New Movie: The Catcher Was a Spy

[KMayUSA6060]

Originally Posted by conor912

Got around to seeing this the other day. I thought the sets, imagery, and cinematography were very well done. In the end, though, I couldn't help but think that Berg's story just wasn't quite compelling enough to make a Hollywood movie out of.

I also wish there were more baseball scenes. Other than the Fenway clip, which they showed in the preview, there's a clip from the Japanese tour and that's it. I know the story is about his service and not his career as a player, but I think they could have easily worked some more playing scenes for the baseball fans this was meant to appeal to, especially since it barely ran 90 minutes.

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited to.

I need to bring attention to the bold. You mean it's possible to make a movie that doesn't kill 1/4 of my day? Between Jurassic World, Star Wars, etc., I don't know if I can handle another 2+ hour movie. This is refreshing news.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by KMayUSA6060

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited to.

I need to bring attention to the bold. You mean it's possible to make a movie that doesn't kill 1/4 of my day? Between Jurassic World, Star Wars, etc., I don't know if I can handle another 2+ hour movie. This is refreshing news.

Haha. My point was that they had space to throw in a few more minutes of playing scenes but I totally hear you.

[KMayUSA6060]

Originally Posted by conor912

Haha. My point was that they had space to throw in a few more minutes of playing scenes but I totally hear you.

Oh yeah, I understood what you were saying. Without seeing it, I would still probably agree (from the sounds of it) that they should have thrown in more baseball scenes.

I'm just happy to see a movie be reasonable with its length.

[packs]

I saw this over the weekend at IFC. I thought that the movie was well made and they were able to make some creative decisions to elicit some kind of tension and suspense. I really hated the ending though. I thought they'd built up to this interesting moment that was full of indecision and internal conflict that deflated waaaaaaaay too quickly.

Rudd was a real surprise. I don't think he captured the inner secrecy of Berg quite as well as he could have, but it was nice to see him play something other than a dude-bro who smiles a lot.

[JollyElm]

Just saw it and as others have said, the movie itself was shot very well...but, man, there were quite a few things that bugged me. Here are a quick few...

First, the baseball game was supposed to be taking place in 1936, right? The Fenway they showed had perfectly manicured grass, just ridiculously so. Did the filmmakers do any research? Maybe check out what fields looked like back then? It was so obvious the movie was filmed in 2017 or 2018, and it immediately took me right out of suspending my disbelief. And this game was shown in the first couple of minutes in the film. They should've used some of that Hollywood magic to roughen the field/baselines up a bit to make it look at least somewhat realistic. It just goes to the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of the movie.

Secondly, they show a player during the Japan scenes who was obviously supposed to be Babe Ruth. Sure, the face was passable as him, but this guy was what, 5'5" at most??? Come on. The Bambino was 6'2". A towering sorta dude, not a short, fat schlub. Everyone on the team was taller than him. And this isn't nitpicking. It jumps right out at you.

Lastly, as Packs said, the basic portrayal of Berg's nature was way, way, way off. The book isn't an autobiography, of course, but in reading it you really get the feeling that he was a very aloof guy who seemingly always preferred to be alone with his nose in a newspaper. A real enigma, and a completely secretive sort of guy. I didn't for one second believe Rudd was the guy I read about in the book. He was gregarious as all hell, very outgoing, and I don't think they showed him reading a single newspaper. They even had Rudd state something to the effect of, "I don't fit in anywhere." I screamed at my screen, "Are you watching the same movie as me???!!! You are fitting in EVERYWHERE!!!"

And I won't even mention Heisenberg's ridiculous hairpiece.

Overall, this movie was the CliffsNotes version of the CliffsNotes version of the CliffsNotes version of the novel.

[tedzan]

Moe Berg graduated from Princeton Univ. in 1923. I once asked my wife, who works at Princeton Univ.,
to look up the Alumni listing for any information on Morris Berg. She could not find anything on him.
Did they remove his records since he was a secret spy ? ?

Anyhow, I highly recommend reading his SABR bio...... http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/e1e65b3b




I will check-out this movie.



TED Z
T206 Reference
.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I recently sold a Princeton Yearbook in which Berg appeared multiple times.