Cobb

I remember that I said that Tommy Lee Jones could walk on the moon and wouldn't even need a spacesuit. This man is an incredible actor. He deserved the Oscar that he won for playing Lieutenant Gerard in The Fugitive. He played a tough guy with a heart of gold and was wonderful. In this film, however, he plays a very different role. EVERYONE HATED THIS BASEBALL LEGEND AND HE LOVED IT!!!That was the ad that accompanied this film. Ty Cobb may have been the greatest baseball player that ever lived. Even today, he has set records that other players have not passed. However, was he really a hero? I think that it is very interesting that this film came out about the same time that the O. J. Simpson case was grabbing the headlines because it brought into our collective minds the question. WHAT MAKES A HERO? Ty Cobb was a vicious bigot, he was a wife and a child beater and he murdered a man in cold blood. Someone said once that he was the most terrifying figure that you would ever encounter in a biography except for Adolf Hitler and some comparisons favor Hitler! They said that he makes Vince Lombardi look wishy washy! Tommy Lee Jones is excellent in portraying Cobb's egotism and cruelty but at the same time he makes you feel sorry for him. Cobb's father had been shot and killed when he was a young man (a classic Frued situation). However, it makes me think that Cobb was just a bad seed to begin with. Robert Wuhl plays Al Stump as an ignorant fool who finally just gives in and tells his friends that Cobb was a great man "know ye that a prince and a great man has fallen". He says that it wasn't because the kids of America needed heroes or some other nonsense it was because in the very end that I needed him to be a hero and I plead guilty because that is my weakness.

When sportswriter Al Stump is contracted to write the autobiography of baseball player Ty Cobb, he believes he has it made. Cobb had a reputation as a mean player who is cruel, bigoted and monstrous. Al quickly learns that this reputation was well earned and that Cobb is all the things that he is reputed to be. As the pair set off to Reno in a middle of a snowstorm, Cobb tells him the story of his life, although the bitter, angry mess that is Cobb tells him all he needs to know about the past.

When I sat to watch this film, I was aware that it was meant to be pretty harsh in terms of how it portrayed Cobb, but I didn't realise just how little of his career this film would touch upon. The film never shirks from showing Cobb to be the monstrous man he was claimed to be - either in his cruel career where he would sharpen his studs to hurt opponents or his personal life where he destroyed his family. Despite this the first half (and much of the film) is a fairly lively, almost comic affair that is deceptively enjoyable to watch. What this overall tone succeeds in doing is making the rest of the film that much more shocking and powerful as a result. The first significant turn is where Cobb gets `laid' in Reno - a moment that turns quickly from sensitive and comic to violent and scary and then almost immediately to the tragic.

This film missed out on a full cinematic release due to harsh reviews, but I really don't understand why it got them. The only thing I can think of is that the reviewers felt this was an unfair portrayal of Cobb; I do not know anything about him, nor do I care about baseball as a sport so maybe I am being conned by this film but it is certainly a very interesting character who is looked at as part of an interesting and imaginative film. The film doesn't look very much at Ty's career but instead focuses on the man - this is much more interesting and it is done through straightforward means as well as more imaginative touches such as the extension of the career newsreel to Ty's low points.

The film really works well, but I cannot imagine it being as good were it not for the fiery performance from Jones. I don't know how close it is to the real Cobb, but for the material he gets it just right. He balances the character on a knife-edge to the point that nobody could really feel sorry for him but at the same time it is difficult to hate him. Support from Wuhl is OK but not really as good - he wisely stands in the shadow of Jones. The support cast do well, with a small but important performance from Davidovich.

Overall, this is much darker than I expected from a baseball film from Shelton; however it is better for it. I cannot comment on how fair it is to the real Cobb, but regardless of this it is a really enjoyable character piece with a great central performance. It keeps the audience by swinging wildly between the comic, the dark and the tragic, keeping us with it all the time. It is a dark drama but still enjoyable and sadly great underrated and underseen.

If this movie exaggerates the nastiness of Ty Cobb, his descendants could sue. Then again if the movie is accurate, his descendants clearly despise him as much as anyone else. The weirdly symbiotic relationship between Cobb and his hapless biographer Aaron Stump is engrossing to watch, but it is Tommy Lee Jones' performance that makes the movie. The performance borders on chewing up the scenery, but it's mesmerizing.

