Hollywood will never lack "fast-consumer" genre movies, even if it is an inspirational theme or sports story with no suspense. As one of them, "Baseball Love" can basically reflect the overall pattern of Hollywood movies. But in detail, there are still some imperfections, which will be explained in detail below.
The film tells the story of Billy Chip, played by Kevin Costner, who won a key game as an older baseball player with a hand injury and recovered his girlfriend. The beginning of the film has already explained Billy's difficult situation: the team he had played for many years was changed hands, and the new owner intends to transfer himself; his girlfriend could not bear his long-term obsession with the game and would fly to London. The concise language and actions have thrown suspense about Billy to the audience. From the beginning, we knew that Billy was going to face and solve two difficult problems-winning a game and winning back his girlfriend's love. These two issues constitute the basic event of the film.
Look at the characters. As a former star player of the Detroit Tigers, Billy has been unable to maintain his original record after he entered middle age and added injuries. The decline in game performance and external doubts made Billy distressed. Billy's girlfriend, Jane, is about the same age as Billy, divorced, and raised her rebellious daughter who went to high school alone. After her daughter quarreled with Jane, she boarded with her biological father. This is good. In the first half of the movie, we have learned all about the main characters and their respective situations. It is now possible to briefly summarize the obstacles Billy (he is the absolute protagonist) in the events described in the film : hand injury, age, girlfriend's need for the family (in conflict with workaholic Billy), and daughter's rebellion . It seems difficult to determine whether the core event of the story is the ball game or the return to the family. When Billy learned that the team had changed hands and his position might be transferred, he also lost his girlfriend's heart-this happened almost simultaneously, from the evening Billy was waiting in the hotel room until the next morning. After that, the film enters every plot point that promotes the development of the story . Without exception, as a player, Billy had a great reputation at the beginning, until he was injured, he began to endure great pain (from physical and mental pressure) -> The team changed hands and the predicament worsened; and as ordinary people, Billy and his girlfriend had After a happy time, after I separated from my girlfriend due to work, the "masseur incident" occurred -> the daughter who had run away from home was picked up, reunited, and separated again due to work, reaching the climax of the incident. All right. These are the opening to climax from the movie Billy encountered, it is clear that the film took a two-lane parallel the structure of the story (after the team changed hands and confessed his girlfriend left), in the second act, with the game as the main line, with more than The flashback recounts what happened between Billy's smooth transition and the standing on the field of the key game (recalling that the scenes are connected in a dissolving form, and the slow switching of the scenes made me suspect that I had watched a soap opera. ). From here on, I have to say that this film left me with a little procrastination.A large number of flashbacks caused the interruption of the main storyline, and the repeated breakup and recombination of Billy and his girlfriend led to the repetition of the storyline and emotional stagnation. What we need to determine is, what is the main line of the whole movie? Is it a baseball game? This is true from the narrative framework. But you can see for Billy and his girlfriend Jane's description already takes up about half the space, it can appear like another story of Jane more of a spectator from the movie - and not participants , repeated division and indeed It shaped Billy's character in family life, but unfortunately it did not play any role in promoting the game where Billy returned .
In the sports-themed film "McFarlane", also starring Kevin Costner, the handling of the story line is much better-although clichéd, it is very useful. The protagonist White came to the relatively closed McFarland due to an accident and worked as a sports coach at the school. In the process of training the students to prepare for the cross-country running competition, he overcame many difficulties and finally won the victory, and stayed as a teacher in this school until retirement. In the film, Coach White not only helps students solve family obstacles and psychological burdens, but also deals with their daughter's education issues and future planning issues (whether to stay in McFarlane). The story is not complicated. In the story, Coach White’s daughter is in a youthful rebellious period and is about the same age as her own students. In the process of contacting the students, Coach White tried to give them understanding and care, and gradually broke the barrier with her daughter. The same two lines are parallel. The family problem here serves as a secondary line to set off the obstacles White encountered, and it forms a high degree of compatibility with the plot development of the school part (reconciliation with the children). This will not eliminate the importance of the main line. It will not create a sense of division with the main story, but at the end of the film, a perfect unity of the theme is formed.
Let's look at "Baseball Love" again. The relationship between Billy and Jane was always fluctuating because of the baseball game, but they didn't have any impact on the final game. Jane's departure made Billy sad, but in the final game, did Billy waver? Has he taken any action to keep Jane? Did psychological factors affect the final result of the game? The answer is no. That being the case, it seems rather redundant to gather so many pens and inks on Jane's go and stay. What's interesting is that after Billy won the game, he finally couldn't let go of Jane and rushed to the airport to complete the last shot of the film. The end of the game did not leave an impressive climax point, and the kiss between Billy and Jane, although expected, appeared abrupt in the plot connection, just like trying to throw a curve ball, but it was unexpectedly deviated. Bad ball. Perhaps Sam Remy wants to emphasize Billy's love and family life too much, but in such a baseball-themed movie, there is a little lack of balance and integration.
"It's time to take back your baseball!"
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