‘The Natural’ (1984)
In spite of the A-list stars — Glenn Close, Robert Redford and Kim Basinger — Barry Levinson creates a great film in his adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s 1954 novel, ‘The Natural‘. Adapted from for the screen by Robert Towne (‘Chinatown‘ (1974), ‘The Firm’ (1993)) , Levinson manipulates these high-dollar performers like the actors in a Cassavetes film — the characters they play are caricatures of the performers themselves.
Redford is the faded golden-boy; Basinger is the Monroe-like gold-digger to his DiMaggio; Close plays the homely high-school sweetheart who ultimately redeems him. Losers all, but each character has a comprehesible motivation. These three cannot be reduced to type: their role are too human, too much like normal people to whom unfortunate things sometimes happen.
There is a strong skein of Wim Wenders in Levinson’s manipulation of the scene – the shooting locations take on characters character roles and Levinson has a marked preference for drama over spectacle and allows for long moments of silence.
A small film becomes a large one by virtue of it’s psychological depth. Malamud, Towne and Levinson evoke a mythology here that plays somewhere between the Old Testament and Magical Realism. The references are both literary and popular — there are literally smoking guns, prodigal sons, parentless children, wounds-in-the-side and lots of Golden Bough. While many of these symbols and referents may amount to nothing more than McGuffins, they open up the film and allow up to move from act-to-act; rather than the too familiar chronicle of a faded star, the story becomes a playground or rhizomatic connections – a rich loam of competing narratives – sports biopic, religious allegory, romance and suspense film – each vying for a spot at the finish.
Credit here certainly also goes to Robert Towne for his economy – writing what only needs to be said and not burying the important activity in the supernumerary cast members.
‘The Natural’ is a modern fairy-tale, complete with healthy doses of noir.
Rating: 
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment