New Movie: The Catcher Was a Spy

[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.