User reviews

There was nothing hokey overly melodramatic about this story, and usually you get that with a sports story or about a good person dying. In this case, we have a combination of the two.

This is simply a mellow, sweet-natured human interest story well-acted by the two main stars: Michael Moriarity and Robert De Niro. Both are nice to watch, playing very easy-going non-offensive characters.

Moriarty plays a pitcher on a pennant-contending team who lovingly looks after his not-so-smart-but-dying teammate and friend (De Niro). By today's standards, it's slow-moving but I never got bored with it in several viewings. As nice a film as it is, there is one warning: a lot profanity by the manager (Vincent Gardenia) but it's not a kids' movie anyway.

I watched it years ago and then again recently when it came out on DVD. It's hard to get excited about it, yet it's a memorable story that I could never get out of my head. We all wish we had friends like the one Moriarty portrays here.

Most of us, at the end of the 20th century, know Robert DeNiro as an actor who has portrayed countless tough guys onscreen, in movies such as Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Mean Streets, and even up to Ronin. But before Bobby was cast (and cast and cast and cast)as Hollywood's chief badfella, he co-starred in this adaptation of a novel by Mark Harris as a simpleton baseball catcher who may be dying.

Many people feel that playing a sick or handicapped character is relatively easy for an actor, but in truth there's more to acting than simply limping or slurring one's speech. DeNiro's character, we learn early on, is dying - just when his chances of sticking with the big club are tenuous at best. His best friend is played by Michael Moriarty, whose character is a seasoned, talented pitcher. Moriarty learns of DeNiro's fate during an off season, and decides to do all he can to help his friend, to make what life he has left a pleasant one.

Both actors turn in magnificent performances, but you can't beat this film for an excellent foretelling of a major talent. By 1973, DeNiro had acted in a few movies (including a couple from his once and future director, Brian DePalma), but it was his astounding work in this film that really put him on the map. His Bruce Pearson isn't just a simpleton for whom the audience is supposed to feel a truckload of sympathy - there are many television movies that do just that - he's a multilayered person. DeNiro squeezes more emotion out of a single sideways smile than many actors can do in their entire careers. What's more, even though you the viewer know what Pearson's fate is, you're no less pulling for him.

Call this a tearjerker, and you'd be correct. But ultimately, DeNiro's conviction and a solid script put this far above most other films of this genre.

Henry 'Author' Wiggen (Michael Moriarty) is a pitcher and his best friend Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro) is a catcher on the major league baseball team New York Mammoths. Bruce is told that he's terminally ill. Henry can be pretty hard on the slow-witted Bruce but he's protective of Bruce especially from Bruce's gold-digging girlfriend Katie. Henry takes lower pay to keep Bruce on the team. Manager Dutch Schnell (Vincent Gardenia) is not happy but forced to accept it. It's a baseball season of ups and downs.

De Niro is still an unknown at this point. The on-screen friendship is fine. They would be better served with more screen time together. The baseball action isn't much. Vincent Gardenia is great although I would have liked some more compelling teammates.

New York Mammoth star Pitcher Henry Wiggen (played by Michael Moriarty of future "Law and Order" fame) learns from that his friend and catcher Bruce Pearson (a young Robert De Niro) is terminally ill. Because Bruce is a marginal player and, more importantly, a vulnerable, simple soul, Henry sets out to protect his compadre from the wrath of his teammates, management, and the predators of Life. Upon learning of his friend's condition, Henry negotiates as part of his contract that Bruce will remain with the team for the entire season. He also strives (and this is perhaps the biggest crux of conflict of the film) to keep Bruce's condition their secret for reasons far greater than mere confidentiality. Henry doesn't know what the fallout would be from disclosure, and one of the best scenes in the film is a grilling he gets when the manager suspects that he is hiding something. Henry is also there as Bruce deals with the unsettling prospects of terminal illness. Although the setting is baseball (and writer Mark Harris is one of the best authors of baseball fiction) the story is really about friendship and what a man will do for a friend when he knows that more is at stake than winning games. Younger viewers might not relate to a number of things that date the film somewhat, such a a player negotiating his contract without an agent and Henry's offseason moonlighting as an insurance salesman (yes, players really did do that back before free agency). Any baseball fan will appreciate the footage of Old Yankee Stadium before it was renovated in 1974-75, drastically changing the character of the legendary old park. There is an eerie real-life foreshadowing of the fate of another New York catcher, also wearing Bruce's number 15. It must be said that the supporting roles, such as the team's salty old manager Dutch (Vincent Gardenia), and Bruce's gold digging girlfriend Katie (Ann Wedgeworth), are portrayed extremely well.

