Synopsis
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Robert RedfordRoy Hobbs
- Robert DuvallMax Mercy
- Glenn CloseIris Gaines
- Kim BasingerMemo Paris
- Wilford BrimleyPop Fisher
- Barbara HersheyHarriet Bird
- Robert ProskyThe Judge
- Richard FarnsworthRed Blow
- Joe Don BakerThe Whammer
- Darren McGavinGus Sands
Recommandations
- 100
Chicago Tribune
The Natural is a fairy tale from start to finish, full of wildly implausible scenes that win over our emotions because, frankly, that's the way we'd like life to be. Being a baseball fan involves repeatedly experiencing exquisite pain and exquisite joy. Well, there's a lot of both in The Natural. - 88
ReelViews
Arguably the best baseball movie ever made. The film works not because it is flawless in its depiction of what transpires on the diamond (more on a significant mistake later), but because it captures the spirit of the game at a time when baseball truly was the National Pastime. - 80
IGN
Directed by Barry Levinson (this was his sophomore theatrical feature following Diner), the film is quite moving. Redford delivers a great, soft-spoken, naturalistic performance and he's paired with a solid all-star cast. Randy Newman's score is absolutely terrific, too. One of the best he's ever done. - 70
Film Threat
Levinson doesn’t seem to care about redemption, guilt, or any of that other nonsense. He wants to make “the great American baseball hero movie.” He wants to say something about old neighborhoods and fathers and sons playing catch in the late summer evening. The cinematography is lush, the Randy Newman score is epic. The period detail and baseball scenes are top notch. - 60
Empire
An otherwise fine sports fantasy is dragged down by an overindulgence in sentimentality. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
Somewhat overly sentimental, lacking the novel's subtlety, and less interesting when the action leaves the ball park, Barry Levinson's beautifully shot film is nonetheless a charming fairy tale. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
Why didn't they make a baseball picture? Why did The Natural have to be turned into idolatry on behalf of Robert Redford? Why did a perfectly good story, filled with interesting people, have to be made into one man's ascension to the godlike, especially when no effort is made to give that ascension meaning? - 50
The New York Times
Mr. Levinson, who both wrote and directed Diner, the small, exquisitely realized comedy about growing up aimless in Baltimore, here seems to be at the service of other people's decisions. Though entertaining in short stretches, The Natural has no recognizable character of its own.
