Film Review: Moneyball

Most of the sports films that have been made, have had very Hollywood plot lines. It was almost a recipe.

Underdog team/coach/player/ whatever, trying to do something. A few montages of things going badly, then a winning formula, or new coach/player that tells them "they just have to believe in themselves" or teaches them how to work together with a few gimmicks.

Which means, when you watch a well written film like Moneyball, you are completely unprepared by the realism and length of film that really tells you the true story. Or close to it, at least.

With Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan (Mr Zaillan wrote screenplays for The Interpreter, American Gangster and Clear and Present Danger) writing the screenplay, Brad Pitt portraying the character listed and the direction is tight and without any excess scenes, Bennet Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with the film Capote - its a film worth watching for the all of the above and the finished product that is made up of those pieces.


Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator22 April 2012 at 07:42

    This first quote comes from another film with an original screenplay in a genre filled with rehashed storylines.

    "Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: If there's magic in boxing, it's the magic of fighting battles beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retinas. It's the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you."

    And the second comes from a film where it was not just Brad Pitt portraying the character.

    "Lestat: Listen Louis. There's life in these old hands still. Not quite Furioso. Moderato? Cantabile, perhaps.
    Claudia: How can it be?
    Lestat: Bless the alligator. His blood helped. Been on the diet of the blood of snakes, toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi. Slowly, Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia... You've been a very, very, naughty little girl."

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