Director: Robert Redford

Writer: Jeremy Leven

From novel: The Legend of Bagger Vance: Golf and the Game of Life by Steven Pressfield

Keywords: Drama, Golfing

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
Matt Damon	Actor	8-Oct-1970		Good Will Hunting
Joel Gretsch	Actor	20-Dec-1963		Tom Baldwin on The 4400
Bruce McGill	Actor	11-Jul-1950		Character actor, Animal House
Harve Presnell	Actor	14-Sep-1933	30-Jun-2009	When the Boys Meet the Girls
Lane Smith	Actor	29-Apr-1936	13-Jun-2005	The Final Days
Will Smith	Actor	25-Sep-1968		Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Charlize Theron	Actor	7-Aug-1975		Monster

REVIEWS

Review by anonymous (posted on 24-Jul-2005)

A golfer (Matt Damon) loses his soul in the trauma of World War I, and descends into the confusion and pain of alcohol and cynicism in the Roaring Twenties. Lost and clueless, he is redeemed by the experience of playing an exhibition golf tournament in Savannah against the two best players of his day, at the beginning of the Depression. Resisting and hurt, he nevertheless returns to a place where he once was strong with the help of a mysterious and possibly phantasmagoric caddy (Will Smith) who connects him once again to his humanity through the metaphor of golf. Not just golf, but absolute golf, golf as a measured movement with the spirit of the field, of the world, of one's own authentic stroke. A beautiful, often quiet film; a successor to Redford's other movies, such as "A River Runs Through It," it tackles a treacly subject and handles it with an artistic sincerity that cuts much of the sentimentality. The movie has eerie resumblance to "The Natural," in which Redford starred, made decades earlier. Baseball seems to haunt the film. Every other shot seems to beg to be a swing of the bat, knocking the cover off the ball. Shots are filmed with a repetitive sense of somewhat dubious poetry. Always teetering on the edge of corny, the fine script and very beautiful performances, particularly by Smith and Damon, and Bruce McGill as Walter Hagen, keep it a poetic balancing act. Ultimately, it's Redford's sense of style which suffuses the film and its pace. His sincerity, and, most of all, the deep commitment to simple story-telling which mark all his work, make this a rather lovely yarn. The romantic interest has no life in it; but Damon's discovery of his authenticity and integrity stirs something tight in the viewer. Nevertheless, there is a kind of mawkishness in such a tale which is impossible to avoid. A beautiful effort though. Enjoyable and well-intentioned.

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