BULL DURHAM

Bull Durham (1988, USA, Ron Shelton)
I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. There are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary, and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us The Lord laid too much guilt on me. You see, there's no guilt in baseball... and it's never boring. I've tried them all, and the only church that truly feeds the soul day in, day out, is the church of baseball.

Lots of baseball movies are religious, and this one – written and directed by former minor leaguer (and former evangelical) Ron Shelton – is the most religious of them all. One problem: it sure as heaven ain't my religion. Annie Savoy – a "baseball Annie" who takes up with a different young prospect every season to educate them in the ways of the world, her flesh and the devilishly divine secrets of baseball – opens the film with one of the most inspired and entertaining pieces of heresy every spoken. Too bad Mr Shelton never figured out that Jesus is in the business of healing guilt, not inflicting it. (And if he thinks there’s no such thing as guilt in baseball, maybe he never played right field with bad depth perception and a lousy arm.)

FIELD OF DREAMS, BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY, THE ROOKIE


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