The Scout (1994)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Michael Ritchie

Writers (WGA):

Roger Angell (article)
Andrew Bergman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 September 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

If you pray hard enough for a miracle... miracles can really happen!

Plot:

The story of a baseball scout who discovers a talented but troubled baseball player.

Plot Keywords:

Baseball | Therapy | Psychoanalysis | Sports Team | New York Yankees

Cast

Albert Brooks	...	Al Percolo
Brendan Fraser	...	Steve Nebraska
Dianne Wiest	...	Doctor H. Aaron
Anne Twomey	...	Jennifer
Lane Smith	...	Ron Wilson
Michael Rapaport	...	Tommy Lacy
Barry Shabaka Henley	...	McDermott
John Capodice	...	Caruso
Garfield	...	Stan
Louis Giovannetti	...	World Series Catcher
Stephen Demek	...	Yankee Catcher
Ralph Drischell	...	Charlie
Brett Rickaby	...	George's Assistant
Jack Rader	...	Mr. Lacy
Marcia Rodd	...	Mrs. Lacy

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | UK:15 (video premiere) | USA:PG-13 | Netherlands:AL | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Bracken County, Kentucky, USA

Company:

Santo Domingo Film & Music Video

Trivia:

When Steve Nebraska is pitching in front of Baseball Scouts at Yankee Satdium, during filming Keith Hernandez walked out of the dugout wearing Tennis Shoes, and Yankee owner George Steinbrenner told Henandez to put on spiked Shoes so he doesn't mess up the grass.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Al makes a promise that Steve will join the team and pitch the first game of the World Series if the Yankees make it that far. However, no player is allowed to play in the post-season if he is not on the 25-man roster as of August 31.

Quotes:

Steve Nebraska: I got you something. It's a chocolate baseball bat.
Al Percolo: [takes the bat and examines the end, which is broken] Did you drop it?
Steve Nebraska: I got a little hungry.

Movie Connections:

Features Damn Yankees! (1958)

Soundtrack:

I Wanna Be Around

Make some effort, please.

First of all, let's deal with the fact that this movie isn't at all about baseball. Not in any real sense of the sport - it's more of a wry comedy that Albert Brooks specializes in. Brendan Fraser stars in the type of role he'd spend the next few years of his career perfecting - the lovable doofus who doesn't quite have a clue but is impossible to truly dislike. He's Steve Nebraska - uber-prospect baseball pitcher who has found his life and career derailed and ends up pitching semipro baseball in Mexico. Brooks is a baseball scout on the downside of his career, in purgatory south of the border when he discovers the immensely talented - but quite immature - Nebraska. He sees this as his ticket back to the bigtime and shops his pitching prospect around the majors, eventually signing with the Yankees where Nebraska makes his debut in the World Series.

Now is when this film careens towards the edge and drives off a cliff. It's not about baseball, fine. But it involves baseball to a heavy degree, even including several major leaguers and baseball people in cameos. The climactic scene takes place in Yankee Stadium during the World Series. It may not be a sports movie, but it owes its entire premise to the sport of baseball, and as a result, owes that game a semblance of respect. What it ends up doing is shafting the game so completely and making such a mockery of baseball that it ruins whatever it had built up through the rest of the film.

There is simply no excuse for building Steve Nebraska as the greatest pitcher ever - a guy who not only throws 110 mph and knocks over his catcher AND the umpire with pitches, but also hits like Barry Bonds. A guy whose first ever major league appearance is in Game One of the World Series - not only a ludicrous prospect for dramatic purposes, but completely impossible in real life (the rules of baseball don't allow this, discussion ends there). A guy whose debut game consists of throwing 81 straight fastballs past major league hitters - none of whom even so much as make contact - and who throws all of them at 110 mph. (Infamous point - the last pitch is FASTER than the first pitch). Physics dictate a guy like this would completely shred his rotator cuff, labrum muscles, and probably destroy every ligament in his elbow. Not to mention any major league lineup worth its salt (for instance, one playing in the World Series) would sit on this guy's fastball and absolutely torch him the second time through the order.

Is this nitpicking? I don't think so. The Scout may be better judged as a comedy than a baseball movie, but it can't totally remove itself from the sporting aspect. I think that any movie that involves baseball as heavily as The Scout does owe it to its audience - as well as its subject matter - to make some slightest bit of effort to craft something that doesn't insult fans of the game. You can make sentimental stories that use baseball as a backdrop - and involve legendarily talented players - that don't mock the game and flip it the middle finger. The Natural comes to mind.

As a comedy, it's average. As a baseball movie, it's completely insulting and awful.