Robert DeNiro looked so young in this picture I hardly recognized him and the role he played is unbelievable. This is however, a good baseball film with many veteran actors giving great supporting roles. In this picture Bruce Pearson, (DeNiro) plays the role of a simple minded catcher who was made fun of by all of the team players except one guy, Henry Wiggen, (Michael Moriarty) who stood by Bruce and gave him all the moral support and good advice to deal with his situation. It seems when the players got off of Bruce's back, he was able to hit home runs and had more pep as a catcher. Henry brings Bruce to the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis and there was bad news for poor Bruce. Henry agreed not to tell anyone about the findings at the clinic and this is when the story gets funny at times and it hits a rather sad note. Entertaining film and great to see DeNiro just starting a great career on the silver screen. Enjoy

I first saw this movie when it was first released to TV in the early '70s. Although I had seen De Niro in some films, such as Mean Streets, he was really unrecognizable in this part as a Georgia Hillbilly. At the time, I thought the film was insightful, funny and extraordinarily touching.

I've seen he film several times over the years, and each time I've found the movie to be even more entertaining and moving. When a movie deals effectively with real life, as this does, the viewer will find different insights at different stages of their own life. The first time I saw it, I was struck by the insights into the world of baseball. As I've aged, I'm more impressed by the film's insight into the human condition.

Being a baseball fan for 30+ years; i really enjoyed this movie, it's a good baseball story about a relationship between the ace pitcher and a catcher, the movie features various quirky players and such, but mainly focuses on these two. If you're not a baseball fan , then maybe the story about the friendship between the two will draw you in,, if on the other hand you are looking for lots of action, crashes , stuff like that,, look elsewhere, this is one of those movies that is very touching to the soul, makes you think about life in general; Robert Deniro gives an excellent performance as Pearson the catcher, maybe not his best performance but way better than average,, the rest of the cast features Michael Moriarity, a small bit from Danny Aiello, and a few others who i can't remember, but all in all it was a good touching story about a catcher trying to help his team with the World Series. A thumbs up from this baseball fan.

DeNiro (as Bruce Pearson) and Moriarity (as Henry "Author" Wiggen) really shine in their roles and have great chemistry in this story about a journeyman catches stricken with Hodgkin's disease, and his friendship with his star pitcher teammate. I don't understand why this doesn't get more mention when people talk about great baseball movies. Maybe it's because while baseball dominates the scenes, it's not really a baseball movie.

A few scenes really stand out to me in this movie as moving and really well done.

1) Near the opening, Bruce burns all of his old press clippings at home after getting the diagnosis. It's as if since his future looks limited, his past no longer has meaning to him.

2) Bruce's father, a simple man like his son, visits and has a talk with Wiggen. Mr. Pearson's struggle to accept his son's fate and then coming out with the words to express himself, coupled with Wiggen's emotions during and after the talk is a marvelous scene.

3) The pennant clinching game. IThe ump sees Bruce struggling and uses the excuse of brushing off the plate to talk to him. "Don't slow down the game. You all right? You don't look all right." Wiggen is at his best, pouring in strike after strike as the pace picks up, and then it abruptly goes to slow motion with a pop up in front of the plate. The whole game sequence is very well done.

The music really set the tone for the movie too, but if you don't like "Streets of Laredo" you won't appreciate it.

