61*

61*
by Billy Crystal

61*

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DVD details

Actor: Anthony Michael Hall, Barry Pepper, Bruce McGill, Richard Masur, Thomas Jane
Director: Billy Crystal
Brand: Team Marketing
Producer: Billy Crystal
Producer: Carl S. Griffin
Producer: Charles J. Lindsay
Producer: Joe Seldner
Producer: Nellie Nugiel
Producer: Robert F. Colesberry
Writer: Hank Steinberg
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-11
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Hbo Home Video

DVD Reviews of 61*

DVD Review: Perfect Gift For My Dad!
Summary: 5 Stars

I got this movie for my father. He turned 61 this year and is a huge Bronx Bombers' fan and his favorite player is Roger Maris.

DVD Review: great movie and in great shape
Summary: 5 Stars

I love this movie. It is the true story of the M&M boys. I received it within a week of placing my order and it was in mint condition (it was advertized as new, so it should have been).Real cheap price too. I will be buying a lot more from this seller.

DVD Review: An amazingly true story of two of baseball's best.
Summary: 5 Stars

61* is the true story of one of baseball's finest moments, the race for Babe's homerun record. Back then baseball was America's favorite past time and America's favorite sport. People absolutely loved the game. And if you were a Yankee fan it was even better. When Babe set the record for 60 homeruns it was in 1927 and he was a Yankee. Well skip ahead 34 years later to 1961, and the two stars hammering for the record just happen to both play for the Yankees. Roger Maris (Barry Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane), two of the big hitter for the Yankees.

Mickey is adored by the fans. He's got the charming good lucks and the play boy attitude. Roger is liked, but not like Mickey. He's a family man, but he's got the personality of a tree when it comes to talking to reporters and looking good for the on field cameras. Mickey has been with the Yanks for around 10 years now, while Roger was brought over from Kansas City a year ago. So of course the fans are going to have their favorites. But as the race gets farther along, the favoritism gets out of hand and really becomes hatred. Death threats, kidnapping his kids threats, on-the-field abuse from fans, reporters lying about things he said and does. It was really crazy to see these events happen.

And Roger didn't deserve it. From the beginning we see how great Roger is and how good of a friend he is. We see that Roger and Mickey are really good friends and even become better friends as the year goes on. Roger just loves the game of baseball and really wants to win the series, but he knows they can't do it without Mickey. The thing is Mickey lives up to his playboy antics and is constantly abusing his body with alcohol and women. He comes home at any time of the hour, drunk as a skunk, and then has to wake up to play ball with an enormous hang over. Roger, being the friend he is, asks Mickey to move in with him and Bob Cerv (another player) at their NY `home' to hopefully get Mickey to straighten up his act. When Mickey agrees, you can see the improvement in not just his game but also Rogers game. And so the race begins between two amazing players and amazing friends.

I really liked this movie and consider it one of my favorite sports movies ever. What makes it even better is that it's a true story. It really was a lot of fun to witness the interactions of these two iconic legends. To see the joy of the game with these two, but also the pressure it brought. It was a lot of fun to watch each of them root for each other and try to make the other one better than themselves, even though the press was telling the fans they were arguing and hating each other. There is so much I could say about this movie, but I really think I would just bore you because I would type out the whole darn movie if I could.

There are only two things I didn't like about the movie. One is a scene where Roger Maris breaks down from the pressure and begins to cry a little. It just felt weird and the music didn't help. And the other thing is, is that there is a good amount of cussing thrown around, especially the F bomb. It doesn't bother me at all, and make the movie feel even more real to me, but I know how some people and some parents are about cussing. So just be warned if you are that type of person. It's not used to much, and it's used in places you'd expect, but I'm just letting you know.

In the end, if you are a lover of good sports movies, baseball movies, true life movies, or even dramas, then definitely own this movie. This is what baseball is all about. Not what we have nowadays on T.V.

P.S. - Man I miss playing baseball. Watching this movie really brought back some memories. I can just hear the crowd, the bats cracking, the smell of the dirt and grass, the smell of the leather of the gloves. Oh to be young again.

DVD Review: Excellent Biography of Roger Maris
Summary: 5 Stars

Video shows the pressures on Roger Maris during his pursuit of the single season homerun record. Also great for Mickey Mantle fans. I highly recommend this film. No fluff, just the real stuff.

DVD Review: great drama, great actors, great story
Summary: 5 Stars

As a big Barry Pepper fan I found another proof for him being such an amazing actor. But it is not just about him, this is a moving interesting tale of 1960s NY baseball, told with great love for the game and its players. And I don't even like baseball!

Description of 61*

Summer, 1961: Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle are on pace to break the most hallowed record in U.S. sports, Babe Ruth's single-season 60 home runs. It's a big story, and the intense, plain-spoken Maris is the bad guy: sports writers bait him and minimize hi

61* is an endearing ode to the baseball days of yore when the press was the enemy, salaries were in check, and breaking records with bat and glove took on Ruthian proportions. In 1961 baseball expanded its season from 154 games to 162, allowing weaker pitching into the major leagues and two New York Yankees teammates--the colorless Roger Maris and golden boy Mickey Mantle--to make an assault on the sport's ultimate record: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs. To add to the stew, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced any record set in the last eight games of the season wouldn't count toward the official record; records had to be achieved in 154 games.

Director Billy Crystal guarantees success for his movie in the perfect casting of the leads. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan's religious sniper) is deft as Maris, and Thomas Jane is a perfect Mantle, a superman in a Yankee uniform. Despite the differences between family man Maris and hard-living Mantle, they form a rewarding friendship amid the media and fan frenzy. The shy Maris took the brunt of the storm, even facing boo-birds in his home stadium. Crystal and first-time writer Hank Steinberg keep the pace moving quickly between the field, the locker room, the press box, and the home front. The film never tries to dazzle with more than the facts (and it softens Mantle up a bit), yet it belongs on the short list of grand baseball movies. --Doug Thomas

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