"Moneyball" is a biographical film based on "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" written by Michael Lewis. It tells the story of the manager of the American Oakland Athletics baseball team who, with a small budget, successfully used mathematical formulas and computer data analysis to build a team with a winning percentage that surpassed that of the then-champion Yankees.
moneyball is an impressive movie. Because he is not limited to the slightly clichéd story structure of other inspirational films. I watched Million Babies (2004) and Fighter (2010) just a short while ago. Moneyball, by contrast, doesn't follow the stereotype of the little guy-effort-success Hollywood inspirational movie. What the protagonist of the story seeks is not success or dream but change. The story seems bland but has enough depth. Especially the protagonist Billy Beane can dig a lot of content. Perhaps this is thanks to the original work by Michael Lewis. Spielberg was replaced by Bennett Miller as director. The director Bennett Miller actually directed only two films before moneyball: Capote (2005), and the documentary The Cruise (1998). The proficiency of shooting techniques, the ingenious use of the lens and the capture of small details in the film all have to make people admire the talent and talent of this director who has only made two films. Most of the scenes in the movie are stadiums, lounges, and offices, but there is no sense of boredom caused by repetitive images. Although the story is based on baseball operations, some of the plots are intense and exciting due to the careful design of the plot and presentation, while the interspersed memories and narration reports strengthen the structure and rhythm of the film. It must be mentioned that the right application of the soundtrack greatly increases the audience's sense of engagement. There's not much about Brad Pitt's performance in terms of actors. It still feels like it's acting "you" rather than a character in the story, which makes this biographical film somewhat pale. Although the No. 2 character Peter Brand is more important in the story, because there is not much room to play due to the limitation of the script, Jonah Hill can be regarded as Peter Brand's immature, intelligent, kind and baseball-loving character.
There's a lot to think about in the plot of moneyball's entire movie, the plot -- I think it's one of the best parts of the movie. Many fixed-frame inspirational films cannot escape the suspicion of sensationalism. Through the accumulation of repression in the first half (usually the protagonist's unhappiness) and the hard experience (the protagonist's hard work for his dream), the pleasure of emotional venting after the success of the later character is maximized. This route is actually a movie that guides the audience's emotional evaluation. Let the audience mistake the good feeling after their emotional outburst for the excellence of the film. People who lack critical thinking can easily fall into this "trap". The good thing is that moneyball doesn't bother to play these tricks. The deep wisdom of the plot is its charm. The film unfolds with slow music and a foreshadowing line from Mickey Mando that alludes to the film's theme - change. The idea for a change will come to Billy Beane, the manager of the Athletics baseball team. He is sitting in the empty Oakland Ballpark listening to the broadcast of the Athlete-Yankees game in the finals, and he has a habit of never watching the game. The situation for the athletes on the radio was precarious, and the radio was on and off in Billy Beane's hands until the game was over. When I heard the commentator tease that the Yankees were going to celebrate, he smashed the radio in his hand. Just like the numbers shown at the beginning, in Billy Beane's eyes, the Athlete vs. the Yankees is not a fair contest. The Athlete has a lot of money and is poaching around to buy players. Billy Beane has a very small budget. In fact, the ball He had three key players poached the day after the team's defeat, and his boss refused to raise the budget for next season. Billy Beane is a manager who wants his team to win a championship. But he knew he would never win against the Yankees in the same way, because his team's financial strength was already at the bottom of the league. He knew the problem: Baseball was not a business. But the team's help was mostly stubborn. The so-called change in the way of doing business is simply impossible for them to accept. When Billy negotiated a transfer with Cleveland Indians manager Mark a few days later, he found that his confident transfer plan was disrupted by a young boy. This guy is Peter, the Indians manager's special assistant. Brand, when Billy approached him angrily, found that he had a similar philosophy to his own team. Just suffering from such an environment and unable to change, can only go with the flow. So instead of buying the player he wanted, Billy bought the assistant. Confident Billy and Peter are determined to run the team in a new, more scientific way, one that can achieve a high win rate with less money. This method comes from a man named Bill A set of evaluation theory created by James's people and a program written by Peter himself. Of course, change is difficult. The first problem to face is the opposition of the team's veterans. Although Billy can use his identity as the team's manager to overcome public opinion, he cannot get their support. Billy should be recruiting players according to Peter's assessment. These players have more or less problems, and some even have ugly pitching postures. Most of them are because Peter thinks the league underestimates players, so the money needed to form such a team is not enough. a lot of. Billy's behavior eventually caused some people's dissatisfaction to erupt, and one of them was old friend Grady. Billy's team was basically recruited, but was questioned and even ridiculed by the league, although some people analyzed the financial reasons at this time. And Billy's team's newly formed team record is basically at the bottom of the league. This does not prove that Billy and Peter's ideas are wrong, but because the team's head coach does not use people according to Billy's ideas, and Billy does not. Any way, because on the field he has no right to interfere with the duties of the coach. The Athlete's defeat was on the rise, and with the playoffs in sight, Billy decided that for real change he had to go one step further, a step that might cost him his job, but in order to achieve real change He has to give it a go. After making up his mind, Billy fired Carlos, the team's most famous and the head coach's favorite, and Jeremy, who slackened the players, the next day. Thus forcing him to use Billy's arrangement of players. At the same time, Billy also changed the style of indifferent management in the past, and began to communicate with the players, teaching experience and assigning tasks. Shows Billy's talent for managing the team. Finally the Athletes came back to life, through Billy and Peter's arrangements and tactics. Athletes start winning games. 6 consecutive victories, 12 consecutive victories, 14 consecutive victories, 16 consecutive victories (tying the record for 25 years) 17 consecutive victories, 19 consecutive victories. Everyone is eager to reach an unprecedented 20-game winning streak with the Athletics. Although this 20th game has twists and turns, but the final dramatic victory of the Athletes finally created a legend in baseball history. After the game, Billy confided to Peter that he wanted to win a baseball game because he wanted to change the rules of the game. But what was not expected was that the Athletes' victory then stopped and they did not win the league championship. One day soon after, Billy was invited to the Boston Red Sox club to meet with Henry, the administrator. Henry learns about the changes the game of baseball will face in the future. It's the highest commission ever to hire Billy as Red Sox manager, and he's already hired Bill James as a special advisor. And Billy eventually declined his invitation and stayed in Altland. Two years later, the Red Sox won a championship through Otland's baseball philosophy, and Billy is still striving for a world championship.
