Eight Men Out

Baseball films enjoyed a resurgence in the late '80s, but they mostly took the form of life-affirming fantasies: The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams. John Sayles's Eight Men Out (1989) is a much more realistic film, taking an angry look at pro sports' biggest scandal: the Black Sox Scandal of 1919.

The Chicago White Sox dominate professional baseball in 1919, and are a shoe-in to sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. But owner Charles Comiskey (Clifton James) refuses to pay his players a fair salary, and first baseman Chick Gandil (Michael Rooker) approaches a pair of two-bit gamblers (Richard Edson and Christopher Lloyd) with an offer to throw the Series. Other players, including reluctant shortstop Buck Weaver (John Cusack), ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte (David Straitharn) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (D.B. Sweeney), get in on the fix, and New York gambler Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) agrees to bankroll the series. The Sox throw the first few games, but Rothstein fails to pay off, and the players consider blowing off the fix - until Rothstein raises the stakes.

I've never been a huge baseball fan (the Pirates haven't been much help), but I've always been fascinated by the Black Sox Scandal. Football and basketball have supplanted baseball in America, and pervasive steroid scandals undermine superstars like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, but in 1919 "America's pass-time" dominated the sports world, and American culture. Its stars were larger than life, and the idea that they weren't angels was unthinkable. In contemporary terms, it would be like the Miami Heat throwing this years' NBA Finals, or Tom Brady taking a dive in the Super Bowl. If nothing else, Eight Men Out puts baseball's substance abuse problems, and the NFL's deadlock over multi-million dollar contracts, in their proper perspective.

Sayles frames the Black Sox as an American tragedy. The players have a legit beef with the pennypinching Comiskey: he benchs Cicotte before he can reach 30 wins (and hence a bonus), and awards the players with flat champagne rather than money. But their decision to throw the series backfires badly: they're double-crossed by Rothstein and shamed before their fans, destroying the integrity of the sport and the faith of the American public ("Say it ain't so, Joe!"). When the fix is uncovered, they take the fall, not the high-placed Rothstein or his allies. Ruthless commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis (John Anderson) comes in to clean up the sport, setting a harsh but effective precedent ignored by his successors.

Sayles makes it into a taut, effective show that never puts a foot wrong. The period details are authentic, the dialogue crisp and clear, and the pacing perfect, helped by effective montage work by John Tintori and Robert Richardson's handsome photography. This is a powerful story, simply told.

John Cusack makes a good protagonist but the supporting cast is more interesting. Michael Rooker (Tombstone) is appropriately loathsome as Chick Gandil, the one player unreservedly committed to the fix. D.B. Sweeney's Jackson is a tragic character, a babe in the woods easily manipulated by co-conspirators. Charlie Sheen, Don Patrick Harvey, David Straitharn and John Mahoney play other players. Clifton James (The Untouchables) is a bit colorless for his role. Calculating Michael Lerner, gladhanding Kevin Tighe (Geronimo: An American Legend) and Christopher Lloyd (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) represent the gambling world. John Anderson (Ride the High Country) appears briefly as the ferocious Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Sayles and Studs Terkel play the journalists who uncover the fix.

Eight Men Out is probably the best film made about baseball, and one of the all-time great sports movies. Most baseball films opt to focus on the magic of baseball, but John Sayles unflinchingly shows the harsh, gritty reality.

For a more personal take on the film, check out Rich's review on Wide Screen World.