Cobb
by Ron Shelton
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DVD details
Actor: Lolita Davidovich, Ned Bellamy, Robert Wuhl, Scott Burkholder, Tommy Lee JonesDirector: Ron Shelton
Brand: Team Marketing
Writer: Ron Shelton
Producer: Arnon Milchan
Producer: David V. Lester
Producer: Karin Freud
Producer: Kellie Davis
Producer: Tom Todoroff
Writer: Al Stump
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 128 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Tyrus Raymond Cobb played baseball like a man charging a machine-gun nest. He gave no quarter, took no prisoners. And when his Hall of Fame career was over, Ty Cobb attacked life the same way. Tommy Lee Jones portrays the legendary - and equally cheered and detested - Georgia Peach in this acclaimed film from writer/director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Dark Blue), also starring Robert Wuhl and Lolit
DVD Reviews of Cobb
DVD Review: Wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know why, but I usually love watching films about sports. Give me "Rudy," "The Natural," "Major League," "The Longest Yard," or a host of other similarly themed movies any day. Oh, there are a few exceptions, such as John Goodman's pathetic "The Babe," but I even like Penny Marshall's femfest "A League of Their Own." It's surprising that I enjoy watching these sorts of films; I don't play sports and, with the exception of seeing Nebraska's college football team routinely trounce all opponents (Yeah, it's been a tough few years, but we got rid of Frank Solich so watch out for the Huskers in the future), I never go to games or watch them on television. Perhaps I like films dealing with this topic because the pictures use sports as a metaphor for more important themes in life. "Rudy," for example, served as an excellent lesson on the value of perseverance and hard work. This 1994 film, the wonderfully bombastic "Cobb," gives us a different sort of message. The movie spends a lot of time showing that talent and character are often mutually exclusive terms. Should we idealize a man as unpleasant as Ty Cobb simply because he could hit a ball with a bat better than nearly everyone else? And since we often do turn monsters into icons, what does that tell us about our society and ourselves?
"Cobb" is a film version of a book written about the legendary ballplayer by a sportswriter named Al Stump. In the movie, Stump (Robert Wuhl) thinks he's on easy street when he learns that Ty Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones) has chosen him to pen his biography. Think about it! You're a sportswriter and the greatest athlete in the history of the game decides he wants you to stay with him for a period of several months so you can write his story. Think of all the secrets you'll learn, the great anecdotes about some of the legends of baseball, the intricacies of the game and how the greats played it. Unfortunately, Stump meets Cobb when the former player is an alcoholic, pill popping old crank nearing the end of his days. Al learns the hard way that working closely with Ty Cobb means routinely putting your life on the line. The sports legend likes to randomly fire his gun inside his house, and his driving skills leave a lot to be desired (especially on ice packed mountain roads). Stump quickly tires of Cobb's reckless disregard for life, the endless streams of profanity, the racism against blacks and other minorities, and the insults. The two men spend more time sparring with each other than working on the book, but when they do get around to writing there's a problem. Cobb wants the book to focus on his exploits as an athlete, and Stump wants to write about the man's personal life.
Stump decides to write two books, the one Cobb wants and the one he wants. But finishing the books takes great persistence. The sportswriter soon becomes more of a confidante and health care worker to the aging legend than his biographer. Cobb's diabetes requires daily injections of insulin, which Stump soon administers. When the Baseball Hall of Fame plans to induct Cobb, the two must go through a whole series of tiresome preparations. And then there's the endless recollections of the player's early life, a life full of heartache and triumph that Stump desperately wants to put in the book but which Cobb rejects for fear of looking bad. To muddy the waters, Ty lies about his private life by changing stories on a routine basis so Stump never knows what is real and what is fantasy. For example, there's the mystery surrounding the ballplayer's parents. The former athlete tells the writer that his father died violently, but continually changes the specifics of the story. First, his father perished accidentally. Then we learn that he died as the result of finding his mother cheating with another man. Then there's a final story twist. What really happened and how did it affect Ty Cobb's early years? Stump must sift through what he learns to reach an approximation of the truth.
"Cobb" is a great movie filled with convincing performances, unpleasant situations, and even humor. A diehard sports fanatic might not like the picture since it focuses more on personality and not the game itself. We do see flashbacks to Ty Cobb bullying his way through a few games, but the movie uses these scenes as elaboration on the man's character and not as a way to show his talent. According to the film, this guy beat a crippled fan, assaulted his wife, bet on games, and possibly murdered a man in a back alley. Nice chap, huh? At the same time, the movie tries to show that even the worst characters possess endearing traits. For instance, we learn that Cobb financially supported at least one of his former teammates. Which one of these men is the real Ty Cobb? Both of them. Jones plays the character with a gusto that leaps off the screen, easily overshadowing Robert Wuhl's restrained portrayal of Al Stump. The sultry Lolita Davidovich shows up as a woman who falls into the wily clutches of an elderly Ty Cobb and thus exposes another facet of the man's complex personality.
The DVD edition contains two commentary tracks, a trailer, a look at the real Al Stump, a few additional scenes, and a short bit with Roger Clemens. I must have seen "Cobb" a dozen times back in the mid 1990s when pay television aired the film around the clock. My recent viewing of the movie only served as a reminder of the film's greatness. Clocking in at over two hours, "Cobb" is wonderful cinematic exploration that asks several penetrating questions about the men who play professional sports and the society that idolizes them.
Description of Cobb
Tyrus Raymond Cobb played baseball like a man charging a machine-gun nest. He gave no quarter, took no prisoners. And when his Hall of Fame career was over, Ty Cobb attacked life the same way. Tommy Lee Jones portrays the legendary - and equally cheered and detested - Georgia Peach in this acclaimed film from writer/director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Dark Blue), also starring Robert Wuhl and Lolita Davidovich. From its recapturing of the outfielder's playing days (Roger Clemens portrays a rival pitcher) to its recreation of a 1961 Hall of Fame banquet, Cobb is a movie grand slam.Bestsellers in DVD
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