Directed by Marshall, A League of Their Own is a mostly faithful historical tribute to the overlooked women like the Callaghans, who played professional baseball in the wartime 1940s for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Its cast is brilliant, featuring a post–Thelma & Louise Geena Davis, a post–Point Break Lori Petty, and Tom Hanks juuuust before he won back-to-back Oscars. It is, in my possibly blinded by love but also correct opinion, one of the best sports movies there is. And it is an honest ode to women and sisters and friendships, with a story that breezes through the Bechdel test by the end of the opening scene.I for one had no idea there had been a PBS doc in 1987, and will track that shit down.
And while "there's no crying in baseball!" is the film's most iconic moment, I've always thought it's follow-up scene was funnier.
I've mentioned this film a million times, including this from 2009:
1) any scene with that fat shit Stillwell is funny
2) after, like I said, having seen this flick 14,000 times all of a sudden just now it occurred to me that the Western Union Guy was Tom Cavanaugh, who would later be responsible for what is EASILY the dumbest, shittiest show ever made for tv, Love Monkey. Seriously, go to Hulu or whoever has it, buy the dvds, do whatever you hafta do - it's worth sitting through the handful of shows they made before realizing "this might have been a huge mistake" just to show yourself how horrible humanity can be. Side note: looked it up on IMDB. Wasn't him after all. But still, watch Love Monkey. Wow.
3) This is the obligatory "okay, let's get the hot chicks as close to being naked as we can get away with in a Tom Hanks film based in the 1940's" scene. Seriously, one day I'm gonna put together my Rockford Peaches Hot Rankings, but not now because it deserves actual care and thought (AND they all might be topped by Racine's first baseman, future sex-addict David Duchovney's wife Teá Leoni.)
4) Jimmy walks in and announces he was just doing one of my all-time favorite things: reading on the shitter.
5) I've been looking for an opportunity to slap a chick on her ass and call her a "stack of pancakes" for 17 years now. Will keep you posted.
6) This scene gave birth to maybe the greatest "lump-in-throat broken up by something incredibly inappropriate" moment; the Barber and I were watching this and as Betty Spaghetti is completely collapsed in her tears and grief the Barber brays loudly "CONGRATULATIONS Betty, you are SINGLE!!" Wow.
7) Hanks response to Betty, while touching, reminds us that when confronted with a woman who's just been told her husband's dead, the best men can usually come up with is "...alllllllllright...it's okay." Awesome.
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