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From: gmf@uvacs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: The Natural
Message-ID: <1306@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-May-84 13:38:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: uvacs.1306
Posted: Tue May 15 13:38:52 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 17-May-84 02:15:25 EDT
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     I found "The Natural" embarrassingly corny.  Presumably the
idea was to use baseball to present an allegory of good over evil,
and middle-age over lack of youth.  But the evils were so evil, and
the goods so good, and the plot so stereotyped and predictable, the
result was a melodrama of the kind where one hisses out loud at the
villains and cheers for the hero.  Come to think of it, maybe this
is what was intended.  Too bad they don't serve beer in our movie
houses, and let us make noises.  Actually, I said "bloated capitalist"
and "My God, what evil" when the "Judge" was on screen, drawing an evil
look from the enchanted customer in front of me.  I expected him to
report me for communism.  I also whispered to my wife, "It's a steal
from Beckett -- Godot of Sunnybrook Farm", and said, "It had to be!"
when they produced a short fat guy named "Pop Fisher".  But this last
may have been because I am a short fat guy named Fisher of an age when
I might be called Pop (though I never have been, to my knowledge),
and my daughter was with us at the movie.

Still, the photography was outstanding, as someone has said already,
and Redford and some of the others do great acting.

     Gordon Fisher