Good sports movies are hard to come by. Sure, there are a lot that are pretty decent, the ones that truly strike a chord seem to have been made mostly in the 70's, and this one is included. DeNiro plays a struggling catcher on the Yankees who finds out hes's dying, and Moriarty plays the pitcher. They're two completely different characters who form a bond with each other throughout the last year or so of the catcher's life. And though it still somehow gets centered mainly on Moriarty until the pivotal points of the movie, DeNiro still amazes, as the slow witted catcher with a problem that he doesn't want to tell anyone, so as not to get pity. This is real story with baseball as the backdrop, and that's how it should be done, to get real sports movies.

Sickly catcher for a pro-baseball team is cared for by the team's pitcher. Would-be acting showpiece for a group of talented men who are ultimately defeated by the slow-going pace of a melodrama that uses suffering as a noble badge. Mark Harris adapted his own novel, originally filmed as a television drama in the 1950s with Paul Newman. The rough-edged sentimentality is wearing, and some of this is rather cringe-worthy, although leads Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro are adequate. Vincent Gardenia is excellent as the team's surly coach--a clichéd role, but one which inherits Gardenia's general wit as a character actor. Fine cinematography, a few strong moments, but the movie is talky and mopey, and ultimately more puzzling than moving. ** from ****

I originally saw this movie when it first opened in early 1973 . I haven't seen it in many years but fondly remember it as one of those pictures that leaves an indelible impression. Based on an early '50s novel by Mark Harris about a fictional N.Y.City Baseball Team (The Mammoths) the movie's focal point is the friendship between the team's star pitcher and a dying catcher, a naive, backwoods boy lacking in the social graces.

I'll never forget Michael Moriarty's Henry Wiggen in a scene where he reaches out to embrace a distraught, frightened Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro), trying his best to console his dying roommate. " We're all dying " , Wiggen says to his friend, and thus begins and shortly ends one of the most tender scenes ever filmed between two men, in a movie about baseball, no less. And yet it's really not about baseball at all; yes, there are the obligatory scenes of the team at play and a humorous locker room speech by the team's crusty manager (the wonderful, late Vincent Gardenia, who received a supporting actor Oscar nomination for this film). There is plenty of humor to go along with the pathos in this story but pathos wins out. Death hangs over everyone's head in this picture : the message is pure and simple . To quote the movie's poster tag line, "Nothing is more important than friendship, not even death". I suppose a movie like this wouldn't work as well nowadays. The team support and management along with ridiculous sky rocketing salaries and apathetic treatment of sports fans has changed everything for the worse; this sweet little movie touches on a more innocent time. BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY will not enter the record books as one of the all time greats: it's too pat and maudlin at times (the locker room scene where Piney Woods plaintively strums the title song on the guitar is overkill, although it gets to me every time). But Moriarty and De Niro and a timeless reminder of the importance of love and friendship make this an unforgettable film.

Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro star in a little bit quirky and somewhat sobering baseball movie. De Niro plays Bruce, a catcher who is not too bright and not all that good, and has recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Moriarty plays Henry, a starting pitcher who is good and is the only one who knows about Bruce's illness. The two of them play for the New York Yankees largely because of Henry's doing. He made his own contract conditional that Bruce be on the team with him.

The movie is a chronicling of their season with narration from Henry interspersed in. Henry was going out of his way to keep Bruce's secret and he had to be real creative in doing so. The movie meandered a bit not having any real focus. At times it was almost like a "Seinfeld" episode. The real premise of the movie shined through by the end which made the movie a lot better.

This movie left me wondering what I missed. The script, I suspect, is to blame. I developed no empathy for any of the characters, including the one dying of cancer. I didn't understand most of the relationships. Why did the pitcher have such concern for the catcher? Nor did I understand why the catcher suddenly became a phenomenal hitter. This movie went no where to me. It always seemed very flat.

One of the posters on here who liked it spoke of the dialogue. The dialogue, also flat, often seemed very artificial to me. I couldn't imagine anyone talking like that.

I feel as if I missed something here, but I have no idea what. This movie just didn't do anything, as far as I was concerned.

