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The Legend of Bagger Vance (29-Oct-2000)
Director: Robert Redford Writer: Jeremy Leven From novel: The Legend of Bagger Vance: Golf and the Game of Life by Steven Pressfield Music by: Rachel Portman Producers: Robert Redford; Michael Nozik; Jake Eberts Keywords: Drama, Golfing A golfer struggling to revive his moribund career earns a new lease on his passion thanks to the help of a mystical caddy.
ABSTRACT
Rannulph Junuh, pride of Savannah, Georgia and a promising golfer, devolves into a tortured existence filled with drinking after a traumatic tour of duty in World War I. Years later, once-wealthy girlfriend Adele Invergordon sets out to restore her family's fortune, decimated by the Great Depression, through a series of golf tournaments, turning to Junuh as a former talent designed to generate local interest by participating. Junuh, unable to reignite his once-promising career at first, ultimately finds guidance in the form of mysterious caddy Bagger Vance, a kind soul implied to hail from a dimension other than our own who teaches Rannulph to cope with issues both on and off the course.
CAST | Will Smith | ... Bagger Vance | | Matt Damon | ... Rannulph Junuh | | Charlize Theron | ... Adele Invergordon | | Bruce McGill | ... Walter Hagen | | Joel Gretsch | ... Bobby Jones | | Lane Smith | ... Grantland Rice | | Harve Presnell | ... John Invergordon | | | Introducing | | J. Michael Moncrief | ... Hardy Greaves | | | Peter Gerety | ... Neskaloosa | | Michael O'Neill | ... O. B. Keeler | | Thomas Jay Ryan | ... Spec Hammond | | | Trip Hamilton | ... Frank Greaves | | Dermot Crowley | ... Dougal McDermott | | Danny Nelson | ... McManus | | Bob Penny | ... Laidlaw | | Michael McCarty | ... Delahunty | | Carrie Preston | ... Idalyn Greaves | | Turner Green | ... Eugene James | | Blake King | ... Wilbur Charles | | Andrea Powell | ... Mary Jones | | John Bennes | ... Citizen | | Jonathan Green | ... Citizen | | Shane Brown | ... Citizen | | J. Don Ferguson | ... Citizen | | E. Roger Mitchell | ... Aaron | | Leon Lamar | ... Card Player | | Charles Riffenberg IV | ... Card Player | | Cory Carbaugh | ... Card Player | | Charles Seabrook | ... Card Player | | Bilaal Salaam | ... Card Player | | Charles Ward | ... Man #1 | | George Green | ... Man #2 | | Julie Jones | ... Woman #1 | | Valanie Lang | ... Girl #1 | | Bernard Hocke | ... News Photographer | | Dan Beene | ... Willy | | Elliott Street | ... Carter | | Wilbur T. Fitzgerald | ... Roy | | Sonny Seiler | ... Sonny the Boarder | | Joseph Reidy | ... Photographer | | Tannis Stoops | ... Anna Mae | | Dearing Paige Hockman | ... Hagen Girl | | Erika Mounts | ... Hagen Girl | | Neil Gonzaga | ... Bar Patron | | Ronald Steppe | ... Bar Patron | | Hugh Baggett | ... Bar Patron | | Jabulani Brown | ... Jones' Caddy | | Vijay Patel | ... Hagen's Caddy |
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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