The Natural (1984) on Netflix
Roy Hobbs, a middle-aged unknown with a mysterious past, is signed to the last-place New York Knights. He cuts his bat from a lightning-struck tree and brands it with a bolt.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.4/1058,376 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
As a boy in the 1910s Midwest, Roy Hobbs learns the game from his father, Ed, and cuts a bat from a tree split by lightning, branding it with a bolt and the word Wonderboy. In 1923, at nineteen, he leaves his girlfriend Iris Gaines to try out for the Chicago Cubs, a trip arranged by the scout Sam Simpson. On the train he meets the slugger called the Whammer and the sportswriter Max Mercy, and at a carnival stop Sam wagers Max that Roy can strike the Whammer out in three pitches. Roy does, and Harriet Bird notices him. In 1939, at thirty-five with no account of his past, Roy signs with the New York Knights, the last-place club, where the manager Pop Fisher watches him hit in batting practice.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Natural (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A DVD extra called "A Natural Gunned Down" tells the story of Eddie Waitkus, a real baseball player who was shot by a female stalker, an incident which some think inspired the fictionalized shooting of Roy Hobbs.
- For the flashback scenes, Deschanel struck a black and white print of the film and used an optical printer to combine that footage with a color print of the same material in which the color saturations had been strongly raised, giving delicate, bloomed colors and a strong black register.
- War Memorial Stadium had long been used as a baseball stadium, but it was really a rectangular venue built primarily for football, with right and right-center field fences 20 to 30 feet closer to the diamond than those in left field. The filmmakers were careful not to include high shots that would show the compromised dimensions.
- Darren McGavin was cast late in the process as the gambler Gus Sands and went uncredited: out of a disagreement he chose not to be credited, and when Barry Levinson later wanted to credit him, McGavin refused.
- There was too little time during post-production to find a professional announcer willing and able to provide voice-over services, so Levinson recorded that part of the audio track himself.
- Levinson described how he first heard Newman work out the film's theme: they were racing to get the movie out in time, with Randy in the next room, and one of the great thrilling moments was hearing him figuring out that theme through the wall.
