The Mythology of The Natural." Clearly this is why this film endures - and will for the next 100 years. It has a timeless feel, from the perfect performances, the superb direction, the obvious care that was taken in the music, costumes, sets (the fantastic scenes in the various ballparks), and, finally, to the story itself, so beautifully articulated by Glenn Close's character later in the story: "I believe we have two lives: the one we learn with, and the one we live with after that." This new DVD "Director's Cut" version drives this theme home with the precision of one of Roy Hobbs's mammoth home runs. It is a darker, more textured, but ultimately more illuminating experience (and perhaps even more moving than the original version) - and one of Barry Levinson's finest achievements. I wish they had re-released it on the big screen first. But here it is in a beautifully packaged DVD (with a great, old-fashioned cover), worth every penny, and then some. A grand slam!
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