Film: The Natural

The New York Daily News and ESPN both named The Natural as the sixth-best sports movie of all time. Uploaded by robertedwardauctions.com.

Robert Redford was at his best as Roy Hobbs, the “natural” baseball player whose career was changed forever by an encounter with a deranged fan. Years go by, and Hobbs finally gets a second chance at the big leagues.

Uploaded by images.sodahead.com.

The movie is told almost as myth, with supernatural elements in many scenes. As a boy, Hobbs carved a bat from a branch of a tree split by lightning. He carves a lightning bolt into it, and calls it “Wonderboy.” There’s a wonderful scene in which Hobbs, as a pitcher, strikes out “The Whammer,” an obvious doppelganger for Babe Ruth. And the final scene is over the top as a badly hurt Hobbs hits a home run to win the pennant as lightning flashes in the sky.

The Natural was directed by Barry Levinson, a director who was hot in the 1980s (Diner, Tin Men, Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam).  It had an excellent cast, featuring Glenn Close (Academy Award nomination), Barbara Hershey, Wilford Brimley, Robert Duvall (Great American Things, August 21, 2009), and Darren McGavin.

Both the New York Daily News and ESPN named The Natural as the number 6 sports movie of all time.

Song: “What a Wonderful World”

Do you consider this a Christmas song? Me neither, but it's played then. Go figure. Uploaded by fs2you.org.cn.

This Louis Armstrong song, which has become iconic in its usage in movies and TV shows, sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the U.S. when it was released in 1968. The good people of the U.K. heard it differently, however, and took the song to number one across the pond.

Uploaded by jazzrecordcenter.com.

“What a Wonderful World” finally made the charts stateside in 1971, when it was released in memoriam following the death of Louis Armstrong. It took an ironic use of the song during depressing scenes in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam (which has been done to death now, producers, so stop already) to take it to the top of the American charts.

Written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, the optimistic song is only two minutes, seventeen seconds long. For reasons beyond my simple understanding, it’s now being played as a Christmas song. Could it be the first line: “I see trees of green…”? Or is it its general feeling of goodwill toward men (“I see friends shaking hands, say how do you do/They’re really saying ‘I love you.'”)?

Some of the artists who’ve covered the song include: Eddy Arnold, Diana Ross, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Natalie Cole, Eva Cassidy, Anne Murray, Joey Ramone, Coldplay, Sara Brightman, Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Celine Dion, LeAnn Rimes, and John Legend.