The Natural

The Natural is a fairy tale from start to finish, full of wildly implausible scenes that win over our emotions because, frankly, that's the way we'd like life to be. Being a baseball fan involves repeatedly experiencing exquisite pain and exquisite joy. Well, there's a lot of both in The Natural. Read full review

The Natural is an impeccably made, but quite strange, fable about success and failure in America. Redford is perfectly cast as the wary, guarded Hobbs.

Arguably the best baseball movie ever made. The film works not because it is flawless in its depiction of what transpires on the diamond (more on a significant mistake later), but because it captures the spirit of the game at a time when baseball truly was the National Pastime. Read full review

Directed by Barry Levinson (this was his sophomore theatrical feature following Diner), the film is quite moving. Redford delivers a great, soft-spoken, naturalistic performance and he's paired with a solid all-star cast. Randy Newman's score is absolutely terrific, too. One of the best he's ever done. Read full review

As Hobbs, Robert Redford has never been better. A lefty who moves like the ballplayer he once wanted to be, he has, like all the truly great movie stars, the ability to appear as if he has transcended acting and can now simply behave a part like this. Read full review

Let yourself go and be rewarded by the sight of a hero running home to victory through clouds of fire. Read full review

The Natural is dense with Boys' Life stories and grand heroics, and it sometimes wanders from black comedy to serious icon-bashing and back again. But mostly it's good fun. At the end, everyone in the audience is swinging imaginary bats. It's a great movie for summer. [11 May 1984, p.D1]

Levinson doesn’t seem to care about redemption, guilt, or any of that other nonsense. He wants to make “the great American baseball hero movie.” He wants to say something about old neighborhoods and fathers and sons playing catch in the late summer evening. The cinematography is lush, the Randy Newman score is epic. The period detail and baseball scenes are top notch. Read full review

As endearing as most of the filmmakers' touches turn out to be, The Natural can be criticized with some justice for skating along the brink of outrageous affectation. In this case, though, the fairy-tale framework of the narrative is established so clearly and remains so cleverly sustained that the movie earns its right to romantic exaggerations. [11 May 1984, p.B1]

The Natural is a likable baseball saga, a big, old messy metaphor that says: You may be middle-aged, America, but you can still hit one out of the park. [11 May 1984, p.25]