Bang the Drum Slowly (1978)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

When Author, played by one of my favorite actors, Michael Moriarty, finds out that Bruce (played amazingly by Robert DeNiro), his catcher on the fictitious New York Mammoths Major League Baseball treat has terminal cancer, he sets about trying to make his last year on earth as normal as possible. It is hard because Bruce is not too bright and a below average catcher. Author and Bruce decide that no one is to know about the situation. Author is a star pitcher, and negotiates a new contract with Bruce as part of the details. This is the setup. What is wonderful about this film is the incredible relationship between Moriarty and DeNiro, two disparate people. When the reality of death rears its head, all the selfishness and avarice go out the window. If one can keep his or her eyes dry as this progresses I'd be amazed. One of the best baseball (and human) films ever made. Still it is quiet and restrained.

I had wanted to see this film for a long time, a baseball film giving insight into life, death, and friendship. While it had its moments, I had a hard time believing much of it. How Wiggen could spin story after story on the fly to keep his manager clueless. That the manager and the whole team remained clueless. The clause about "You can't trade us unless it's together." That Wiggen has an off-season job as an insurance salesman (hard to fathom today) and holds the policy on DeNiro is tough to swallow. Calling in a retired catcher on a team that already has three. The handling of the medical situation itself, e.g. a doctor pronouncing after a 30 second exam that all is well.Many laud DeNiro's performance but, sorry, to me he wasn't believable as a Georgia redneck.

Nominally a baseball movie, this is actually more of a human interest story focusing on the relationship of a couple of teammates who hang together through the thick and thin of catcher Bruce Pearson's (Robert DeNiro) bout with Hodgkin's disease. You never get a clear idea of why New York Mammoth's pitcher Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty) takes a shine to his buddy but their loyalty to each other is convincing. I'm not sure if a real life ball player could have pulled off the contract demand that Wiggen did by forcing the owner and manager to agree to his terms for keeping 'Bill' employed, but this was made over forty years ago when money hadn't yet become that big a deal.Now I'd never heard of Big League Tegwar before seeing this picture and I don't know if it was simply made up for the story, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun. With a little creativity you could almost convince a newcomer that the game was on the up and up as long as you didn't get too carried away. But getting too carried away is probably the whole point of it.For DeNiro, this was his last picture before really coming on as an actor with an appearance in "Mean Streets" as Johnny Boy in the same year. After that his career took off like a rocket and is still going as strong as could be. Michael Moriarty, well I never really cared that much for him, probably because I've seen him in too many roles like Hull Barret in Eastwood's "Pale Rider" where he's too much of a doormat. In this picture his character is a commendable sort to stand up for Bruce but his non-aggressive demeanor for some reason bothers me a bit.As for the baseball, there are a handful of scenes to give the picture it's flavor as a sports film, but if you're tuning in that's not the main reason to see it. It's the human drama that takes center stage here in a story that personifies the meaning of friendship and going the extra mile.

I know baseball fans, i mean real baseball fans. Fans who will know it all and have seen it all, real and fictional. And I know movie fans, including some big Robert DeNiro fans, ones who can recite his titles chapter and verse. Yet whenever I mention this movie they look at me as if I'm making it up. And even the movie fans look at me funny when I mention one of my favorite actors from the 70s, Michael Moriarty.But there are only a handful of truly fine sports films, and of course even fewer in the sub genre of baseball. But "Bang the Drum Slowly" is in that handful without a doubt whether anyone you know has ever heard of it or not.Search for this on Amazon and you can get a very good used copy for $3.95, plus shipping, and it will be a fine spent eight dollars. Many a night especially later in the lives of the young when sleep will not come and you're alone in the dark you'll slip this movie in and have a warm feeling even if sleep never comes.The story of mediocre catcher and a great pitcher going through their final season together as the lesser-talented player is dying of an unspecified disease. This brief description in a TV Guide would never draw many people and even as a kid years ago when I saw it listed as thus on the proverbial late movie on the local Chicago channel I wasn't looking for anything promising. But having seen "Who'll Stop the Rain" recently I liked Moriarty's restrained intensity and I knew of the new intensity in acting known as DeNiro. So I took a chance and that old bard Robert Frost was proved true again.Perhaps a lesser pair of actors couldn't have delivered the true feeling of friendship between this odd couple. Moriarty is the star who is a true pro on and off the field, selling insurance in and off season dutifully looking out for his and his family's future. DeNiro is one of the old-fashioned good-ol'-boys that used to populate baseball, tobacco chewers and guys who never read a book without pictures. Stereotypical portraits of a time long gone now in baseball but these two skilled actors don't let it drop down into the easy maudlin most other movies would have easily and even willingly dipped into. But it stays above the easy area somehow accomplishing that difficult balancing act.The side stories of how a talented team can rag itself into a poor record is a telling one. It's happened far more than the stories of the Bronx Bombers or the 70s Oakland teams who hated each other yet still won. Teams need spirit and camaraderie even at the pro level and the movie is a good example of that. Helping one another makes a team better than it is most times as sappy as most people think it is these days. But it is a truism and it's explored here as well as anywhere.Take an hour and a half and change of your life and find a bit of a message and a bit of a bittersweet lesson in the end. And tell a friend and have them leave a fair evaluation at IMDb. This is much better than the 6.8 people have left.