COBB
A film review by Maria Vitale
Copyright 1995 Maria Vitale
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Wuhl, Lolita Davidovich. Written and directed by Ron Shelton. Running time: 130 minutes. Rated: R. Warner Bros
What follows is not intended to be a indictment against Warner Bros. and their decision to drop all support for this film, nor is it meant to try to explain why such a decision was ever made. Such an effort would be fruitless. It is instead a personal plea to all who love to watch talented people do what they do best.
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Ty Cobb was the greatest ball player who ever played the game of baseball. That is undeniable, based on the stats. Those are just numbers though and to look at the man behind them is to take a long hard look at something much less admirable.
Tyrus Raymond Cobb, while a hero to many a boy as the finest scientific hitter and the greatest base-stealer of all time, was also reknown for his racism, misogyny, foul-mouth and viciousness on and off the field.
To portray the "Georgia Peach" on film without suppressing the truth and yet produce an engrossing film is no mean feat. Ron Shelton's unflinching look at Ty Cobb does its subject justice by not sugar-coating his many shortcomings but it allows for a glimpse at a man tormented with his own personal failings. These were not financial failings, for in business, Cobb was a genius amassing a fortune in investments with fledgling companies such as Coca-Cola and General Motors. His inner demons, however, would not let him rest. He was plagued by memories of his father's death, his mother's infidelity and his own cruel deeds throughout his life. He was dying from a variety of diseases, not the least of which was cancer, but that didn't prevent him from doing whatever he pleased, whenever he pleased.
Into this story comes Al Stump, one of the highest paid and most popular sportswriters of the time. He receives a phone call from Cobb informing him that he has been chosen to tell the tale of the greatest sports figure who's ever lived. What the film fails to mention is that 18 other writers had also been graced with Cobb's call only to either quit or be fired when they failed to yield to Cobb's demand that the book, the autobiography be limited to the game and nothing more. No mention of his family, nor of his many notorious antics with other ball players such as sharpening his spikes for his much-feared spikes-high slides or his trash-talking of catchers and pitchers or his many brawls with spectators.
The film's focus is on Cobb as he is approaching death and his own mortality. Portraying Cobb, in all his gruff and vileness is Tommy Lee Jones in a tour-de-force performance. His anger at the world and most especially himself is quite evident but so is his great fear of death which he fights tooth and nail to the end. Shelton's script brings an insight into the man through humor and through fury that Jones deftly manages to balance and to exude. That doesn't even begin to describe the talents involved in the making of this film though.
Jones, as Cobb, spews all the venom he has spent a lifetime gathering up inside himself and explodes on the screen with a vitality that is his trademark. The range is remarkable as he can good-naturedly tell a joke one moment and just as easily pull out a pistol and threaten a man's life the next. This erratic behaviour might be unsettling were it not for the fact that it also grabs your attention and does not ease up for a second. An memorable moment occurs when Cobb insists on visiting Cooperstown, the Baseball Hall of Fame, after hours just to look at his own exhibit. He is trying to set down for posterity's sake a vision of his life, in terms of a game, so as to be forever seen as one of America's greatest heroes. And yet as he looks at his life on display, he ends up crying for he knows that it's all a lie. A lie which he is fighting to maintain. An image. A very misleading image.
Another moving scene is near Cobb's death when he begins to cough violently and blood appears. He knows that his fight will soon end and terrified, he begins to pray for his life. He soon takes up the fight again, unwilling to die quietly, he calls and checks himself into a hospital. Jones all the while nevers eases up on his hold on the audience. He is fascinating to watch as he moves across the screen and embodies Cobb. You can feel his fear as well as his rage and you can see his disappointment with life and those around him as well as himself.
Another standout in the film is comedian and writer, Robert Wuhl giving what is clearly his best performance to date. His Stump shows his contempt for Cobb even while accompanying him and attending to him as his personal nurse and friend. There is a mutual need, a parasitic relationship between the two. Cobb needs for his life to be viewed only in terms of his athleticism and Stump cannot pass up the opportunity to write a book about the most hated and loved man in baseball. But there is also a feeling of sadness which Stump cannot unravel. He's heard the tales that others including Cobb has related but he still can't get a handle on the man behind the myth.
Shelton's script is intelligent and has plenty of odd-ball moments such as a car ride through a snow storm in Lake Tahoe where Cobb wrecks his car and nearly kills himself but it doesn't phase him for a second. Dead drunk and filled with all sorts of medication for his illnesses, he still insists on driving Stump's car. When denied the keys, he pulls out his ever handy Luger and threatens to shoot. Stump challenges him by saying that he needs him to finish the book. Cobb points out that he's killed a man. It doesn't impress Stump a bit. And so, of course, Cobb does in fact get the keys and drives just as madly as before. He always gets his way.
The script also presents a wonderful opportunity to see what good films can be made with some effort and good writing. It could have been a baseball movie with just the sports scenes expected to entertain the audience. Instead it allowed its cast to bring out emotional and forceful portrayals of very real human beings filled with flaws. This study of human nature and more pointedly, of these two men, Ty Cobb and Al Stump, has a beauty all its own with grace and strength. It is glorious in its handling of a very difficult subject and yet it manages to be both accessible as a character study and as a tale worth telling.
In the end it is sad to know that this is a film worthy of the highest praise and grandest awards, contains some of the greatest performances yet by Messrs. Jones and Wuhl and some very fine writing and direction by Mr. Shelton, yet it will be seen by so few people. Pity. This is filmmaking and acting at its very finest.
I'd like to recommend this film to anyone who is still able to catch it wherever it is still available.
Maria Vitale
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