I normally would have absolutely no interest in seeing a Baseball movie. But this is no normal Baseball movie. This is a movie with Tommy Lee Jones in it. He portrays a vicious, nasty, evil, abusive, racist, violent, rage-filled man. And his fans know, Tommy Lee Jones does this type of man as no other can. Although he is perhaps too young for the role, he was unfairly absent from the Oscar ballot that year. He made me laugh during his insane moments (of which there were many), he scared me during a particular brutal moment, and he made me cry during his weak moments. Side-kick Robert Wuhl seems a bit toady, but you eventually realize he loves Cobb <Jones as Cobb, at least> as much as you do. This is a wonderful movie. Worth renting, absolutely. For those of you whom doubt Tommy Lee Jones ability, rent Cobb, The Fugitive, and Heaven and Earth or Men in Black. This man is fantastic; he makes Cobb great.

This film is one of my all time favorites. There are some things in the film that I am less than happy about, such as the attempted rape in the hotel room in Reno. I don't believe it actually happened. I have read a few biographical books on Cobb and even though few people ever liked him, there were some things he would not do. Its strange, but many people will see somebody who is detestable, in most respects, and that person is therefore guilty of anything that can be said about him. Ty Cobb was a "son of the south" who never got over his father's murder, and he also never, ever, got over the Civil War. As I recall, he entered the major's in 1904 or 1905.

As I said above, the movie "Cobb" is best viewed as a comedy; and I think it was intended to be seen as such by the film makers. I compare it to the film, "A Clockwork Orange." In A Clockwork Orange you had a story of a guy name Alex who had things happen to him, often humorous, because of who he was. At the end of A Clockwork Orange, in the last scene, you have to admit that you could only snicker at what was on Alex's mind listening to his beloved 9th once again, since he had now been "cured." I also remember the scene in the film that you see from the Bible where Jesus is carrying the cross and is being flogged. The camera pans back to the Roman who is doing the whipping, and it is Alex.

In Cobb, the first part of the movie is one of the funniest I have ever seen; especially the ride down the hill in the snow to Reno. The film has a lot of truth in it but it actually leaves out a lot. The Scene in which you see Cobb beating up the fan who is crippled is true. But what is not said is that the whole team put itself on the line in backing Cobb in what he did; they went on strike against Cobb's suspension. So, Cobb was not hated quite like he was shown to be in the film, and the film did a discredit to Cobb in some areas. Oh, by the way, that fan that was beatup in the film was Jimmy Buffet from "Lost in Margaritaville" music fame. Jimmy is a good friend of Tommy Lee Jones.

Actually, I rather doubt that you could make a real true film about Ty Cobb that could be saleable at the box-office. Ty Cobb was not funny, and he had little sense of humor; he absolutely had no sense of humor about himself. He was a bigot. You did not dare make fun of him to his face. He could explode into a life threatening altercation at the drop of a hat. However, I do believe he was courteous to women for the most part, and that is another area I have problem with what is depicted in the film. Cobb was a Redneck and a great deal like many other Rednecks from the south at that time. In his time there was a great deal of KKK activity going on in the South and the rest of the country for that matter. Cobb reflected his times, and never changed.

Also, baseball was a lot different then than it is today. It was a completely different time. Baseball was the ticket for the poor and exploited to get out of the coal mines, the iron mills, or the farm fields. It was much more of a dog eat dog world than it is today. The average player today can move into some other endeavor if he didn't make it. In Cobb's time, it was back to the coal mines and an early death. To quote Ty Cobb: "It's no pink tea, and mollycoddler's had better stay out." Baseball was a do or die affair and there were no holds barred as long as you could get away with it.

Cobb, in many ways was not that different than many, but he was the best baseball player of his time, and quite possibly the greatest that ever lived. And, he played baseball with a fury that nobody else, before or since, has played with. Unfortunately, he could not turn off that fury when he wasn't playing the game. For Ty Cobb, baseball was absolute war and he devoted himself 100-percent to playing it that way and he also devoted his mental capacities 100-percent to the study of getting the edge on his opponents. He would do or say anything to get you out of your game. Cobb could also circle the bases faster than anyone who has ever played the game, with his spikes sharpened. He was rather big for his time and was about the same height as Babe Ruth. Couple that size with that speed and the grit in his demeanor and nobody ever enjoyed or looked forward to playing against him. "What a ballplayer."