The Scout (1994)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The scout |
| Original title | The Scout |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1994 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Ritchie |
| script |
Monica Johnson Andrew Bergman Albert Brooks |
| production | Albert S. Ruddy |
| music | Bill Conti |
| camera | László Kovács |
| cut |
Pembroke J. Herring Don Zimmerman |
| occupation | |
| |
The Scout (original title: The Scout ) is a US-based sports - comedy from director Michael Ritchie from the year 1994 , with Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser in the lead roles.
action
Al Percolo is a talent scout for the New York Yankees . For him the “world is like a jungle, in which you have to go in and come out with King Kong so that you can be celebrated as a hero.” He made his next King Kong with Tommy Lacy, a young pitcher . To do this, he went to the southern states, to the center of the Bible Belt , and now hopes, with all his rhetorical tricks, to convince the parents that Tommy will drop out of school in order to get an annual contract of 500,000 US dollars for New York Throwing Yankees. After a few lies, he has the parents ready and proudly presents his new protégé. But with this one after the initial enthusiasm there is not much left at all, so that he prefers to throw up in the toilet and on the field than to play successfully. This makes General Manager Ron Wilson so angry that he sends Al to Mexico as a punishment in order to find new talent in nowhere.
The journey through the Mexican province becomes the expected punishment of Percolos. After he has come to terms with the bad habits, strange customs and unusual behaviors, he discovers something that he no longer believed possible; a highly talented baseball player. American Steve Nebraska is both an incredible pitcher and batter , so Al sees the opportunity to finally get out of Mexico again. He persuades Steve to fly to New York City to play for the Yankees. But on the way there, he is released by Wilson. From Newark Airport , he calls the managers of all major league baseball teams together to arrange trial training. Meanwhile, Steve lives in Als Apartment. Although he discovers that Steve has emotional problems, he ignores them and prepares him for show training.
At this, he convinced everyone present so strongly that a competition for the player began, which the New York Yankees won thanks to a four-year contract for 55 million US dollars . Nebraska will be used from next season, unless the Yankees reach the World Series before that . However, the contract will not become legally valid until Al can provide Nebraska with psychological proof of harmlessness. But the Dr. H. Aaron doesn’t want to let Picolo chuck her in when she realizes that Nebraska is emotionally damaged and sees Al as a father figure. Al is aware of this, but needs Nebraska to finally make money again. So he does everything so that he can prepare for his game and not feel bad, so that he can finally pass the psychological test.
But the more likely it is that the Yankees will make it to the World Series, the less Nebraska wants to play at all. On the day of his first appearance, the pressure on him not to disappoint Al is so great that he can hardly stand standing on the field. In panic he runs from the square and climbs onto the roof of the Yankee Stadium . Everyone thinks this is an attempted suicide . So Al Nebraska tries to follow to the roof, where he tells him to climb off the roof. But the more he puts pressure on him, the less Nebraska wants. Only when Al gives him the choice of whether to play or not does Nebraska come down from the roof with the help of a helicopter and use all his skills to hit the opponents against the wall. Thanks to his excellent pitches, which all fly over 160 km / h, he manages a perfect game and defeat the St. Louis Cardinals , especially their last batsman Ozzie Smith .
criticism
James Berardinelli suspected that "either the script was poorly written, or larger parts simply cut out," because there was no "character development," nor were the reasons for Steve's behavior shown in the film. It's even worse because Nebraska is "shallow, effeminate, and annoying [and] its dramatic undertone is superficial." He also wondered why this "unbelievable film" could attract so many baseball celebrities. All in all, this film has an "uncomfortable humor, boring drama and an expected heroic ending." However, he also suspected that the film could have been better if it had been treated differently.
Roger Ebert has seldom seen a film that has developed so badly, because it “starts out as a terrific comedy, develops into a senseless drama and ends as a greasy adventure.” It is unnecessarily transformed into “a mixture of a melodrama and a TV show. Sickness of the Week movie. ”It would have been easier if“ the movie was consistently bad, but it makes it look like he's losing his hopes to eventually betray them. ”
In the Los Angeles Times , Peter Rainer praised the first half hour of the film, also with reference to Albert Brooks, as “captivating”. But then the film degenerates into a set piece of several "serious and uncomfortable moments," so that he says that with "so much talent," the film with its "creeping mediocrity looks like a perverted joke". In his opinion, the filmmakers “didn't seem to know what to do with the film,” and much of the continuity fell victim to the scissors.
The lexicon of international films said that it was a “conventional American saga with the obligatory happy ending.” However, she “at least has enough directing competence to entertain sports fans solidly.”
background
The screenplay by Andrew Bergman was to be filmed as early as the late 1970s. Directed by Howard Zieff and starring Peter Falk , however, filming was stopped after two weeks. In the early 1990s, Albert Brooks was commissioned to rewrite the script by Bergman. He also helped with the casting and was originally supposed to direct, which he declined. Michael Ritchie , who has already directed several sports films, was hired to direct, although he said from the start that he didn't just want to make a baseball movie. However, Brooks could not prevail against the producers, so a new ending had to be shot. According to Brooks, the movie wouldn't have had such a rocky ending .
publication
In the United States, the film only grossed a little more than 2.6 million US dollars after its theatrical release on September 30, 1994. In Germany the film was released directly on VHS on November 16, 1994 .
Web links
- The scout in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Scout at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Berardinelli : The Scout on reelviews.com, September 30, 1994, accessed April 22, 2012
- ↑ Roger Ebert : The Scout on suntimes.com of September 30, 1994 (English), accessed on April 22, 2012
- ↑ Peter Rainer: MOVIE REVIEW: Brooks Hits Fly Ball in 'Scout' but Not Over Fence on latimes.com from September 30, 1994 (English), accessed on April 22, 2012
- ^ The Scout in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on April 22, 2012
- ^ John Hartl: `Scout 'Swings, Misses - Talented Roster Can't Save This One on seattletimes.nwsource.com from September 30, 1994 (English), accessed on April 22, 2012
- ↑ Paul Brownfield: The Muse of Albert on latimes.com, August 26, 1999, accessed April 22, 2012
- ↑ Ian Spelling: Brooks Gets Into The Game As 'The Scout' on orlandosentinel.com of October 2, 1994 (English), accessed April 22, 2012
- ↑ Chris Willman: MOVIES: Out of His League, or Out of His Mind? : At Yankee Stadium, 'The Scout' steps up to the plate, and a reporter does his bit as an actor trading lines (sort of) with Albert Brooks. on latimes.com, September 25, 1994, accessed March 12, 2017
- ↑ 'Drive' Star Albert Brooks Reflects On His Career & Working With Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, James L. Brooks & More ( January 25, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ) January 11, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2012. April 2012
- ↑ McGilligan, Patrick. Backstory 5: interviews with screenwriters of the 1990s. University of California Press, 2009.
- ↑ The Scout (1994) at boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed April 22, 2012