Nominated for four Academy Awards, The Natural is one of Robert Redford’s best films. The stunning cinematography, coupled with Randy Newman’s bold original score, makes The Natural one of the most memorable films of his time. A classic baseball movie, based on the best-selling novel, the film has found its way into pop culture. Certainly no minor leaguer, nor major leaguer for that matter, can escape the sounds of Roy Hobbs and his mystical abilities as he steps into the batter’s box with the game on the line… The Natural is simply one of the best. baseball games. movies around – up there with Field Of Dreams, Eight Men Out, and Major League…

Written more like a fairy tale than a modern drama, The Natural follows the life and times of Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), a man trained from his earliest days to love the game of baseball by his father. When the boy’s father dies of a heart attack on the family farm, Roy uses the wood from the lightning-struck tree under which his father died to make a homemade baseball bat. In love with the girl next door, Iris Gaines (Glenn Close), Roy leaves the farm after promising that he will return to her to try out as a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. But Roy never comes back…

Mysteriously shot by a woman he meets in a hotel room, Roy’s career is nearly ended by internal injuries. When Roy resurfaces twenty years later as a forty-year-old rookie for a last-place team, he faces opposition from the team’s coach, Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley), who believes his business partner, The Judge (Robert Prosky), he is intentionally sabotaging the team in an effort to cheat Pop Fisher with his ownership actions. But when Pop Fisher discovers that Hobbs can not only play, but is the best player to ever step foot on a baseball field, the team’s losses come to an end, at least until Hobbs decides to make his life even more difficult. ..

Getting involved with Pop’s niece, Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), Roy finds his game is slipping. Despite Pop’s warnings, Roy develops a relationship with the girl who is associated with the judge to keep the team stuck in their losing ways. However, when Iris re-enters Roy’s life (along with her teenage son), Roy’s game begins to pick up. But the championship is in jeopardy when a familiar reporter, Max Mercy (Robert Duvall), comes perilously close to uncovering Roy Hobbs’ mysterious past and internal bleeding threatens the life and career of the best slugger in the game…

With a different (Hollywood-style) ending from the novel that spawned its release, The Natural is nonetheless one of the most inspiring and enjoyable movies of all time. The 1930s setting and seemingly one-dimensional characters create an innocence of bygone days that makes this movie seem like a throwback to the Frank Capra era. The musical score will literally tingle your bones, and hero-wins’ script is one to be appreciated in this age of cynical realism. All of these aspects of the movie work together to make The Natural one of the most entertaining movies around, as well as earning it the designation of a must-see movie… Put this in your DVD player and experience the magic!