I watched 'Bang the Drum Slowly' on AMC the other night and it was nothing I expected. I figured that De Niro would be the big, tough talkin' hot shot (which he does very well anyway), but instead, he's the dumb country boy.

The friendship the two men create is the big reason to watch this movie. As the hardships occur, the stronger the frienship gets. Robert De Niro does an outstanding job, in one of his first real big hit next to 'Mean Streets', as Bruce Pearson, the ignorant country boy (you can tell he used the same accent in 'Cape Fear') from Georgia who is dying of Hodgkin's Disease, and Michael Moriarty is also fantastic as Henry Wiggen, the tough talkin' hot shot New Yorker.

The two men are trying to keep De Niro's illness a secret so that it won't spill out into the media, so they have to find excuses for going to hospitals and such. The film is a powerful drama, yet it also has a good dose of comedy. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes great acting and unbreakable friendship. 9/10

This is another review from my mini-marathon of original live TV classics and the movies they made of them. I've done "Marty", "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight" now "Bang the Drum Slowly" and will do "The Days of Wine and Roses". I'd love to see the original "12 Angry Men" with Bob Cummings but it doesn't seem to be available. I'd love to see a cable channel devoted to these old shows, even some non-classics if they represented early work by famous actors, directors and writers, (as so many of them did). But this will do for now.

I love the simplicity of the 1956 US Steel Hour production of this play. Paul Newman, in one of his first big roles, addresses the audience on a darkened stage and explains why "he", (Henry Wiggins, a star pitcher for the New York Mammoths), wrote this story of what happened to his catcher and friend, Bruce Pierson, (Albert Salmi in what would become atypically fine performance), who succumbed to an unnamed disease that somehow didn't prevent him from playing baseball for another season. Pierson didn't want the ball club or his teammates to know about his condition because they'd probably get rid of him. Wiggin agrees to keep it a secret until the end of the season but ultimately can't. There's really only 4-5 scenes in this simple, bittersweet story and Newman introduces each, much like the stage manager he would play decades later in "Our Town". It's short and sweet, a simple story simply told.

The film, made 17 years later, "opens" the play up with large numbers of outdoor sequences, many of them filmed in an empty-looking Shea Stadium. Side characters are given much more play and there are more humorous sequences included. The big gain is a classic performance as the manager by the great character actor, Vincent Gardenia. But on the whole, the additional time given to the story and the outdoor sequences add very little to the basic story, ("The Musical Mammoths"?!?). Newman's and Salmi's basic warmth comes across better than Michael Moriarity's rather diffident and Robert DeNiro's intense method-acting performances.

As always with these old shows, it's fun to see some famous actors early in their careers. That would include the leads but also George Peppard as "Piney Woods", the southern hayseed who is a threat to replace Pierson in the teleplay along with Clu Gulager, Bert Remsen and Arch Johnson as other teammates. In the film, Heather McRae is Moriarity's wife and Ann Wedgeworth DeNiro's girlfriend while Barbara Babcock, 20 years before "Dr. Quinn", looks young and beautiful, like a fashion model as the team owner.

"Bang the Drum Slowly" is among the best baseball movies. For my money, it might be the very best. Its story is simple - Henry Wiggen, the intelligent and savvy ace pitcher of the New York Mammoths, learns that his best friend on the team, simpleminded, kindhearted catcher Bruce Pearson, has terminal cancer and a year to live. A baseball season to live.

This is a story about friendship and about being a decent human being. It's about how, as Bruce laments, there's just no sense to his death. The movie is built around a baseball season, and it's certainly a baseball movie, but it's a rare sports movie where the human drama isn't clichéd and predictable but actually makes the film. The baseball elements are well-done, to be sure, the teammate's show a realistic mix of cockiness and genuine concern for a teammate, and the plot involving the manager's spirited investigation of Bruce's off-season activities, not yet knowing he was at a cancer hospital, is funny and realistic at the same time. However, the reason to watch this is the simple but powerful human drama - the baseball season can't help but take a back seat to that.

