Absence of Malice (1981)

If you can get past the fashions and haircuts, this is a very smart movie. This is the story of a story. If you are student of journalistic ethics you will find this movie interesting. If you every wonder about the path a story in the news takes with it's twists and turns, this is an impressive peek behind the scenes.

Of course this is back in the day when newspapers were the forefront of investigative journalism so you'll have to imagine what that was like. Imagine also a story where doing the right things is conflicted with doing things right. This is a theme and a lesson that never gets old. Maybe it means now more than in 1981?

Paul Newman was subdued but brilliant as the son of dead gangster trying to outwit the FBI and a federal Justice Dept. task force, and a very nearly great newspaper reporter played by Sally Field. Other faces you will surely recognize are Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, and a very special cameo by Wilford Brimley.

This is a drama of a fairly high order. Pay attention to the details. Understand what is, and is not, happening. Enjoy the ride.

Watch this with someone who want to be a journalist, or a bureaucrat, when they grow up.

The Natural

This is on my top 10 list of favorite movies.

Master story teller and Director Barry Levinson (High Anxiety, Good Morning Vietnam, and Rain Man) gives us a tender family drama mixed with my old redemption factor. He uses larger than life characters to get it done, and delivers us a classic, even for a sports movie. I once met Mr. Levinson in the Laguna Beach Albertsons. As we looked at each other over one of the produce tables, all I could say to him was "Damn fine story-telling. Thank you." He seemed to appreciate my comment, but he has not done anything I like since then. Oh well.

Robert Redford (too many great ones to list here) plays a young AND old baseball player who is haunted as much by his past as he is by the present. Redford is such a stud, he gets not one, but two leading ladies in this film. One good, one bad. Glenn Close (Jagged Edge, Fatal Attraction, and Mel Gibson's Hamlet to list but a few) is as close to angelic as she is likely to be on screen. Kim Basinger (a Bond girl in Connery's final 007 film, 9 1/2 weeks, and Batman) is as deliciously sultry as you'd want in this flawed character role.

Wilford Brimley (Absence of Malice, the Cocoon series, and The Firm) is as enjoyable as Tom Hanks in the role of a broken down, everything to lose, general manager of a baseball team. Richard Farnsworth (Tom Horn, The Grey Fox, and Anne of Green Gables) is basically himself as Brimley's alter-ego assistant manager.

Robert Duvall (M*A*S*H the movie not the series, the Godfather series, Apocalypse Now and too many more to mention) is the only common thread between Redford's past and present, he just does not know it.

If you skipped this movie because it was a sports movie, or about baseball, I recommend watching it for the non-sports themes. Yes, it is set around baseball, but it is not about baseball. It is about fitting into the shoes one is wearing. It is about owning up to who we are.

Memorable moments abound in this well scripted journey. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Score, and Glenn Close was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. How could that happen in a sports movie?

Watch it with someone who will go out and play catch with you afterwards.