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SOURCE-Blu ray
Recently rewatched this,was near the start of baseball season and needed a movie to kill time before dinner one supposed spring day,IT ain't suppose to be 64 in spring down this way ....but then most of winter was in the 80s so who knows.
Set back during World War II most of the males are off fighting in the war,MR Harvey wants to keep baseball going ,using women players. Loved Garry Marshal as Mr Harvey. He isn't in the film that much but manages to steal most scenes he is in. Speaking of someone that really in the film that much but had me belly laughing with almost every line Jon Lovitz,amazingly talented man, is the guy sent around to check out players and send the best he sees to a tryout.
We see him recruit 2 sisters out from a farm,only wanting the older sister,Geena Davis,who is a Carlton Fisk level catcher. Geena refuses to go if her younger sister,Lori Petty,isn't invited. And the next morning we get a cute scene of the two sisters getting the train station as the train is starting to leave. And they catch the train throw their luggage on and are on their way to Chicago.
One of the stops we see on the way is to get Marla,I think that is her name ,she is the only child of a man,who's wife died early on. He raised her liek she was a boy. She can hit the ball anywhere in and out of the park as a right or left handed hitter. Lovitz doesn't want to bring her ,after making a few mean but funny comments about her looks. Gets talked into it and we get a nice scene of the girl leaving and talkng to her dad.
In Chicago we learn 100 women been invited. There will be 4 teams and a total of 64 players. And we slowly get introduced to the other major players in the film. Got Madonna and Rosie O'Donnel as two friends. Look close and in this scene and later in the film you will see a fairly early in her career Tea Leoni as a woman that ends on another team.
Geena,her sister,Madonna,Rosie and the other few ladies that we have been given enough time with to halfway know end up on the Rockford Peaches team.
Sadly after this is when Jon Lovitz pretty much exits the film,this Blu ray has a great deleted scene with him talking about meeting Babe Ruth.
It is the Peaches first game their Coach is gonna be a former MLB player,the drunk knees shot mess of a man Jimmy Dugan,who is pretty much a slobbering asshole. He shows up walks into the locker room,ignoring all the women. Goes takes a piss so long that Madonna borrows a watch from someone to time it and then wanders out to the dugout passing out and only moving when he scratches his balls.
And there we got not only our conflict,well besides the Big Sister vs lil sister stuff hinted at early on between Geena and Lori,we got Geena who is managing the team by herself with Jimmy passed out each game. We also get our redemption story. Jimmy trying to lead his team of women ballplayers to the championship.
The Championship game,Lori Petty asked to be traded earlier to another team,that conflict I mentioned between her and her sister got worse. Geena Davis has her husband return from the warfront the night before so I leaving. We are given a ending for that part of this story set in the past that works and you might have a few questions about a tight play at home plate.
Now this whole trip to the past is bookended by what for decades I thought was Geena Davis in old age make up as her characater in the then modern day onf 1992. When the Baseball HOF added the womens league players to the museum.
The actress isn't Geena in old age make up,I learned this when she passed. But we get some nice touching moments of the old players meeting up. And the credits roll while the song Madonna wrote for the film plays and we get clips of these now older women playing baseball.
For years this film was on cable tv at least once every few weeks. I saw that cut for a 2 hour airing time with ads version for so long that now the full movie,which is 2 hours 7 minutes,feels odd. Small scenes that I don't remember as vividly.
The Blu Ray inside the case is the same one in the solo release of this film on Blu ray I am guessing close to 20 years ago. I grabbed this one cause at a near by Dollar General for 3 or 5 bucks new. Still need to watch The Natural one day.
A League of their Own gets an A.
