moneyball

finished two really good movies this week - the internship and moneyball. this post is about the latter, while a review about the former is tentatively in the works.

apart from the baseball jargon and obscure references, moneyball represents another attempt by a charismatic and dogged general manager to change the way the game is judged, negotiated, constructed and reconstructed again.

everything we've done here, none of it'll matter. Any other team wins the World Series, good for them. They're drinking champagne, they get a ring. But if we win, on our budget, with this team... we'll have changed the game. And that's what I want. I want it to mean something.

what makes it easier to identify with the movie is that the gm(played by brad pitt) has emotions and trepidation as well, notwithstanding aforementioned qualities. on a side note, pitt always plays his roles perfectly. people remember his looks, or his hot wife, but i think he is determined to let neither affect his acting. from troy(ancient greek warrior) to ball player turned modern day gm of a baseball team, all praises for the man.

usually people with charisma and fantastic abilities are a little low on their humane count, ie they do not show much emotions, at least not to other people.

the ending consists of two enigmatic scenes:

one where the boston baseball team owner said these somewhat revolutionary lines:
For forty-one million, you built a playoff team. You lost Damon, Giambi, Isringhausen, Pena and you won more games without them than you did with them. You won the exact same number of games that the Yankees won, but the Yankees spent one point four million per win and you paid two hundred and sixty thousand. I know you've taken it in the teeth out there, but the first guy through the wall. It always gets bloody, always. It's the threat of not just the way of doing business, but in their minds it's threatening the game. But really what it's threatening is their livelihoods, it's threatening their jobs, it's threatening the way that they do things. And every time that happens, whether it's the government or a way of doing business or whatever it is, the people are holding the reins, have their hands on the switch. They go bat shit crazy. I mean, anybody who's not building a team right and rebuilding it using your model, they're dinosaurs. They'll be sitting on their ass on the sofa in October, watching the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.

italics are mine.

the film ends with billy listening to his daughter singing for him, in the form of her recording herself on a cd, something unusual for her as she does not like people to listen to her sing.

billy's eyes waters.

ah, emotions and abilities in the masculine form.