This is it. This is the pinnacle of baseball movies. As it is the pinnacle of baseball movies, it is the pinnacle of sports movies. Not in a sports way but in a movies way. This, like THE SANDLOT (which you listened to that episode, right? It's back in season 2 or whatever), has no big game. It's about more than baseball but baseball is both the frame and the delivery mechanism. Baseball teaches us about life so often--as a sport where succeeding 1/3 of the time is hugely successful will--and it has more than just baseball. This is BULL DURHAM. There is a lot going on in this movie. There is a lot that I talk about--it's one of the longer episodes that I've recorded and that's that I already know that I should never record longer episodes. And there is just a ton that I left out. I'll look at some of that here as is my way. Ron Shelton slaps. That's that. Dude is a gangster and lives in a similar space as Linklater. I don't exactly know how to communicate it but I would say it's the writer/director that fully understands their niche and understands themselves and, regardless of whatever copious life experience they may have, understands how to distill these concepts to something that really works in a movie. For more, you can check out my episode on DAZED AND CONFUSED. Sarandon, Costner, and Robbins were almost picture perfect. Costner does this sarcastic chuckle thing that I'm sure seemed cool on paper but it's a little less successful in practice. Other than that he was made for this role. I've heard that Costner is not necessarily the best person to be around while being a mere mortal but you cannot fault him in this role whatsoever. This was also "before he was famous" and that's weird to me because fuck Untouchables or whatever--this is what made Costner for me. Robbins knocks it out of the park. I love watching Tim Robbins--like everyone with cable I've seen THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION only a few dozen times and I still eat it up every time. But he was always that Tim Robbins--even in BULL DURHAM. Even in HIGH FIDELITY. Susan Sarandon was aces in this. She goes on from here to do THELMA & LOUISE which co-starred Gena Davis (yeah, you thought she was going to come up but I said this was the last baseball movie.... for the moment) and was directed by Ridley Scott. She's top-tier. She's stellar. She's in peak form at all points in time--there is zero phoning it in. Sarandon's performance was my favorite as a character in this movie. I only say that because Costner is 100% an actual baseball player while playing a baseball player and knowing the mind of a baseball player because he is an actual baseball player while playing a baseball player ad nauseam. Yes, this movie does have some exploration into homophobia of some sort. It's not as bad as this might make it sound but it does happen. It's probably better than average for a movie coming out in the 80s and is not outright hostile. There is a point where a character questions their sexuality and that's actually interesting--not offensive. This is all relating to the academic paper that I mention in the podcast (at the end). I think it comes from a very reasonable place where the ideal set for masculinity isn't complete domination but instead security and support. The characters themselves are trying to figure things out at times. There's another time where it's just an insult but, to quote Ralph Maccio--politics aside because his views are bad--"hey, it's the 80s". That's actually quoting his character, Daniel LaRusso, who isn't the bully but becomes able to defend himself. I realize that COBRA KAI might take that view a little differently when extrapolated however I'm reading from the text of THE KARATE KID and haven't watched COBRA KAI because, when I tried to cast it to my TV, YouTube wouldn't let me watch it fully. When you watch BULL DURHAM just think of that statement. Not about Ralph Maccio but the statement about masculinity. I've seen se