A League of Their Own (1992)

I was definitely distracted during a good portion of the first hour and cannot honestly say if it was due to my lack of interest in the film or simply because I was distracted by things going on elsewhere. If I had to guess, I would say it was due to the fact that I was not, by any means, looking forward to watching this film. This changed, however. Tom Hanks has a voice that is so incredibly distinct that it was actually hard to separate him from his other roles. Hearing his voice makes me think of Woody from the “Toy Story” series, Josh from “Big” and Chuck Nolan from “Cast Away.” As much as I thought his character was enjoyable (even though I don’t believe that he was meant to be for a good portion of the film), I still found it difficult to eliminate those characters from my mind. The rest of the cast was quite interesting; Geena Davis appeared to be a no brainer for the role of Dottie Hinson, but the choices of Rosie O’Donnell for the role of Doris Murphy and Madonna as Mae Mordabito seemed weird (as I don’t typically picture them as big-name Hollywood actors and more as a talk-show host and a singer respectively). Having said that, I enjoyed their characters and I thought that Ellen Lewis and Amanda Mackey did a good job choosing those two for their respective roles. The story greatly outshined the comedy in this film. Much of the comedy, especially that involving Megan Cavanagh’s Marla Hooch, was cringeworthy. I believe that my favorite moment from the film is about forty-five minutes into the film when each of the ladies are being introduced on television. Each woman receives a grand introduction about their skills, their appearance and their romantic availability, with the exception of Doris Murphy. The other women are seen in close-ups while Murphy can barely be seen from an extreme long-shot and the announcer comments, very quickly, only about her being a great ball player. This was one of the few times that I actually laughed out loud during the film. One of the other times was when Tom Hanks’ Jimmy Dugan hit Justin Scheller’s Stilwell in the face with a baseball glove and essentially knocked him out. I thought the story in this film was unique and interesting. I would imagine that, prior to the nineties, women wouldn’t have gotten a lot of recognition in settings such as the one in the film (specifically in the role of an athlete). I know I’m late to the party, but I had never seen this film before. So, seeing a film that provides a little recognition for a group that doesn’t necessarily always receive it when it’s deserved was new and satisfying. The way in which the film was set up and shot was done fantastically. While I can’t really comment on what things were like in the 1940’s, it appeared to me that Penny Marshall and George DeTitta Jr. did a nearly perfect job of properly depicting the world in which this film would have taken place. The end of the film was aggravating. The way in which the baseball season concluded absolutely got on my nerves and I, personally, would have done the complete opposite. I’m not truly upset that I waited this long to watch the film, but I genuinely believe that it deserves the praise that it regularly receives. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104694/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt