I saw “61*” on HBO Saturday night. Pretty good overall, particularly the attention to detail. The look of the old Yankee Stadium was recreated brilliantly, I really liked the catcher’s eye view of Mantle hitting homers off upper deck in right.
I enjoyed the story, and while I don’t agree with one reviewer who called it the “greatest sports movie ever made”, I think it’s in the top 10.
I have to agree with you, soup. Some camera angles (the ones you mentioned, more specifically) are remarkable. Excellent casting overall and great performances by the two main characters (uncanny resemblance to Maris and Mantle).
AND
I checked my watch only twice during the film. That, to me, is the ultimate mark of a great flick:).
Kudos to Billy Crystal for a splendid job. The guy loves baseball, and it showed.
I really enjoyed it, too.
Anyone know how historically accurate the vilification of Maris by the NY media was? I knew that he wasn’t extremely popular, but that movie made seem it far worse than I thought that it was (although it’s very possible I never had the full story).
It’s certainly true that Roger Maris was a small town boy from North Dakota who didn’t like New York City, and didn’t like being the constant focus of media attention. He was very happy in Kansas City… and after leaving the Yankees, he had a few low-key but productive seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. By most accounts, he liked St. Louis, too.
Still, while he didn’t like New York City, by most accounts I’ve seen, it was FAR from accurate to suggest that the media treated Roger Maris badly in 1961. In fact, Maris was treated very kindly by the New York press… in 1961, that is. Moreover, Mickey Mantle was FAR from a media darling.
It was in 1962 that things went to Hell- supposedly, he got into a tiff with Jimmy Cannon (then the most powerful sportswriter in New York) during the Spring of 1962, and Cannon never forgave him. Cannon used his column to snipe at Maris for the rest of his time in New York. Maris took this very personally, and began to shun the press, which only led the rest of them to conclude that Cannon was right.
The fact that Maris NEVER had another season REMOTELY as good as he had in 1961 led many in the press to dismiss him as a fluke.
I loved it and will be buying it if it’s released on VHS or DVD.
As for the vilification by the press, I read a book titled 1964 which is about the Cards vs the Yankees in the World Series that year and reasons why the Yankees were defeated. There’s a chapter that goes into great detail about the 1961 season and Mantle & Maris. The book claims that the press didn’t warm to Maris because he only liked to talk about the game and not his personal life, whereas Mantle tended to be much more outgoing. However the book falls far short of describing the type of vilification of Maris that the film suggests.
I watched it the other night and liked it. It’s pretty good, for a baseball movie. However, the pacing was funny; an hour into the movie Maris had already reached 50 homers.
I didn’t really think the frame story with McGwire was necessary, either. I’d reckon that most casual baseball fans are equally as familiar with Maris/Mantle as McGwire.
Montfort-
The interesting thing about the McGwire portion was the study in contrast.
There was wild enthusiasm when McGwire broke the record: a packed stadium full of cheering fans, hugging his kid, oppossing players congratulating him.
Maris didn’t receive this support. When he approached the 154-game record, he was booed, and the opposing manager brought in a knuckle-ball pitcher specifically to stop Maris from breaking the record (even going so far as threatening to fine the pitcher if he threw a fastball). And at the final game of the season, when he hit #61, the owner of the Yankees is shown complaining about the less-than-capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium.
The difference? Maris broke a record held by the god of baseball, Babe Ruth. McGwire broke the record held by Maris - a good, solid player who had one phenomenal season.
I think another point of the McGwire thing was to show that McGwire was breaking Maris’s record, not Ruth’s (i.e. that there were no longer two sets of records).
I thought it was a good movie overall, but not a great one. I am guessing that there will be a difference in how people view the movie based on age.
I enjoyed it. Maris, Mantle, and Ralph Houk were seen in the best posible light. Stand up guys. I think they did a little bit of a “Mommie Dearest” (take a few shots now that they’re dead) on Joe Dimaggio and Claire Ruth.
The other night while watching the A’s-Blue Jays, they cut to Jay’s broadcaster and former MBL pitcher Tom Candiotti, and mentioned that he portrayed Hoyt Wilhelm. Billy Crystal got a knuckle ball pitcher instead of an actor to play a knuckle ball pitcher. I missed the credits. Glad they mentioned it.
Is it worth me watching? I have HBO at my mom’s house, and I have been wanting to catch tis one for a while, but I am at my Dad’s right now, so i am SOL.
Wait, enlighten me here. Between Roger Maris and Biceps McGuire, I thought Henry Aaron hit 61, without the asterisk because he achieved it in fewer games than Maris did, maybe in fewer games than Ruth did. Am I right or wrong?
Rilch,
Aaron broke Ruth’s lifetime homerun total (714, I think), and wound up with 760 or thereabouts. He never broke Ruth’s single-season record as Maris, McGwire and Sosa have done.
Sir
I see. Thank you.
Oddly enough, Henry Aaron NEVER even hit 50 homers in a season, let alone 60.
Aaron’s greatness lay in his consistency and his amazing durability. Aaron hit 40+ homers almost every year, for a looong time. He also took much better care of his body than Mickey Mantle did, which is why Mickey Mantle was washed up by age 36 while Aaron was still hitting 40 homers at the age of 40.
When I was first starting to follow baseball (1968 or so) everyone seemed to think Willie Mays would be the one to break Babe Ruth’s record. Henry Aaron was an afterthought. But while Mays at his peak was a lot better than Henry Aaron ever was, Aaron stayed at his peak a lot longer.
He hit a total of 755. His best season was 1971, when he hit 47 HRs (in only 139 games). He hit 40 or more HRs in eight different seasons. (Stats from http://www.mlb.com.)
I haven’t seen the movie yet. Don’t tell me how it ends. 