It has been brought to our attention that Bull Durham is 20 years old! We get the following reminder thanks to the fabled caves of Yahoo:
Ron Shelton says he’s just now realizing what a home run he hit with “Bull Durham.” Two decades have passed since the release of the movie Shelton wrote and directed about an aging minor league catcher, a hotshot pitching prospect and the groupie wooed by both that has been praised as one of the top sports movies of all time.
“It’s just dawning on me now, really,” Shelton said Wednesday. “We realized when we started testing that the audiences responded to it. It never scored through the roof when it scored; it sort of got these OK numbers. “But when it opened and these reviews came in that my mother couldn’t have written. … In the second week, it stayed and it stayed and it just ran all summer. It was a gradual recognition that maybe we captured lightning in a bottle here, (but) there was no moment of epiphany.”
Shelton joined producer and Durham native Thom Mount at a luncheon marking the 20th anniversary of the film that captures a season with a fictitious version of the Durham Bulls, then of the Class A Carolina League.
I cannot lie to you folks; I still haven’t seen this movie. I would say that is is largely due to the fact that I hate baseball more than most anything on the planet. I have played the sport as a youngster and didn’t care for it (and watching it is even less exciting). For some unknown reason however, I do enjoy football movies. I can’t make rhyme or reason out of my likes and dislikes – it’s just the way it is.
I have heard good things about this film and should probably get around to watching it at some point; maybe I will this year – in honor of its anniversary. I will pay tribute to this film by breaking my 20 year streak of procrastination.
For those of you that enjoy this film, please share your reasons with us. It could be a favorite theme, saying, character – anything at all. Why do you like this movie, and why should I see it?
