Thoughts on Bull Durham

 

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"See my hips? ... And I think Susan Sontag is brilliant."
"So is this gonna happen? Us?"
(Annie (Susan Sarandon), continuing at the batting cages, affirms her commitment to Nuke (Tim Robbins). Crash (Kevin Costner), Nuke's teammate, gets in a dig at the "pretty boy.")
"Young men are uncomplicated. And he's not dim. He's just inexperienced. It's my job to give him life wisdom and to help him get on to the major leagues."
"Well, that's funny, that's my job, too."

I'll bet there's a league of older North Carolina women who claim to have been Ron Shelton's inspiration for Annie. It's like claiming your past life was Catherine the Great or St. Francis of Assisi. Once greatness is apparent, it's hard not to want to be a part of it. Bull Durham, written by Shelton, who made his directorial debut with it, is a great movie. It's great because of verisimilitude. There might have been an actual Annie, Crash and Nuke, or maybe not. Either way, Sarandon, Costner and Robbins have flesh and blood people to play. She has the quirkiest role, but does wonders with it, creating someone who can seduce a boy like Nuke (although the jury's still out as to if he'll ever be sexually mature) and be matched by a man like Crash.

The life coaching starts in the bedroom and then gets put to use at the ballpark. Shelton's not coy and neither is Annie. She follows a code: teaching and sex are provided to one Durham Bulls player per season, apparently always a newcomer, and for one season only. The idea is that if all goes according to plan, Annie's pupil gets promoted to "the show," the major leagues, so the relationship wouldn't need to last past a season. Annie's legendary among the Bulls' players and leaders (Trey Wilson and Robert Wuhl), and there's doesn't appear to be awkwardness between her and, say, players' wives, or exes who didn't succeed (I guess she didn't have any). Durham doesn't manufacture drama, and is a better movie because of it.

"Come on, Annie, think of something clever to say. Something full of magic, religion, bullshit. Come on, dazzle me."

"... I want you."

"What?"

"I said I want you."

"Stop it."

"... You're scared."

"Maybe I am. But I still think you should leave."

"Okay. Well, this is the damndest season I've ever seen. I mean, the Durham Bulls can't lose, and I can't get laid."

*pushes over Crash's ironing board on the way over to cry in a chair*

Okay, so why is Bull Durham remembered with respect, compared to Private Lessons, My Tutor, or other movies where a woman provides life lessons along with sex? If Durham was from Nuke's point of view, or if the role had been cast with Orion Pictures' choice, Anthony Michael Hall*, then it might have been closer to a Bermuda Triangle kind of movie, with little appeal for guys past the hookups and the wish-fulfillment aspect of a consequence-free arrangement. Life, of course, has complications. Crash's stint in the show only lasted 21 days. Even if he wasn't played by a guy who looks like a movie star, you'd want Crash to end up with Annie just because they seem like the only two people around who can talk as good as they fuck.

*Anthony, 19 during Durham's filming, would have looked more age-appropriate than 28-year-old Robbins.

Before I get too bogged down in Romantic Comedy 101, I want to refocus on Sarandon and Costner. I like Durham, but I'll also admit that it could have benefited from a polishing. There's a little too much narration and inner monologues from the leads, as if Shelton was adapting a novel. Furthermore, the dialogue can be too clever by half, which works for Annie, but less so for Crash. The "I believe in ..." speech is impressive, yes, but it also feels like Shelton is showing off. Similar to Frances McDormand in Mississippi Burning, we have an actress triumphing over her material. Luckily, most of the time the material is an engaging as she is.

"Think I could make it to the show as a manager?"

"(choked up) You'd be great. You'd be great. I mean, because you understand about nonlinear thinkin', and, I mean, just, baseball seems like a linear game with all those lines on the box scores and all --

"Annie ..."

"But the fact is, it's a spacious, non-time kind of time --

"Annie."

"What?"

"I got a lot of time to hear your theories. And I wanna hear every damn one of them, but ... now I'm tired and ... I don't want to think about baseball, and I don't want to think about quantum physics, and I don't wanna think about nothin'. ... I just wanna be."

"I can do that, too."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "Hey, Jimmy! Want a ride?" "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?" "No." "Can I give you my testimony?" "You can do anything you want. Hop in." Millie (Jenny Robertson) wasn't as interesting of a character as Annie, but she did have her moments.

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $50.9 million on a $7.5 million budget, this opened at No. 6.

-- Awards Watch: The script won the Writers Guild of America award and was Oscar nominated. Sarandon received Golden Globe and American Comedy Award nominations. "When a Woman Loves a Man" was also a Golden Globe nominee.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Genuine writing in American movies is now so rate that some of us may enjoy hearing a line of exuberantly composed dialogue even if it isn't all that good," David Denby wrote. Sheila Benson admitted to feeling that Annie and Crash, especially when they get verbose and erudite (my words, not hers), "are a writer's high-flying conceit, not the gospel truth" as characters. Roger Ebert observed that Shelton's directorial style as Robert Altman-esque, "(filling) up the background with a lot of atmosphere and action." Hal Hinson: "At times (Shelton's) staging of scenes is awkward, but he's a fully developed scenarist with a wonderfully organic sense of comedy. Hinson also liked Shelton as a writer: "(Annie and company) are the richest, looniest, most cherishable characters to appear in a movie in ages."

-- Critic's Corner, Susan: "I don't know who else they could have hired to play Annie," Ebert wrote, "but I doubt if the character would have worked without Sarandon's wonderful performance." Annie was played not as a tramp or a loser, but "as a woman who, quite simply, loves baseball and baseball players and wants to do her thing for the home team." Under Sarandon, Annie was "commanding, somewhat rattling, even crazy, and usually very funny," according to Denby. "She's lustrous and flamboyant." "Annie, for all the tough/soft dimension that Sarandon gives her, is really a paper-thin vehicle for a man's warmest imaginings," Benson wrote.

-- Critic's Corner, Kevin and Tim: "For once Costner has a role that he can sink into, that fits his skills, and he shows enormous authority and charm. ... With this one performance, he emerges as a true star presence," Hinson wrote. "Costner ... gives his best performance so far," wrote Denby, who also praised Kevin's "unsuspected comic abilities." Hinson also liked Robbins, who gave "remarkably subtle and detailed line readings. For such a big guy, he's got a sweetly gentle style."

-- Fanservice Junction: In terms of quantity, Robbins wins, although let's not forget Costner's towel scene and the montage of Crash and Annie's sex marathon.

-- Not to spoil Cali's Golden Girls watching, but I think she should know that this inspired the B plot of my least favorite episode, "Where's Charlie?" Both Durham and "Dances with Bulls" are name-dropped.

-- I no longer have much faith in IMDB's claims about movie casting, but some of the what-could-have-beens claimed for Durham are interesting: Debra Winger, Carrie Fisher, Michelle Pfeiffer (deemed too young), Cybill Shepherd, Kelly McGillis and Mary Steenburgen as Annie. Kurt Russell, Jeff Bridges, Don Johnson, Nick Nolte or Bruce Willis as Crash. Charlie Sheen as Nuke.

-- "Ebby's told me a lot about you. Ebby tells me you taught him a lot about discipline and self-control. We were worried that he might get involved in the wrong crowd. We're so pleased he met a Christian woman." "Praise the Lord."

-- Next: Beaches. On deck: Hairspray.