61* (DVD)

As a baseball fan I am very much aware of the greatness of both Mickey Mantle AND Roger Maris but I mistakenly thought they were bitter rivals. I was very wrong. After also reading, come to find out these guys were actually very close friends and teammates who shared a deep love for each other. I didn't really expect this to be a love story but story but that's exactly what it was (not that weird kind of love please). The friendship this movie portrayed them as similar to some great friendships I also had and I completely identify with both characters as I have also had in my younger days. After reading up on both baseball players, the movie stays pretty accurate to what these guys went through and I was identifying with their plights in their professional careers as well as personal lives. I too struggled with alcohol which that unfortunately did Mickey Mantle in. If your a sports fan of the old school days of the Yankees and love these guys as I do, you will not be disappointed in this movie. All in all, the actors did a great job of brining the characters true personalities to the screen. They were very likable and with good dialog, excellent cinematography and CGI special effects - now on my top ten list!

I thought this was an overall enjoyable movie I wasn’t living strangers time exciting time to watch the record being broken. Great performances by Thomas Jane and Barry Pepper.

As a former 10 year old (in 1961) this movie works as nostalgia and as a solid story - you do not have to love BB to enjoy this effort from beginning to end. It gets a giant boost from an rxcellent script (albeit replete with anachronism) and cinematography perectly capturing "'61".Another plus is in the Direction, really gutsy, in the respect that the female cast is not, shall we say, gender-corrected for the year 2000. As much as Crystal allows contemporary expressions in the dialogue, ostensibly for the younger fans' understanding, this film takes a chance in staying true to the period (with a young, handsome President, and the beginnings of social activism for women and minorities), portraying Mrs. Maris, living without Roger, even as a third child arrives, as a more supportive, understanding soul - the ultimate stay-at-home Mom, and SAH WIFE (as a ballplayer's spouse) before that situation needed to be explained. No sarcastic lecturing, as found in today's flicks and sitcoms. It works. No adjustments needed.I can see, however, some concession to the "sensitive male", who worries and worries about his buddies feelings: it's true that Maris, still the new kid on the block at age 26, actually managed to take the 30 year old (arguably) King of Baseball at the time, and get him to...live right. With himself and teammate Bob Cerv, in a Queens, NY, 2-bedroom unit.Two other handsome, telegenic, stars were Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, great athletes on a great team, which got the most media coverage of any team - and at a time when Baseball was on top.I cannot give 5-stars for this outstanding movie because as someone who thinks of himself as educated on the subject (and having watched Maris hit his 52nd and 53rd homer that season at Yankee Stadium!), I can say that some major errors are committed.One: I am confident in saying that the "Chasing the Babe" theme did not really kick in until about, say, early, June that season. The movie suggests to this Reviewer that "61 in 61" was one of the first things that popped into the sports writers' head in March.Two: A big opportunity to give depth to the M & M *personal* relationship is lost, when not penetrating deeper into Mickey's psyche, regarding a traumatic event, actually a pvotal event in his career, in the previous season. Mantle was hitting his tape measure home runs at regular intervals, but he was in a prolonged slump, atually dating back to July of 1959. In mid-August, Mantle, in a funk, did not run out a ground ball because he thought he had made the third out. It was the second out. And baserunner Roger Maris had to put on his Football cap in breaking up the double-play. He was hurt. He missed alot of the season, as a result - and he ended with one *less* home run than Mickey, who led the league, with 40. I have to believe that Mick wanted Rog to get the glory he was robbed of in 1960! Mantle and Bob Cerv cheer on Roger from their hospital beds. A "flashback" to August 15th, 1960, would have increased the drama.Three: It's a fact that the Sportswriters were not collectively in favor of Maris throughout the season. Where Mantle was the proverbial central casting idol, Maris was just a workin' man. He did have a classic sports story to tell but he was not exactly camera-savvy. These same writers awarded him his secondconsecutive MVP Award! And for the second year in a row, he beat out Mickey but just a handful of votes!Fourth: The movie sgould have ended on one of the best freeze frames ever shot - RM just exhales in the clubhouse after..'61. An unnecessary scene with the boys reflecting on the season, on Life, closes out the proceedings.The making of the movie Extra is a gem, with Billy Crystal, as tourguide to the extraordinary made-for-TV movie.[Footnote: Chris "Mad Dog" Russo should have played Phil Rizzuto].

