Cobb (1994)

Brilliant and touching

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you are not a baseball fan or if you are familiar only with the legends surrounding Ty Cobb you may enjoy this film. As a film I found it tiresome. I felt that Tommy Lee Jones, a great actor, was over the top playing an admittedly outlandish character.But the real problem with the film is it just isn't true. It's really not the director's or script writer's fault. The problem lies with the source material. Mr Stump spent aome time with Cobb but a lot of his work written after Cobb died is a pack of lies. Ty Cobb was a tough perhaps over the top competitor and a lot of his contemporaries resented that. Also he was jealous of some of his rivals particularly Babe Ruth who changed the game from the style which Cobb had excelled in, but he was not nearly the racist that he appeared in the film. He stated that talented black athletes should be allowed to compete with whites. He greatly admired Willie Mays and Roy Campanella. Before integration he frequently went to Negro League games and occasionally threw out the first ball. Stump had a bad reputation among other writers for plagiarism, historical inaccuracy, and was even accused of forging or stealing Ty Cobb memorabilia. Much of his work was discredited in a much better book that came out recently "Ty Cobb, A Terrible Beauty" by Charles Leershen. Cobb was no saint. He was certainly a "wild child" from Georgia. But he wasn't the monster depicted in this film.

This film belongs to Tommy Lee Jones. His performance in the title role is one to remember and I'm slightly surprised he wasn't nominated for an oscar. He plays the person of Ty Cobb as being unpleasant, unpredictable, eccentric but also rather tragic. Robert Wuhl compliments him as the real life biographer, Al Stump. The setting is the early 1960s. Ty Cobb - in his 70s - agrees to be interviewed by sports writer and biographer Al Stump after the latter feels the baseball hero should be more of a household name. What follows has to be seen in order to be believed.... The acting from the leads is what maintains the film. The fact that "Cobb" is mainly a two hander, helps to keep the film as that of a drama and character study. There isn't that much of a big supporting cast. Everyone else is kept firmly in the background and it works. The writing is outstanding and both Cobb and Stump have been given plenty of depth. I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that there is hardly any baseball footage or that the film doesn't begin with Cobb's life story from the beginning. In my opinion, the film would have benefited greatly. The foul language goes rather too far on more than one occasion and soon becomes predictable. The screenplay isn't exactly depressing as such. On the contrary, there are amusing moments along the way. One example, is the scene where Stump is notified that his wife wants a divorce! Cobb has a good laugh at his expense because it reminds him of similar times. There is a particularly moving scene near the end. Cobb successfully tracks down the location of his estranged daughter and is hoping she will speak to him. Stump presents him with the news that this is not going to happen. There is no dialogue to be heard as Stump is informed by the woman in question of her decision regarding her father. The visual interaction between the two speaks volumes. Watching from his car, Cobb knows instinctively that it's not good news. "Cobb" was hardly given a theatrical release in 1994 and is pretty hard to obtain on DVD these days. The film proves that Tommy Lee Jones can easily qualify as a character actor and the above film proves that.

I don't know that I understand the point of a movie like this.Ty Cobb played professional baseball from 1905-1928, during which time he was, by anyone's reckoning, one of the all-time greats, accomplishing things no one had done before, and few since. He lived another 33 years after retiring, during which he did nothing that millions of other men his age haven't done. He died at the age of 74, evidently a bitter and lonely old man.I confess that I don't see the point of making a movie about the last, bitter years of such a bitter old man when they hold nothing of exceptional interest. Yes, Tommy Lee Jones does a fine job of playing a bitter old man, but frankly, why should I care? This movie won't teach you much about Ty Cobb, or baseball. It will show you yet another bitter old man, but it won't make you empathize with him. Do you really want to sit through 2 hours of that?

Ty Cobb is in the top five of the greatest players in Baseball history. In fact, he was the first man elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but there has never been a film about his life. While Cobb was a great baseball player and one the toughest men to ever live, he was also an outspoken racist, who was quick to fight anyone, including his wife and kids. In 1960, a dying Cobb contacted sportswriter, Al Stump to ask him to tell his story. That is what I thought this critically acclaimed film would be, but it wasn't. While the title is Cobb, the film is really about Al Stump and what it was like to spend time with the great Ty Cobb, after he'd completely lost his faculties. While it wasn't the film I'd hoped it would be, Tommy Lee Jones gave the performance of a lifetime. What can you say about Jones that hasn't already been said? He is the best actor in Hollywood and can play absolutely anyone. Jones was very convincing, showing Cobb as a deeply troubled man who covered his shame with outrageous behavior. In recent years, since the passing of Al Stump, many people who knew Cobb have come out saying the book and film were overly exaggerated, but even so, the facts about Cobb are well documented. Cobb is not the film most people expected it to be and it ranks among the biggest flops in box office history. The story however is one you haven't heard before and is performed admirably by an all-star cast. This is not your typical baseball movie, but rather a moving look at a man who was destine to either be a legend or an inmate.