The Natural
1984, Barry Levinson
vs.
My Dinner with Andre
1981, Louis Malle
The Natural - disgusting
My Dinner with Andre - delicious
some spoilersI can't quite believe
The Natural is an admired film. From the typically saccharine Newman score that opens (punctuates and closes) the film, to Redford dully filling the simpleton golden boy role with the occasional beefcakey shots of him in odd poses, the film offers nothing but cliché on cliché riffing on the good-ol'-boy institution of baseball. the women in the film fill ridiculous roles of dangerous (when they are dressed in black) and angelic (in white). if they have "a past" they are certainly bad (Basinger's character); she also relies on her "womanly ways" to get what she wants - money, attention, men - and this is clearly bad. Iris (Close) is a cipher that is introduced as an early love and appears much later as a fuzzy angel in white that somehow gives Roy Hobbs (Redford) the power to fulfill his nature. the film closes on iris disclosing she had Hobbes' kid 16 years ago, this is somehow heartwarming, the family coming together. vomit. the film trades heavily on rigid gender roles and hierarchy. there is some crap line about "think of all the boys you've influenced", and this film is clearly about baseball for boys - as players and fans. i suspect that for every scene at the ballpark Levinson cuts to crowd reaction shots that feature head shots of boys basking in
the game. more vomit. while there is some mild critique of the greedy owners and gamblers attached to the game (mild i suspect because boys will be boys, which also forgives Hobbs any responsibility for abandoning the mother and son - gasp - out of wedlock), the greatest critique is awkwardly leveled at Max Mercy (Duvall) the baseball writer, when Hobbs sneers at him and drawls
did you ever play ball, Max?, it is certainly unclear where this problem with the baseball writer comes from, the assumption is that baseball writers "market" players and the game, whereas really, the game just is. the prominence of the locomotive as a tedious motif of the film suggests this fate-like movement of players to greatness, of women to men, and baseball to all that is right. fortunately enough for those of us that don't believe in those certainties, the film is so shabbily constructed that we're not seduced by those oppressive ideas. despite how much i hated this one, it was still fun to dip into the 80s with it
My Dinner with Andre easily critiqued the culture that
The Natural represents - one of lazy, non-thinking habit. with the exception of a minute at the film's open and close, the duration plays out at a dinner table with Wally (Wallace Shawn) and Andre (Andre Gregory) in philosophical conversation led by Andre, broadly about the meaning of life. Wally becomes more prominent as he is made uncomfortable by the stated beliefs of Andre, which plays perfectly to Andre's (and we suspect, the film's) ideas (this is also suggested by the clever self-effacement Wally sets the film up with as he introduces the audience to the conceit). Andre justifies the film's form as he critiques so much of the mass culture we are bombarded with as both common and as is - what we need is a new language, exactly what My Dinner with Andre delivers. this new language, to a new world of joy and expression - living with abandon - is suggested to be too much. we prefer to live in comfort and habit. when we are shown ourselves - and made uncomfortable - we recoil, sickened. while this film doesn't quite work as the antidote it might desire itself to be - sadly affirmed by the fitting closing of Wally on the platform:
i came home, there was debbie, home from work, and i i told her everything about my dinner with andre - it is still a breath of fresh air. sadly there aren't more like this. i'll have more to say on this one as i revisit it soon, especially once i track down the new Criterion edition with some of the additional features