Daily Dialogue — July 13, 2014

“Go pick me out a winner, Bobby.”

— The Natural (1984), screenplay by Roger Towne, Phil Dusenberry, novel by Bernard Malamud

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Victory, suggested by NB.

Trivia: Loosely based on the story of Sir Percival from the Arthurian myths:

* The broken bat = the broken sword
* Pop Fisher = The Fisher King
* The team called “The Knights”

Dialogue On Dialogue: I confess any time I watch the ending of this movie, as over the top as it may seem, I get choked up. I grew up a big baseball fan. I played it, studied it, and once the Mets came along, that was it: They were my team and that was my sport. Although soccer has transplanted it over the years, there is still no sport in my estimation with a mythic quality quite like baseball.

The victorious moment in The Natural has so many layers of meaning and emotion rifling through it, but perhaps the biggest one is this: Redemption. In life, we make mistakes. Sometimes, as with Hobbs (Robert Redford), big mistakes. But if baseball teaches anything, it’s that you can make the Hall of Fame, even if you fail at bat 7 times out of 10. You always have a chance to redeem yourself.

The home run Hobbs hits to win the game is a victory for the Knights, the team and their long-suffering fans. But it is also a personal victory for Hobbs. What once seemed like a life cursed to infamy due to a deadly mistake years previous turns out to be one filled with love… a wife… and a game of catch with his grown son.

For the record, the line of dialogue provided in voice-over by the radio announcer when Hobbs hits his home run is this: “He did it. Hobbs did it.” Lines laced with subtext leaving all sorts of room for us to interpret what “it” means.

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