Moneyball

[Vol Horn 4 Life]

I thought it was pretty good.

 

[Gadfly]

Me too.

 

[TheGallopinGoose]

Me too.

 

[mcbrett]

Me too.

 

[RomaVicta]

Me, too.

 

[Bevo Incognito]

As if that could ever happen.

 

[general35]

i heard art howe was pissed. he is considered by many to be one of the best guys in baseball and they made him look like an *******.

 

[RomaVicta]

I and my non-sports-loving girlfriend thought the movie was very good.

Art Howe doesn't come across as an ******* as far as I saw it. He represents old baseball and it's not hard to sympathize with his position. The movie does indicate his hand was forced to follow the GM's plan and then, ironically, he gets credit for the team's success from the media.

The movie is very good. There is a great metaphor at the end and the final attitude of the filmmakers regarding Bean's ultimate decisions is ambiguous at best.

 

[Rex Kramer]

Art Howe is a great guy, as is his son - a friend of mine. Yeah, I'm cool.

I look forward to this movie but I have no movie-watching life with 2 toddlers.

 

[atxbomber]

In reply to:

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[RomaVicta]

I remember Art playing for the Astros. Always seemed liked a good guy and rather funny, too, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[TheGallopinGoose]

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I had an "I want to go to there" moment and new immediately that I wanted to see this one. I read the book before I saw the movie (I saw it for the second time last weekend) and thought the movie was very well done. I would say it was better than the book.

-The movie paints Art Howe as defiant to Billy Beane's methods, but in the book, he's portrayed as much more passive: on Beane's orders, he simply stands at the top of the dugout and looks important, while it's Beane and his roster moves that are doing the real work.

-The movie tells the narrative of the season much better. The book skips around a lot more: when they mention that the A's have the best record in baseball, it almost comes out of nowhere.

-The movie focuses a lot more on Billy Beane than the book does. The book sees fit to not mention Beane for dozens of pages at a time, and the storyline with his daughter barely gets any mention at all. I'm sure it's because Brad Pitt is in the leading role.

-Ron Washington also gets more screen time than he does "page time." Maybe the fact that the Rangers have been doing so well in the postseason lately has something to do with that.

-Kevin Youkilis ("The Greek God of Walks"), Jeremy Brown (a highly-touted A's prospect), and Bill James (the baseball writer behind sabermetrics) get less screen time than page time. Brown and James have significant chunks of the book devoted to them.

-The movie skips over the chapter in the book where the A's have a lights-out 2002 Draft and get nearly every player they want.

-Beane seems a lot more violent about losing in the book than in the movie.

-Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for both "The Social Network" and "Moneyball." Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed like a jerk in "The Social Network," while Billy Beane is portrayed as a much more sympathetic figure in "Moneyball" (much more sympathetic than in the book).

-One stylistic point I picked up on: Early on in the film, Beane goes to Cleveland to make deals with the Indians, he and the Indians GM are eating fancy-looking caramel popcorn out of a glass bowl. Later on in the film, when Beane and Peter Brand are sitting in Beane's office making deals with other GMs on the phone, Beane and Brand are eating microwave popcorn out of a coffee filter.

-The score for this film was great.

-Fun Fact: Boston Red Sox owner John Henry is played by Arliss Howard, who also played the adult Scotty Smalls in "The Sandlot."