The Onion AV Club: "Bull Durham is the Greatest Baseball Movie Ever Made". http://www.avclub.com/articles/why-bull-durham-is-the-greatest-baseball-movie-eve,96143/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default Bull Durham (1988) Bull Durham is the greatest baseball movie because it isn�t really about baseball, even though writer-director Ron Shelton drew on his own experience as a minor-league player and captured the particulars of that world like no filmmaker before or since. Its true subject is passion. Religious and sexual metaphors intertwine to magnificent effect: Susan Sarandon�s Annie Savoy tells us at the outset that she belongs to the Church of Baseball (her house resembles a shrine), then relates her annual tradition of selecting one promising player on the Durham Bulls as her lover for the season. Ostensibly, what follows is a lightly comic romantic triangle involving Annie�s relationships with hotheaded young pitcher Ebby Calvin �Nuke� LaLoosh (Tim Robbins, in his breakout role) and his reluctant mentor, aging catcher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner, in his defining performance). But what really binds these three indelible characters�and what determines which two end up together�is a stubborn, irrational ardor for the circumscribed realm they inhabit. And that�s something you can appreciate even if you have no idea what a ground rule double is. �This is a simple game,� snarls the Bulls� head coach (the late, lamented Trey Wilson) at one point. �You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball.� Shelton knows better, though, and complications are Bull Durham�s lifeblood, both on and off the field. Shrugging off your catcher�s signal means having him tell the opposing team�s batter what pitch you�re about to throw, out of spite. Racking up all the all-time minor-league record for home runs only underscores the fact that you never made it in �the show.� In many ways, the film achieves the fizzy delirium of classic comedies by the likes of Preston Sturges and Leo McCarey�it�s idiosyncratic, crazily detailed, endlessly quotable, and genuinely interested in even the most marginal members of its insular community. (There are no small parts here.) Underneath the effervescence, though, lurks a poignant recognition that all of this joy and heartbreak revolves around an activity that�s arguably trivial and unquestionably ephemeral. Accepting that paradox, even embracing it, is rather like accepting and embracing life itself. Availability: Bull Durham is available for rental and purchase on DVD and Blu-ray from pretty much everybody. [youtube]DzX_K9pX3X0[/youtube]