The Natural Director's Cut DVD with Baseball Cap Replica Roy Hobbs Baseball and 5 New York Knights Baseball Cards Reviews

• "I didn't see it comin'..."

  
  By A1G5Q9HBN0EGDV on 2007-05-03
  "The life we learn with and the life we live with after that." -- Glenn Close
  
  
  This beautiful film about a dream derailed by a dark fate which takes the form of two outwardly lovely but inwardly unbalanced women has my vote for the greatest baseball movie ever made. Director Barry Levinson and screenwriters Roger Towne and Phil Dusenverry turned Bernard Malamud's novel into a meaningful fable that transcends baseball and encompasses life itself.
  
  Robert Redford is Roy Hobbs, whose only dream is to walk down the street one day and have people say: "That's Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was." Roy's dad on the farm instills in his son the love for baseball, recognizing in him an extraordinary gift like none before him. When he passes suddenly, young Roy fashions a bat from a tree struck by lightning and the mythic elements of the story begin to take shape.
  
  Glenn Close is wonderful as Roy's sweetheart. She is pure of heart, with no agenda other than Roy's happiness. She is the light of his youth and his life, and will bring him back to his destiny, in contrast to the twisted agenda of two other young women. Levinson smartly dresses Close in white, and both Barbara Hershey and Kim Basinger in black, to contrast the good and evil bidding for Roy's fate.
  
  When a dark episode in a hotel room nearly ends Roy's life, 16 years pass before he returns to baseball with the New York Knights. Scoffed at by Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley) at first, he and his assistant, Red (Richard Farnsworth), finally give Hobbs a chance and soon he and his bat, "Wonder Boy," take on a mythic quality. But a reporter named Max (Robert Duvall) is bound and determined to discover the secret of those 16 missing years and destroy Roy's chance to be the best there ever was.
  
  It is more than just Max trying to derail his dream, however. Beautiful Kim Basinger is Memo Paris, whose outward appearance can only mask the stone cold part of her heart for so long. Roy almost sees it too late, but when he does, utters the now famous line: "I was wrong Memo. We have met before."
  
  It will be Iris (Glenn Close) who once again acts as Roy's shining light, her kindness and decency and understanding giving Roy strength to have one last go at his dream. She will act as his lighthouse in a storm of dark fate and unbalanced young women, guiding him full circle back to a farm and a life still full of dreams.
  
  This director's cut not only has an additional 15 minutes of film, but it looks and sounds better than ever. The extras are really special in this set. Not only do you get an "autographed" Roy Hobbs baseball, and Roy Hobbs' rookie cards, but a blue New York Knights baseball cap as well. If, like me, you are a fan of this magical film, you'll want to grab this up before they're all gone, just as I did.
  
  This film is for anyone who ever dreamed of being the best there ever was and had those dreams derailed for a time by something they didn't see comin'. It doesn't matter if that dream was of baseball, carpentry, or writing. Perhaps that is the magic of this film. This is a lovely period piece, beautifully shot. Because it is about so much more than just baseball, it is the best baseball movie there ever was......