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| Brad Pitt (Becoming the Part) |
For me Brad Pitt’s performance in this film is so special,
it’s the image, the memory, I’ll always keep of him in my mind. Watching MONEYBALL
on some weird cable channel a few nights ago, I realized that this was the film
that made me a fan of Pitt’s when I first saw it some eight years ago. But I
also realized that this is one of those rare moments in film where the actor
actually “becomes” the character he’s playing.
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| Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill |
At face value MONEYBALL is a simple baseball movie
about a general manager and his rookie assistant (Jonah Hill) building a team with players
nobody else wants for a franchise that’s dirt poor. But the truth is, this
wonderful film has little, if anything, to do with baseball.
Look at the people who adapted the film from a work of
nonfiction and were nominated for an Oscar as a result. Two of the best
screenwriters ever -- Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Searching
for Bobby Fischer, American Gangster, The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo) and Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The American President,
West Wing).
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| Brad Pitt, Facing his Ghosts |
Like a well-written crime novel, the characters in the story
might be concerned about the murders and mayhem, but we as readers usually have
a lot more on our minds (if it’s really good). In MONEYBALL, everyone in
the story is concerned about the team -- their careers are on the line. For
Pitt’s character, the stakes are even higher as he struggles to pull these
misfits together and put together a series of wins. But like that work of crime
fiction, this story isn’t about kills or wins. Instead, it’s about a man battling
the ghosts from his past and learning something deeply personal about himself. MONEYBALL,
the movie I watched just a few nights ago and is still on my mind, seemed like
it was about baseball, but what I saw was so much bigger than that!
5 Stars. Highly Recommended. On a “Best of the Decade List”
somewhere, no doubt!
Robert Ellis
ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG
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