For Love of the Recreation

It’s Kevin Costner
Great movie

Tear jerker works the baseball myths well
“For Love of the Game” is not Bull Durham (still the best baseball movie of all time), but it’s close. This is thanks to Kevin Costner’s ability to live the role he plays in his “baseball days” (and the fact that he doesn’t have to do his own stunts from the mound or behind the plate in either movie).The story is straightforward: It’s the season’s end, and also nearing the end of the career of the protagonist, a pitcher who has been “one of the best” but is now on is last legs in the majors. Loyal to his team (and teammates, as his relationship with his catcher shows). He’s one of the “boys of summer”. He’s equally not the kind of guy you’d want to be dating your daughter. But inserting the “girls” (the wives and girlfriends section is one of the neatest little bits of the movie) makes the movie complete, because it’s so schmaltzy but gives the movie a chance to move away from the action on the field to the action in “TVland” where so much of baseball is consumed in the real world today.And our hero is pitching for Detroit against the Yankees. As usual (back then), the Tigers are out of the running for the “post season” but still fierce and snarling against the Yankees as only a Midwesterner can appreciate. And only someone with a rich appreciation of the days back to when Frank Lary and Jim Bunning would dominate the Yankees could fully get this part. The Tigers may not have won many pennants back then, but…From that set up on, the story gets a lot right, bad knees and all. Costner and those he works with know the importance of the relationship between the pitcher and “his” catcher as well as anyone who loves “the national pass time.” And the movie also gets as well as any the fierce rivalry between a pro on the mound and the pro in the batter’s box. Anyone who has taught Little League and high school players to “pitch inside” knows about this. And about “That’s why it’s called hard ball!”And so, as the game progresses, the audience, both in the movie and watching here at home, realizes that our protagonist has the chance to pitch the PERFECT GAME.Out by out and inning by inning, the tension builds as only the tension can build during a no-hitter or perfect game, one of the great moments in any sport at any time in history.Of course, because of the insertion of the romantic piece, the end of the game is not completely the end of the movie. But for those of us sentimental about baseball — and about good baseball movies — even this works. (For me, better than the panties scene in Bull Durham, actually). Major League players may be men “playing a boy’s game,” but they are also men — and not cartoon characters as some baseball movies may make them out to be.So… I’ll be watching this movie now and then with my young sons, who are now playing Little League, just as I watched one White Sox perfect game myself and discussed it with my elder son (not an adult, but who had the “love of the game” through high school with a city champion team in Chicago)…And another perfect game that proved to Chicago that the “Perfect Game” also has to be appreciated in context.But that’s another story for two movies that haven’t yet been made.

Kevin Costner at his best.
Kevin Costner at his best!

A well done movie. Recommended.
I missed this 1999 movie. It had superb acting and great direction. The music was well crafted and placed. Cosner and Preston did very well in their roles.

Consegna avvenuta prima dei tempi previsti e sono molto soddisfatta dell’articolo acquistato!

Der Film “Aus Liebe zum Spiel” erzählt die Geschichte des fiktiven Baseball-Stars Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner). Während Billy in seinem vielleicht letzten Spiel ein sogenannte “Perfect Game” erreichen könnte, erinnert er sich in Rückblenden an sein bisheriges Leben.Billy steht in der Mitte des Lebens, aber altersbedingt am Ende seiner Profi-Sportler-Karriere. Auch seine langjährige Beziehung zu der alleinerziehenden Journalistin Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston) ist an einem Wendepunkt angekommen, denn Jane hat ein berufliches Angebot bekommen, daß sie vielleicht für immer ins Ausland führt – wenn sie es annimmt.Dies ist die Geschichte eines Mannes, der in der Mitte seines Leben an einem Scheideweg angekommen ist. Seine berufliche Tätigkeit ist für ihn nicht so sehr ein Mittel Geld zu verdienen, sondern vor allem ein Lebensinhalt. Er hat sein ganzes bisheriges Leben nach dieser Tätigkeit ausgerichtet.Jetzt bedrängen ihn wichtige Fragen:Was bleibt einem Mann, wenn die wichtigste Sache in seinem Leben endet? Muß sie enden? Oder kann er sich vielleicht noch eine Weile daran klammern? Hat er vielleicht schon zuviel dafür geopfert?Ist da sonst nichts?Auch wenn Billys vielleicht letztes Spiel der filmische Mittelpunkt ist, so ist dies doch kein Baseball-Film.Der Weg zum möglicherweise “Perfect Game” ist sehr gut inszeniert und gibt dem Film eine gehörige Portion Spannung. Aber Billys Beziehung zu Jane ist der rote Faden der Geschichte und aus meiner Sicht der eigentliche Mittelpunkt.Billy und Jane sind zwei äußerst unterschiedliche Charaktere. Sie schleppen beide eine Menge Ballast mit sich herum und sind komplizierte Menschen. In ihrer Beziehung gibt es von Anfang an Probleme.Zu sehen, wie sich die beiden eigentlich dem anderen nähern wollen und doch immer wieder aneinander vorbei gehen, ist glaubwürdig und eindringlich in Szene gesetzt.Kevin Costner und Kelly Preston spielen sehenswertes Charakterkino der meistens leisen Töne. Die Nebenrollen sind mit John C. Reilly (als Billys Freund Gus Sinski) und Jena Malone (als Janes Tochter Heather Aubrey) ebenfalls hervorragend besetzt.Baseball-Film-Fans kann ich diesen Film nicht empfehlen. Wer aber gerne Charakterfilme sieht, wird mit “Aus Liebe zum Spiel” einen schönen Filmabend verbringen.

For me probably the best baseball film made good story lineFor sport film fans a must watch