The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) on Netflix
Francis Ouimet, 20, from a working-class Brookline family, caddies at The Country Club and teaches himself golf. In the 1913 U.S. Open he plays against his idol, English champion Harry Vardon.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.4/1036,478 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
Harry Vardon, a professional golfer from Jersey, becomes a champion, yet class boundaries keep him out of gentlemanly English society. A dozen years later, Francis Ouimet grows up in a working-class immigrant family in Brookline, Massachusetts, across the street from The Country Club, where he caddies and teaches himself the game. A club member, Mr. Hastings, asks him to play the course. Arthur, his father, wants him to give up golf and find regular work. Francis promises to give up the game if he fails to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, then misses by one stroke and takes a job in a sporting goods shop. The president of the United States Golf Association invites him to the 1913 U.S. Open at the same club, where the favorites are the British champions Vardon and Ted Ray.
Cast
- Armand Larocheas Black Top Hatted Man
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The film tightens the real playoff for drama: Ouimet finished birdie-par on 17 and 18 to Vardon's bogey-double bogey to end five strokes clear of Vardon and six ahead of Ray, and the rain that falls during the playoff on screen actually came in the third round.- The home video release includes a rare 1963 interview with the real Francis Ouimet on WGBH, the Boston public television station, recorded at the Brookline, Massachusetts golf course where the 1913 U.S. Open took place.
- Roger Ebert, who noted that he is "not a golf fan", singled out how Paxton and his technicians dramatized the flight of the golf balls, giving the audience an eagle's-eye view, a club's-eye view and "sometimes, I am convinced, a ball's-eye view".
- The Greatest Game Ever Played, based on the early life of amateur golf champion Francis Ouimet and the 1913 U.S. Open, was the last film Bill Paxton directed.
