Baseball season is right around the corner and today’s fbf belongs to Tony Scott’s The Fan.
The movie opens with crazed baseball fan Gil Renard (Robert DeNiro) reciting a poem about baseball and how the players don’t give a shit about the game anymore and how things need to go back to the way they were. Now, Gil is a die hard San Francisco Giants fan and when his favorite player Bobby Rayburn signs with the Giants for $40 million, he sees it as a magical conjunction and is invested more than ever.
As the movie goes on, Rayburn falls into a slump and the fans (except for Gil) start to turn on him and start to love teammate Primo (Benicio Del Toro) more since he’s performing better than Rayburn. Tensions are high between the two teammates also because Primo wears the number 11 that Rayburn usually wears and with Rayburn being new to the team can’t get Primo to let go of the number.
As Rayburn’s slump is going on, Gil’s life starts to spiral out of control as well. Gil is also a knife salesman and can’t get a sale to save his life. While taking his son to opening day of the Giants, he leaves him at the stadium while he goes to meet a client to close a deal (to save his own job, not because he’s addicted to selling like Wolf of Wall Street or something). When he comes back some old lady that Gil calls a “busybody” while watching the game takes Gil’s son home and gets Gil in hot water with his ex wife. And to add insult to injury, Gil loses his job because he didn’t close the sale.
Gil starts losing touch with reality the more the movie goes on. He really thinks Rayburn needs his help to get him back on top of the game. Gil even goes as far as murdering someone because he thinks it would benefit Rayburn. Rayburn starts playing better and Gil starts to think it’s because he helped him out but when he finds out that Rayburn basically just stopped caring and just played the game for himself, Gil takes it as an insult. Gil starts to go even crazier and demented by kidnapping Rayburn’s son and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t hit a home run for him.
The climax of the movie does get a little far fetched for the inevitable showdown between Gil and Rayburn but it’s all for entertainment’s sake. Like, if the cops were looking for Gil because he kidnapped Rayburn’s son, how the fuck did he even step foot inside the stadium and how was able to sneak a knife in as well. Lots of questions but if you just sit back and enjoy the movie, it isn’t that bad.
The movie has a damn good cast, DeNiro really hits a home run with the role. He got the crazy part down really well. He’s channeling his Taxi Driver, King of Comedy and Cape Fear performances into this one and what a performance. You really do believe he probably is one of those guys who is always watching a baseball game and would get personally insulted if you spoke ill about his team.
Wesley Snipes is also good as Rayburn, he has the superstar attitude down pretty good too. Can’t help but wonder if he is the same way in real life. Snipes has had a hell of career acting opposite great actors like Connery, Stallone, Walken, Harrelson and he really holds his own against DeNiro.
The rest of the cast is littered with effective support from John Leguizamo and Ellen Barkin and also a very small part from Jack Black.
One of the best things that gives the movie more punch is the music that plays during the tense scenes. Nine Inch Nails and the music of Hans Zimmer gets even crazier as Gil starts losing it. Even the ending song with the piano notes is a nice touch.
Now as said before the movie takes a lot of liberties with how the game is played, like how are they still playing with that much rain and all but that’s Tony Scott for you. The man was an artist in a commercial world and it’s really a shame that we will never get another new movie from him. Contrary to popular opinion, I really think he did a good job trying something new with this movie. More know for his action movies with Jerry Bruckheimer, Scott actually turned down The Rock to helm The Fan. He must’ve really wanted to work with DeNiro and Snipes and probably recreate the tension he built with Crimson Tide between two other great actors, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.
The Fan may not have been a big hit back then but one should revisit this one again and give it a fair shot.
Till then, enjoy movies, maddafakkas. Till then-enjoy movies, madafakkas. Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!