Major League: A Classic Sports Movie
The movie "Major League" features some loveable, laughable characters that form the motley band of baseball players on the mythical Cleveland Indians. It may not have the class of "Field of Dreams," the charm of "A League of Their Own," the historical realism of "Eight Men Out," or the quality and sensual stimulation of "Bull Durham," but it is a classic sports movie on almost anyone's list of films in that genre. The plot is both funny and outrageously absurd. And there are obvious links to plot themes from other movies and from real life. For example, the new owner of the Indians, Rachel Phelps (played by Margaret Whitton), has inherited the team from her late husband. She hates Cleveland and is actually clueless about what it means to own a major league baseball team. So she deliberately stacks the team with misfits and fools, hoping that they will fail and in the meantime very few customers will pay to come and see them play. Why does she want them to fail?
Frontiere, a blond with certain affectations that gave the impression she was shallow (like Phelps) had inherited the Rams (when they were the Los Angeles Rams) from her husband, who died in a mysterious drowning accident in Miami. Back to "Major League" and Phelps; she embarrasses herself and her city by downsizing the team's jet plane to a little propeller job that hardly holds the whole rag-tag bunch. Although she didn't deliberately try to lose games, Frontiere never liked playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum, so first she moved the team to Anaheim, then eventually to St. c says you can carry your bat as long as it does not "hinder, confuse, or impede the defense"). But ironically, the Indians began playing championship ball within a few years after the movie came out. Ward, spends a lot of the movie time working with Berenger and Russo's characters, building a romantic subplot that has some familiarity for those who have seen "Bull Durham. Other notable actors in the movie include Wesley Snipes (who is very effective), Dennis Haysbert, and James Gammon. Baseball myths in this film include: no team has a deal to escape their lease if they draw fewer than a certain number of fans; in the film the character Pedro Cerrano carries his bat around the bases after he hits a homer and it's a myth that you can't do that (rule 9. Meanwhile the Indians have a catcher (actor Tom Berenger) who is over the hill and hoping for one last bit of glory. He also hopes for another chance with his one-time girlfriend (the lovely actress Rene Russo, who is in her first major role). Worse than that, the team winds up in a bus that would be pathetically lackluster even for a minor league team. After all she was a Las Vegas showgirl in her previous career, and Cleveland is a boring town. Louis Rams' former owner, the late Georgia Frontiere, also a former showgirl.
Common topics in this essay:
Charlie Sheen,
Margaret Whitton,
Bull Durham,
League Phelps,
Pedro Cerrano,
Angeles Rams,
Gammon Baseball,
Major League,
Tom Berenger,
Phelps Indians,
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los angeles,
st louis,
bull durham,
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Acceptance Essays