Aside from the stellar story, this movie is memorable for the acting. Of course, Robert Deniro gives an excellent performance in a role that's quite different than what he'd become known for. But Deniro as the kindhearted, simpleminded Pearson really shows off his range. As overlooked as the film itself is Michael Moriarty's top-shelf performance as Wiggen. While Moriarty evidently has less range (he plays Wiggen much as he would play Ben Stone in Law & Order two decades later, right down to calling everyone "sir") Moriarty's intelligent, noble and soul-searching demeanor is naturally perfect for the role. And I can't forget to mention Vincent Gardenia as manager Dutch Schnell. Playing any other character, Gardenia's work here would have been absurd, but his zany acting is totally appropriate for a famous baseball manager, a line of work where flamboyant, over-the-top behavior is essentially a job requirement, regardless of what era of baseball you're talking about.

While I don't know if we could ever definitively determine a "best" baseball movie, because a lot of it comes down to personal taste. But for me, "Bang the Drum Slowly" is everything I want in a baseball movie. I think any fan of the game owes it to themselves to check this film out if they have the chance.

All performances are very low-key, and the movie has surprisingly little energy or tension. Just like Moriarty's character says, "If you knew you were dying, you'd think you'd live it up. But you don't." The movie takes this tone as it pushes Moriarty's pitcher on a journey of self-discovery. The complexity of his character is so subtle and played with such low energy that it's easy to miss (Moriarty comes off like a poor man's John Voigt).

His decision not to let anyone else know that De Niro is dying, for example, is based on his own prejudices and limitations as a human being. The fact is, De Niro's catcher gets treated better when people find out. He becomes a better player and the team begins playing like a team. We find out that even he treated De Niro badly before he knew. His guilt must have been tremendous, because it was his counsel that gave De Niro the ability to become a better player - what would have happened had he done this earlier? Imminent death makes people do strange things.

There are many things wrong with this movie, such as the manipulative musical score and the shockingly poor cinematography. I was also surprised at how little it was able to capture the game of baseball. This is one of the few movies of this era that might have benefitted from being made either twenty years earlier or later. But the heart and head of this picture are both in the right place.

This is an astonishingly good movie. I had read the book at the time of its publication and thought it would make a play in the "Mr. Roberts" genre. I had not considered it as a movie, in the 50's I. don't think it could have been.

Bang the Drum Slowly is set in the world of baseball but it is not a baseball movie. However, I don't think it would have worked in today's free-agency baseball world. The characters here are all tightly tied to one club. That is the only tie they have to each other until the events of the plot unfold. One of its marginal players is terminally ill, but still functional. His roommate, a star pitcher, has the clout and the heart to make the team retain him, while not revealing why it is important to him. Much of the humor in the movies evolves from the attempts of the team's coach to find out his motive.

Robert DiNiro plays the dying catcher. He is dumb and innocent and takes everything at face value. The key line, which he delivers is "I guess everybody would be nice to everybody if they knew they were dying." That's what this movie is about. There is a great musical score, a dramatic peak in the use of the title song, and great editing. Michael Moriarty in the lead has the best role he was ever given and suits it perfectly. Robert DeNiro underplays the dying catcher to perfection and Vincent Gardenia, as the coach, plays a pretty stock role just as required.

There is nothing to criticize about Bang The Drum Slowly. It's simply wonderful. And somehow, unnoticed.

DeNiro accent changes during his performance. Some scenes he's talking like trailer trash the next like a Italian from the Bronx. This a boring movie. Better to watch the worst MAJOR LEAGUE or BAD NEWS BEARS sequels. They should have used real star ball players from that time they would have improved the movie. They could have had Bench,Rose,Reggie,Seaver,Ryan. But instead we get Yankee uniforms that look like grandma stitched them together. This movie is in need of some pop songs and some sex scenes to give this movie some life. The movie doesn't have the heart of BRIAN'S SONG which also about a dying athlete and his friendship with his team mate.