Billy Beane is at the heart of the entire film. The reason Billy wants to change baseball isn't just because of the financial crunch he's facing, or his desire for a championship, it's mostly his personal experience. Billy was a baseball player before becoming a baseball manager. Discovered by scouts in high school, in Billy's view, this was the wrong start of his life. After two scouts saw Billy's performance on the field, they found Billy's family and gave a good deal, and Billy had to choose to play professional baseball (great deal) or go to Stanford University (full price). scholarship). When asked why Billy is so good, the reason given by the scouts is that Billy can run, defend, attack, hit, almost all-around player (and good looking), while most baseball players usually Only master one or two skills. But in fact, Billy can be said to be proficient in everything and loose in everything. When scouts first saw him on the court, one of them said he was hitting the ball weakly and moving loosely. In their eyes, someone with a lot of skills is likely to be a star player, even if none of them are particularly strong. This is clearly not a scientifically convincing theory. In fact, what happened next to Billy also illustrates this point. He gave up admission to Stanford University to play professional baseball. When Billy entered the professional game as a rookie, the league mostly looked at him as an extremely promising rookie because he was an all-rounder who could be anything, at least that's what he thought. But the truth is, Billy can't hit the ball, can't catch it, and can't run very fast. This situation has not improved with the increase in the number of games. Billy's baseball career ended in failure. This result left him at a loss, and it was the reason that later convinced him of the change he insisted on. He knew he wasn't a baseball player, a fact he didn't want to face. When he first met Peter, using Bill on the plane home James' formula calculates his own value, and the score should be conceivably low. That's why he got so drunk that day and called Peter to ask if Peter would draft him. Billy's behavior makes a lot of sense. He wanted to confirm his failure, not just from himself, but from others, and he also wanted to confirm Peter's philosophy of baseball. In a short recollection of Billy, when Billy was about to give up a player to become a scout, he clearly said "Im not a baseball player", and he knew at that time that he had no baseball talent. Billy, the baseball manager, was a very emotional person and irritable. Lift the table at every turn and smash things. Compared with the suave and suave young man, this change is completely different. Perhaps it was the transformation of his temperament caused by his excessive repression as a professional baseball player, which often required venting. Billy once said "Ihate lose more than I want to win.
In addition to Billy, other characters also have their own highlights. First up is Assistant Peter. This man loves baseball, as can be seen from the two shots of him holding the baseball, which is one of the reasons why he graduated from Yale University's Department of Economics but chose baseball assistant as a career. Peter is immature but intelligent, he knows the problem with the baseball concept of people in management, but dare not openly challenge it (this is the opposite of Billy). From that point on, meeting Billy was an opportunity for him. Billy can do things he can't. While Peter is the talent Billy needs, Billy is also the leader Peter needs. Kindness and sincerity is also a character trait of Peter. That's why he and Billy had a conversation when they first met. He couldn't bear to fire the team, and at the same time used that clever metaphor to untangle Billy's heart. Still distinctly remember Billy turning back to Peter and saying "you are a good"
I said before that this film is rare in that it does not follow the fixed line of inspirational films. He's not telling a story of hard work and success. Billy is hungry for championships, but only because he thinks championships can bring about the change he wants. When Billy was devastated after the loss, Chubby used the analogy of jeremy hitting second base to tell him that it actually had the effect he wanted -- change. This kind of change means a lot to Billy, because the change can explain his failures in professional baseball, the change can make his victory over the deep-pocketed Yankees, the change can make the baseball he loves less like a field trade, Change can leave him with a meaning, rather than being forgotten when he fails, as the athlete he once was. The price to be paid for change is that many people do not have the courage to accept it. Billy and Peter are admirable not because they have the idea to change, but because they have the courage to change. Billy faces the risk of losing her job and her daughter's separation, facing all the skepticism and disapproval, and former friends become enemies. What needs to be faced are those powerful resistances. When great changes occur, there will always be some people whose interests are threatened, and their fears will become huge resistances. Billy wasn't afraid of any challenge, maybe he was too eager to change. It is worth mentioning that Billy's habit of not interacting with the players is for fear of the pain he will face when they fire them. Because he was an athlete, he knew that feeling. In the end, he also began to communicate with the players for the victory he needed. For this reason, he also paid the price for wanting to change, and transferred a player who got along with each other day and night. This time, when he told Mike, it was not easy at all. If you want to change, you need courage and you need to pay the price.
In my eyes, the movie "moneyball" is an excellent plot, full of wisdom and thought-provoking movie, which is recommended to watch.
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