Review #381: Cobb.
Cast
Tommy Lee Jones (Ty Cobb), Robert Wuhl (Al Stump), Lolita Davidovich (Ramona), Lou Myers (Willie), William Utay (Jameson), J. Kenneth Campbell (William Herschel Cobb), and Rhoda Griffis (Amanda Chitwood Cobb) Directed by Ron Shelton.
Review
Watching a film based off Cobb: The Life and Times of the Meanest Man in Baseball by Al Stump is a strange thing, since the film isn't as sensational and fictionalized as the book is now known to be. Take the film for what it is: A movie, with some sort of fact but also some sort of fiction.
Tyrus Raymond Cobb was a legend in baseball, and judging from the film, you might think that. Or you might wonder if the (somewhat questionable) writer of the book about Cobb about him fabricated the events in some ways. Cobb once described himself like this: "In legend I am a sadistic, slashing, swashbuckling despot who waged war in the guise of sport.". The film sadly does not show a lot of baseball moments from his career, focusing more on Stump and Cobb, which I find to be a bit disappointing because the film while it does try to focus on the biography of Cobb and the writing, it probably should have tried to be more about him and not just him and his biographer. Nonetheless, Jones pulls off a brutal performance of Cobb. It may either turn you off from the film or be the thing that glues the film together. Wuhl is all right, reminding me of a writer, but whether a good or bad one is questionable. It's noisy, its mean and dark, but that's what makes the film what it is, it doesn't try to be light on things, it does what it wants to accomplish, the good and the bad. Whether the viewer likes it or not is up to you.
Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.
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