Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and the film ‘Bull Durham’

As the boys of summer are poised to soon give way to the fall classic, the Matt Lynn Digital cinematic journey into the great sport of baseball returns with the film Bull Durham (1988). Released a year before Field of Dreams (1989) and eleven years before For Love of the Game (1999), Bull Durham reflects the first of three films starring Kevin Costner pursuing a passion somehow touching baseball.

(Susan Sarandon as Annie Savoy, left, and Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in the film Bull Durham).

The film Bull Durham follows the happenings of the low minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls of Durham, North Carolina. Two major lines of storytelling include the assistance offered Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh by Crash Davis (played by Kevin Costner) and the ostensible love triangle among these two as initiated by Durham Bulls fan Annie Savoy. Susan Sarandon plays Savoy. Tim Robbins plays LaLoosh.

(Tim Robbins as Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in the film Bull Durham).

The character Crash Davis is a fictionalized as a catcher tasked with helping the up-and-coming player LaLoosh mature into a player ready to play in the major leagues. In taking a bit of a superficial look into the film, Bull Durham itself takes a lighthearted look into the tension between LaLoosh and Davis due to their being two really different people while also betting on some romantic tension that Annie Savoy has in pursuing a more experienced relationship interest that comes with age. Davis was inspired in name by a real player named Lawrence Columbus Crash Davis who played shortstop, second base and first base, which in some ways mirrors a romantic tension that is told through the duration of one baseball season with the Durham Bulls baseball team.

(Bull Durham director and writer Ron Shelton).

The true magic of this film that makes it one that endures visits some clubhouse themes visited in the film Major League (1989), as well as some themes of romance that comes up more strongly in For Love of the Game. Renee Russo does a baseball double play in her roles in Major League and For Love of the Game. Bull Durham screenwriter and director Ron Shelton offers an enduring baseball film that isn’t so much a romantic comedy as it is cynical and unaware in matters of love while knowing a bit about baseball. There are quiet moments of truth about life and baseball interwoven into this film, and overall the film works on an almost sophomoric level at times. Exiting with the song love ain’t no triple play by Dr. John, Bennie Wallace, and Bonnie Raitt, the film Bull Durham gets 3.75-stars from me on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, October 19, 2019