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 Legend of Bagger Vance, The
(2000)
Director:
Robert Redford
Stars: Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, J. Michael Moncrief
Release Company:
Fox 20th Century
MPAA Rating: PG-13
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Golf Club and Golf Ball
Photographic Print
Wong, John T.
Buy at AllPosters.com
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The Legend of Bagger Vance is a movie that should have a strong connection for me. I’m a sports fan, and my dad was completely devoted to playing golf, sometimes even playing a round in the middle of January in Illinois when the fairways weren't covered with ice and snow. I once dabbled at the game and I follow Tiger Woods around at tournaments when he comes to Phoenix. So I know of golfing joys and frustrations and understand Bagger's truism that “Golf is a game that can’t be won—only played.”
Robert Redford crafts another film similar in spirit to The Natural and River Runs Through It, using baseball and fishing as metaphors for Life. The Legend of Bagger Vance throws us into the golfing lore, presenting the nobler aspects of the game as a character builder, and tosses in a love story. Yet I left the theater feeling unfulfilled.
Something is missing from a promising premise—look to Jeremy Leven's screen adaptation of Steven Pressfield's novel and Robert Redford's direction for the missing ingredients. Don't fault the three leading actors for the emptiness.
Matt Damon (as Rannulph Junuh) flashes his famous grin effectively and emotes enough tears in the breakthrough scene to show that he's retained the acting muscles that he flexed in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Will Smith continues his string of likeable and natural characters acting in the title role. Charlize Theron (as Adele Invergordon) seems less comfortable with her learned southern accent and does a goofy fainting scene near the beginning, but fills the screen adequately as the latest Redford incarnation of "the inspirational lady in white." Unfortunately, none of these actors have enough to do, as each functions more as a mere stereotype or symbol instead of a real flesh and blood character.
Outside of the framing sequences featuring Jack Lemmon as the grown up Hardy Greaves, the action takes place during the early Depression years in Savannah, Georgia after a lengthy background narrative. Adele Invergordon decides to host a celebrity golf exhibition to ease the financial burden of her deceased father’s golf resort. She proposes that this be between golfing legends Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill), but the locals insist that a Savannah boy must be included. Never mind the logic here—it's a simple plot devise to bring Invergordon’s former fiancé, Rannulph Junuh, into the film.
Junuh is the Tiger Woods of his day before going off to World War I, but he returns from the war completely disillusioned, giving up his fiancé, giving up golf, and giving up on Life itself. Junuh retreats to nightly forays of drinking and card playing at a local juke joint.
That pattern would have continued except for young Hardy Greaves, aptly played by charmer J. Michael Moncrief, who completely idolizes Junuh and links him to Invergordon. Also entering Junuh’s life just as he begins to search for his golf swing is Bagger Vance, who promises to be Junuh’s caddy and pass on his wisdom for $5.
So the questions are all set early. Will Junuh find his swing and be able to compete with the world's greatest golfers? Will he get the girl, live up to the expectations of his little hero worshipper, and learn the meaning of Life? If you await the unfolding of the tale in eager suspense, you must be a neophyte to Hollywood fare—The Legend of Bagger Vance follows typical sports movies predictably.
The film is pleasant enough. The characters are engaging and there’s some beautiful photography on the golf course at different times of day. I just wish that the film would do more.
We hardly see inside any of the characters. Will Smith comes across as a Yoda-like golfing Zen master, teaching philosophy behind Life's mysteries. When Smith tells his pupil to watch how Bobby Jones “sees the field,” the camera nicely captures the intensity of Jones' concentration, but most golfers just want to know the distance to the hole and a suggested club from his caddy. Instead, Smith gleans sayings from a Chicken Soup for Banal Golf Philospher books——“Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing.”
While this matches the metaphysics of a Redford sports fable, it's a shame that Smith doesn't have more to do than personify a plastic Jedi master. Smith actually plays golf passionately in real life and could have brought much more realism to his role. It's a real groaner when Vance disappears. While it’s supposed to be symbolic and add a layer to the spiritual meaning behind Junuh’s self-awakening, it seems more like a severe case of screenwriting laziness.
It's no surprise that Theron's role lacks development. The only female character who received juicy material to work with in a Redford movie was Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People in 1981. The camera does well with Theron, but her dialogue only allows her to carry on like she is part of the scenery.
Since Damon's character is the one that undergoes the growth, we’d expect greater development with his role. Unfortunately, the script falls short here, and leaving us to wonder what really does make him tick. From the labored narration it's revealed that Junuh is a great golf talent who goes off to fight the Great War to make the world safe for democracy, only to come back a broken and disillusioned man. That same role occurs in other World War I films—Johnny Got His Gun and Legends of the Fall. But what turns him off so completely from humanity, yet allows his essential goodness to remain? Junuh's idealism comes out during the golf match, but this acts more like a message than anything from the depths of his character.
The kid and the two star golfers also serve as props, and surprisingly one of them actually comes to life as an interesting character. This is Walter Hagen, a great golfer who likes the good life, chases women, and smokes too much. He reveals a darker side, offering a special business deal to Junuh. Fortunately for Redford, he doesn't leave Hagen hanging as the “bad” guy—that would really tick off the golf fans.
For a feel good movie with some beautiful photography, The Legend of Bagger Vance left me unsatisfied, and I'm generally a sentimental sucker for sports movies than have the Chicken Soup-style messages—Rudy, Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, and The Natural. The main actors perform as well as possible, but the flatness of the scripted characters is too much to overcome.
Golfers will relate to the movie because they already understand that this game makes a perfect metaphor for Life, and the film is a pleasant diversion. The Legend of Bagger Vance just doesn’t “find its swing.” To score really well at this game, there’s an old saying: “Drive for show, and putt for dough.”
It’s the little things than count in films too. Little things like giving us some real characters to care about. |
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