COBB
A film review by Eric Grossman
Copyright 1994 LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT
Given Hollywood's affinity for baseball movies, it was just a matter of time until they decided to tell the real story of Ty Cobb, one of the game's most loved and despised players. Unfortunately, the film fails to do the baseball legend justice or even injustice.
It didn't have to be that way. Tommy Lee Jones tries his best to create a complex character but he is limited by the film's aimless direction. Writer/director, Ron Shelton, a filmmaker who has made some very good sports films (BULL DURHAM, WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP), misses terribly this time. His script is fragmented and he makes the critical mistake of having the movie deal mostly with Cobb's relationship with famous sports writer, Al Stump. Cobb invites Stump (Robert Wuhl) to his Lake Tahoe house to interview "the great Ty Cobb." He wants Stump to write a book so the world will remember the man, the myth, the legend. After hearing stories and spending time with his subject, Stump finds himself struggling between writing the truth about the man or safeguarding his greatness. The truth is that despite Cobb's athletic abilities, he was a racist and a womanizer who also had abused his family. Cobb drags Stump along with him to Reno and the film becomes sort of a buddy/road picture. There are some time-outs to show flashbacks of Cobb as a child, the death of his father, and a few (very few) baseball scenes. Most of the movie is spent with Cobb running around as an old man, coughing and taking pills, insulting people, trying unsuccessfully to rape a woman, shooting his pistol and ranting, "I'm Ty Cobb, the greatest baseball player ever."
Although Cobb is a completely nasty person, Jones' likability as an actor is able to create some sympathy for him. He gives his signature southern, eccentric performance and the strength of his acting is the only thing that is cohesive in this film.
Wuhl's Stump is a different story. He is supposed to be the audience's surrogate, the person we identify with as we learn about this hideous hero. However, Stump's motivation for staying with Cobb is very thin, even non- existent at times. Their relationship is contrived and after the tenth time I heard Stump say to the abusive Cobb, "I'm leaving," I kept wishing he would because then the credits would roll and I could go home.
The production values are solid but there is not much of particular interest to note. Lolita Davidovich is wasted in her small, thrown-in part as a cocktail waitress who receives too much sexual attention from Cobb. Elliot Goldenthal's score is solid and we will probably be hearing it in the previews for Hollywood's next big baseball epic.
COBB is frustrating because it had most of the ingredients to be a good movie. A interesting subject, a great actor to play him and a major studio producing it. It is a bad film made by good filmmakers and every time this happens, I always wonder why they didn't see the mistakes sooner. Oh well, nobody bats a thousand, not even Ty Cobb.
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