A REVIEW OF "COBB" A RETRO REVIEW, 1994 by Ryan Ellis
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The name Ty Cobb inspired fear and loathing in the hearts of every Major League baseball player in the early 1900s. The Detroit Tigers' star would do absolutely anything to win (including deliberately injuring his opponents) and he hated everyone but himself. He considered every turn at bat an act of war against the pitcher. If an infielder tried to tag Ty Cobb sliding into a base, they would get a razor-sharp spike stuck in their chest. He was a mean bastard, but nice guys finish last and villains finish first. Right? Well, they do! After all, Cobb was the first man inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame. He's also the greatest baseball player of all time, including the immortal Babe Ruth.
Tommy Lee Jones was perfectly cast as Cobb. Coming off Oscar-nominated performances in 1991 ("JFK") and 1993 ("The Fugitive", for which he won the supporting trophy), Jones is a man's man. He even resembles the crusty ballplayer. Ironically, "Cobb" is a bio-pic about a baseball star, but it shows us very little baseball action. Of course, all of the action that IS shown is in flashback because Cobb is about 70 years old. Jones looks good in both the flashback footage and in the decrepit old man scenes. The man with the highest lifetime batting average was always secure in his own abilities. Cobb has a great line in the picture when he's asked by a guy how he would hit against the pitchers of "today". Cobb responds that he would still hit about .280, but we have to remember that he's almost 70 years old! The jerk sure WAS confident.
Robert Wuhl, a sports freak in real life, co-stars as legendary sports writer Al Stump. He sits around drinking with his cronies, each of them boasting about writing a book. No one follows up on it until Cobb phones Stump and asks him to write his biography. Stump agrees, but soon regrets his decision. He threatens to quit working with the drunken, gun-slinging, skirt-chasing old man more than once. But he never does (or this movie would have been awful short!) and they go on an odyssey of discovery.
The movie takes a "Scent Of A Woman" turn when Cobb forces Stump to travel to Las Vegas against his will to find some women. On the way, they pick up a Cobb nemesis, who just happens to be a black man. Since Cobb is a racist, their discussions about baseball are biased. The black man claims that Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige (who starred in the Negro Leagues) were the greatest players ever. Cobb disagrees vehemently, refusing to admit that anyone who didn't play for his team, the Detroit Tigers, are even worth mentioning.
Later, this turns into a "buddy" film. Cobb and Stump become reluctant friends. It's apparent that they're going to stay together until one of them dies. But even though they grudgingly become chums, they clash about the content of the biography. Stump wants it to be about the ballplayer's outrageous personal life. He wants to describe the outlandish things Cobb does in his old age and Cobb is viciously opposed to that viewpoint. He demands that the book stick to baseball. Stump writes his own version of the book when Cobb isn't around and must wrestle with his conscience. Should he tell the world about how much of a sonofabitch this man was (and still is) or shouldn't he?
Tommy Lee Jones is the whole show here. He gives a necessarily overbearing performance. He's crazy in the beginning of the film and just as lonely and crazy in the end. The script had its holes though, which prevents the movie from soaring above its weaknesses. Wuhl does a fine job opposite the bitter old man, but he's not the reason to rent this video. Jones proved that he is a world-class performer when he won his Best Supporting Actor the year before and continued to show that with "Cobb". We don't see much on-field material, except in the opening newsreel, but even that is just enough action in this character study of the greatest player to ever strap on a baseball uniform.
USELESS TRIVIA--Disgraced baseball great Pete Rose has also played Ty Cobb (in a TV movie about Babe Ruth). Rose appeared in a scene with Stephen Lang (Ruth) in a motel room. Rose, who is banned from baseball, is not permitted to wear a uniform even in a movie.
This film gets a 7/10.
THE RYAN RATING SYSTEM SAYS... 10/10--absolutely outstanding 9/10--excellent 8/10--pretty darn good 7/10--sure, go on and give it a peek 6/10--so-so; ye ol' recommendation point 5/10--not quite worth the dollars 4/10--only if you have a free pass 3/10--don't go, PLEASE don't go 2/10--avoid even if you DO have a free pass 1/10--"Showgirls" territory; truly crappy 0/10--bang your head off a wall instead
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