The Legend of Bagger Vance (2001, VHS)

What do you get when you combine Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Charlize Theron into one movie? You get one great movie. Add golf to that, and it is one of the best serious movies I have seen in a long time! The time of the movie is in the late 1920s during the depression in Savannah, Georgia. Theron plays a character whose father has recently built a golf course and then died. She takes over the golf course and tries to make it work even during the depression. Some people from the city try to buy the land from her since she is so far in debt, but she refuses. It seems that it was her father s...

One reason I mostly stick to 5-star reviews is that, okay, look what happens if I have things to say about the Legend of Bagger Vance instead. Here's this film, came out three years ago. A lot of you, like me at the time, had no interest in seeing a film about golfers in the 1930s Deep South. Those of you who saw it, given that the film was only a middling success, have had lots of time to forget about it. And here I am writing to say that I'm completely indifferent as to whether you go back and watch it or not?!? But it's not quite that simple. I enjoyed the Legend of Bagger Vance, certainly.

This is the first golf fairy tale movie I have seen, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the virgin of the genre. Maybe there s a reason no one made a golf epic before, do you think? Let's give this one the ol' GOOD/BAD treatment, shall we? All righty, we'll begin with the short section first, THE GOOD: Beautiful scenery! Robert Redford is a master at making films with visual appeal, sweeping panoramic landscapes complete with the perfect radiance of sunlight (or moonlight, as the case may be) and dreamy clouds, the occasional flock of geese flying past, or blue heron wading through the reeds....

One of my favorite movies is "Field of Dreams". I can t really pinpoint why. None of the actors are particular favorites (except for James Earl Jones), I don t much care about baseball, and I ve been to Iowa one time in my entire life. For some reason, everything in the movie just comes together and the result is magical. The wonder of film, the whole being greater than the sum of it s parts. "The Legend of Bagger Vance" strives to achieve that same magic, and to a lesser degree, succeeds. The story opens with a very funny and touching bit with Hardy Greaves (Jack Lemmon) internally narrating.