One sign that summer has ended is when we start seeing more movies that carry a little weight and stay with you. Moneyball (2011) has more drama and excitement than most of the action and superhero movies of the summer.
Moneyball, directed by Bennett Miller and based on Michael Lewis’s best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, is the “true story” about how Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics used a new way of looking at baseball players to rebuild the team after it lost several superstars after the 2001 season. The method used by the Athletics used statistics to analyze the value of players in a way that ran contrary to the intuition used by baseball scouts. The movie screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin takes some liberties with the facts, but it does a good job capturing a little-seen part of the National Pastime and reveals a major problem with the inequality of resources among Major League Baseball teams.
Brad Pitt is excellent as Beane, and Jonah Hill plays Peter Brand, Beane’s sidekick in the film. The supporting roles, including one by Philip Seymour Hoffman as manager Art Howe, are all excellent too. For example, there is an excellent scene where Beane visits his ex-wife, played by Robin Wright, that shows a realistic uncomfortable situation that also reveals much about the personality and history of the characters. Throughout the film, Pitt makes us root for his character even as we see his unflattering personality traits.
Moneyball is a unique sports movie because it focuses on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to put a team on the field more than the team on the field. So you should not go to the film expecting to see exciting baseball, although there are moments showing the games, often with real footage. The baseball game that is probably the highlight of the on-the-field game occurs well before the end of the season and the end of the movie. But as we follow the entire baseball season we care about it because we care about Beane. The movie also acknowledges the history of baseball by occasionally showing clips of the game from the past, much in the way that Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999) occasionally inserted old football footage, connecting the past to the present.
Conclusion? Although you may need to be a baseball fan to love Moneyball, the film tells an intriguing story and is one of the best films of the year so far. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film currently has a 94% rating from critics and a 91% rating from audience members.
Bonus Song Information: If you are wondering about the song that Beane’s daughter sings, it is “The Show” by Australian singer-songwriter Lenka, off her self-titled CD from 2008 (yes, that is after the time period portrayed in the movie).
What did you think of Moneyball? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On April 17 in 1865, Mary Surratt was arrested for conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. In 2011 on that date, the American Film Company released its first film, The Conspirator. The movie is about Mary Surratt and directed by Robert Redford and starring Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Evan Rachel Wood, Kevin Kline, Danny Huston, and Tom Wilkinson.
From a young age, we learn the name of John Wilkes Booth. We know he is the man who shot Abraham Lincoln. His chase and capture are recounted in the recent book, Manhunt (2006), by James L. Swanson.
But the names of the others who allegedly conspired with Booth are less heard: Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, John Surratt, and Mary Surratt. A number of additional people were also arrested and convicted of crimes, including Dr. Samuel Mudd.
Mary Surratt: “The Conspirator”
The Conspirator centers exclusively on one of the more interesting accused conspirators, Mary Surratt. In doing so, Redford maintains focus in what might otherwise be an unwieldy long story.
We may be curious to know more about the other conspirators and to spend a few minutes with Lincoln before he is killed. But Redford keeps the story tight and aimed on the stoic Surratt (Wright) and her passionate lawyer Frederick Aiken (McAvoy), following Aiken as he struggles with his responsibility to defend Surratt.
Currently on the Rotten Tomatoes website, the critics rating for The Conspirator is 56% and the audience rating is a much-higher 71%, which makes sense. The movie is not an exciting historical romp like The King’s Speech (2010), and the story is told somewhat conventionally. But it is an interesting story that audience members may appreciate more than critics, who might want a film that is more daring.
Still, the fine acting and look of the film make it well above a History Channel special. All of the principal actors do a very good job (although Justin Long seems out of his time period even with the goofy mustache). And, as in Redford’s A River Runs Through It (1992), the lighting effects seem like another character, making for numerous scenes bathed in beautiful clean natural sunlight.
Overall, the movie is engaging and addresses a lesser known aspect of the Lincoln assassination. I will not reveal how everything comes out, but during the prosecution of Mary Surratt and even until today, there are still questions about whether or not she had any involvement in the conspiracy of which she was accused.
Parallels With Modern Issues
Others have noticed that the movie has some parallels to the modern debate about military tribunals. Kevin Kline’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton spouts concerns that echo in our Age of Terrorism. Anthony Lane at The New Yorker believes that Redford belabored the parallels with today’s debates about military trials for accused terrorists a little too much.
By contrast, I did not think the parallels were overdone. Instead, the movie would have been much more topical and challenging for viewers had it been released several years ago instead of in 2011. Just as more people spoke up on Mary Surratt’s behalf years after her trial, this aspect of the movie seems a little late too. Yet, the issue is still topical.
Another contemporary issue underlying The Conspirator is how innocent persons accused of outrageous crimes may be convicted or almost convicted of crimes they did not do. The Death Penalty Information Center website notes that since 1973, there have been more than one hundred people released from death row because of evidence of their innocence.
Additionally, there are a number of people who have been executed with genuine questions remaining about whether they were innocent. One may debate the extent of the problem and the exact number of condemned innocent who spent years on death row, but the clear risk is certainly troubling. Even in civilian trials with our current constitutional protections, the innocent still may be convicted and condemned, and this realization has contributed to several states eliminating capital punishment in recent years.
Conclusion
Conclusion? Conspirator is a well-made straightforward drama about an important event in American history. Although it may not be one of the top few movies of the year, it is a period courtroom drama in a league with Amistad (1997) as less than awe-inspiring but nonetheless engaging, educational, entertaining, and worth your time.
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What did you think of The Conspirator? Leave a comment.
(2006), by James L. Swanson.
