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Reviews:
The
Legend of the Good Golf Movie
by Michael Flanagan
Solid
The Legend of
Bagger Vance serves three main
purposes:
- It
reinforces the skill that Robert
Redford hold behind the camera.
Redford presents beautiful
scenery, magical sunsets, and
hypnotizing rain, and multiplies what
one would think the camera could do.
He makes Cherlize Theron even
more beautiful than she is, and he
shows the pain of the depression in
striking images that sometimes
communicate more than the actors do.
- It
shows a broad audience that, yes, Will
Smith is a great actor, and though the
various award associations have not
yet realized it, he is up, and he is
coming.
The man can do it all: rap,
sing, dance, write, comedy, and drama. Smith makes what could easily become a stereotypical
black caddie into a character of
unsaid depth.
Smith makes a good character a
truly great one.
- It
reminds us that, as much as we all
love Ben “Guy Next Door” Affleck,
Matt Damon is the real cream of the
acting crop in that house.
Over and over again, he chooses
his films to show another side of his
ability, and we say, “He’s
choosing that just to do something
different,” and we see it and
he’s…completely different.
The hidden pain Damon carries
with his character in this film is so
incredibly benath-the-surface that in
the photographs of him before the war,
he has no pain.
He actually looks like a happy
kid, instead of a very young, very old
man.
The combination of
these factors makes a great film.
The writing is good, though sparse
at times, so that Redford can get carried
away with slow pacing.
And let’s not forget the movie is
about golf, so anti-golfers be aware (not
“beware”), and golfers should be aware
that this is also a film of philosophy, of
what it is to live, and where we find what
we need to pull ourselves up when we are
lowest, both as individuals, and as a
people.
The Legend of Bagger Vance
isn’t the type of movie that you’ll
think about forever, but you won’t
forget too quickly, either.
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