This movie was particularly good not only because it involves the Yankee's History as a team that was the most dominant l team in History of Sports but also because it shows the lives of three of the greatest Yankee players of all time Ruth,Mantle ,Maris. For baseball Fans it includes the behind the scene pressure of the Game. It also relates to the Old Adage "That nobody is perfect." At 77, I know it very Well!

I knew when I read about this movie and saw Billy Crystal's name attached to it that it would be a work of love. And I was not diasppointed.61* takes us back to 1961 and retells the classic home run race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as they both tried to catch Babe Ruth's then record of 60. The initial part of the story is told from the the Maris family perspective in 1998 as Mark McGwire was chasing Roger on his way to the then record of 70 (smashed by Barry Bonds with 73). If you will recall that historic moment, you will recall the homage that McGwire paid to the Maris family.61* is not so much a baseball movie (even though I called it that) as it is a movie about rivalry and friendship between two very different men. The movie is not afraid to show them as fallible but it does so with dignity and explains why they may have these foibles. Mantle is shown as being the utlimate Amercian icon. Every kid growing up wanted to be Mickey Mantle. Blond, good looking and playing centerfield for the Yankees - what more could one ask for. But the dark side of Mantle - his womanizing and drinking is not ignored. But we come to understand that Mantle was afraid of dying. No man in his family had ever lived to 40 and we get the feeling that he wanted to enjoy life when he could. Maris is shown as being quite and introverted and moody, but when we see the enormous pressure he is put under, we understand. Maris never asked for the limelight. All he wanted to do is to help his team win.Mantle and Maris are shown as rivals - there's tension and there is also love. We see that Maris had no greater fan and supporter than Mantle. Mantle admires what his friend is going through and perhaps is relieved that some of the pressure is removed from him - after all - Mantle was expected to hit a home run every time at bat.The dark side of the story is the totally unnecessary pressure and hatred that Maris endures. He gets hate mail, he has chairs thrown at him, the press gangs up on him. Why? Because he was breaking a record of an Yankee and the public wanted only another Yankee icon - Mantle - to break that record. Maris was not a real Yankee (he was acquired in a trade) and that was what irked and irritated his detractors. Never mind that he had been MVP in 1960. Flash forward to 10 years later and you can get a glimpse of what Henry Aaron went through as he approached the Babe's career home run record. 61* is also an indictment of sports fans and reporters and how we have our priorities totally out of whack, especially when we think about how these days, New Yorkers wish that all they had to care about WAS a home run race.The DVD's main bonus feature, worth the viewing alone, discusses how the movie was made. It was fascinating to hear of the transformation of old Tiger Stadium in Detroit into Yankee Stadium, and how the movie was cast. In a bit of trivia which ties into the Bonds home run record, Thomas Jane (who plays Mickey Mantle) had never picked up a baseball until he got this part. Billy Crystal sent him to a school to learn some baseball skills. Jane's instructor was Reggie Smith, a distant Bonds' cousin. Isn't it funny how life comes full cycle?Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane are fully believable as the duo and give excellent performances. 61* will delight baseball and non baseball fans, because the beauty of the movie is the relationship between the two men ad how, in the face of immense odds, friendship can endure.

Baseball has to me always been a minority sport. This movie changed all that. As director, Billy Crystal shows that every sport has some defining moment in its history. Brilliantly directed & equally superbly acted by Thomas Jane,Barry Pepper & the other actors in this movie. It gives a real flavour of what the pressure (of breaking the BABES record for Home Runs for a season) from the press must have been like for a young country boy moving to New York. The commissioner of baseball then changes the rules as he is a fan of the Babes & wants the record to stay with the Babe. A really absorbing, tense & dramatic end to the movie. I would recommend this movie to any sports fans out there who, like me said Baseball, kids game.

Excellent movie, but the Blu Ray disc is Region A encoded and will not play on standard UK players.I advised Amazon.co.uk of this some weeks ago, but notice that the product data has not been updated. Beware!

Brilliant Performances from the leads as well as great Direction from Billy Crystal.A great companion piece to Cobb and Babe,

This is a tremendous film and can be enjoyed by baseball fans and those who know diddly squat about baseball. A must see!!!

A great tribute to the late Roger Maris and that 1961 season, different standards in a far off, different world.