On some little TV show called Lost, characters Jack and Christian Shephard kept saying 'That's why the Red Sox will never win the World Series.' That is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of baseball besides watching Major League and A League of Their Own a very, very long time ago. Why on earth then, would I pay money to see a film on a sport about which I know nothing? Aaron Sorkin. That's why.
Moneyball is directed by Bennett Miller (Capote). The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and Steve Zaillian (American Gangster) with a story credit going to Stan Chervin. The film is based on the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis.
It's 2001. The Oakland Athletics are losing players to teams with way higher budgets. The A's have a budget of about $39 million with which to buy players for their team. At the other end of the scale are the Yankees, with a whopping $114 million to entice pretty much whomever they want. Former player-now-General-Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt - The Tree of Life) likens his team to being organ donors to the rich. Baseball is a business and it's all about money.
Billy has to fill the places of three former team mates picked off by other teams. During a negotiation he encounters Peter Brand (Jonah Hill - Get Him to the Greek). Peter studied economics at Yale so why the devil is he working for a baseball team? Peter and his beautiful mind has a formula that will change the way that players are chosen. Instead of buying players, they buy wins [insert math stuff here].
The idea comes under great scrutiny from everyone at the A's including disgruntled coach Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Ides of March). Billy and Peter get the players they want at a very cheap price because no one wants the ones he has chosen, but thanks to Peter's statistics, they can't go wrong.
As I said before, I knew barely anything about baseball before going into the cinema and that in no way prevented from me enjoying the film. Sorkin and Zallian's script is just perfect, as one would expect. The characters are fully formed, I hated some, I loved others within moments of meeting them. I found myself actually caring about what happened to this team. During a time known as 'The Streak' I kept holding my breath, waiting to see what would happen next. I guess in a way it's good that I didn't know anything about baseball - no spoilers!
Brad Pitt is getting better and better with each film, though I'd love to see him do a workout video... His chemistry with Jonah Hill was great; the script had some really humourous moments in it for them to play with - laugh out loud kind of stuff. It is beautifully shot, full of heart, and a definite must see, even if you're not a sports fan.
One thing I did find sad was how quickly and easily some of the players were traded between teams.It's like they are treated like commodities and not people. I used to think that if you played for a team, you actually came from that town/city. Why bother even having place names for teams anymore? Anyways...
I do have a question... what the frak is with all the spitting???
Things I learnt: if you don't get the answer you want, hang up; always carry the one; if Brad Pitt points at you, you better talk!
Out of the park
Nine out of ten.
If you have more than a passive interest in baseball and wonder about all the money being payed on players of questionable value (Alfonso Soriano, etc) then this is the book for you. It pushes the quotation of "It isn't the amount of money spent, its what you get" even further. It proposes the fact that there are a bunch of players out there that can win with a specific skill set. Put enough of them together and you will. No matter if you agree or not, it will make you think.
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