EIGHT MEN OUT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Intriguing account of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal, well-directed by John Sayles. Like MATEWAN, it is a good piece of historical story-telling with an intentional political edge. Rating: +2.
I guess it is official now, at least in my own mind: John Sayles is now one of the major film directors of the day. He slowly built a reputation with RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN (which pre-dated THE BIG CHILL but was a sort of BIG CHILL with real people), LIANNA, and THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET. But he really scored with MATEWAN, the Eisenstein-esque account of the coming of the union to a West Virginia coal mining town. He took what was reportedly a modest budget and made an epic historical film. EIGHT MEN OUT is a cut or two below MATEWAN, but a pretty decent film in its own right.
EIGHT MEN OUT is the story of the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919. In that year seven players on the Chicago White Sox found themselves between the carrot of mobsters offering them bribes and the stick of owners who made large profits but did not pay a living wage and who cheated on their promises of bonuses. (The eighth man of the title maintained that he had never accepted any bribes.) Watching the results of this triangle from a distance are, on one hand, sportswriters and on the other, the kids who are the real fans of the game. Then some hoods with ties to the notorious Arnold Rothstein want to fix the World Series but are rebuffed by the players until one of the players is denied a bonus he was to have gotten if he won thirty games. It seems he won twenty-nine and would have won more if the owner of the club had not pulled him out of some games. After that, one-by-one the players surrender to the lure of a little easy money. The willingness of the Sox to be bribed starts a sub-plot of betrayal in Rothstein's organization, a sub-plot (incidentally) that Sayles never ties up.
In some ways EIGHT MEN OUT makes a good companion piece to THE NATURAL. Both are poetically filmed stories of early baseball, criminal influence, and the ever-present sportscasters' commentary to a public hungry for sports news. But, perhaps because it is a true story, EIGHT MEN OUT lack THE NATURAL's clean and uncomplicated storyline. Actually, the film is more likely to invite comparison to MATEWAN with its photography, its historical storyline, and several overlapping actors (including Sayles himself). EIGHT MEN OUT is the best sports film since THE NATURAL. Rate it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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