The Natural

The Natural follows Roy Hobbs, a gifted baseball player whose path to stardom is derailed by a violent encounter with a mysterious woman. Years later, he resurfaces as an aging newcomer on the struggling New York Knights, carrying a bat he made as a boy from the wood of a fallen tree. As he fights physical pain and the interests of those who would rather see the team keep losing, he gets a chance to turn the Knights around and finally reach the career that was taken from him.

Barry Levinson directed the film, the third of the 28 features he has directed in chronological order, following Diner and preceding Young Sherlock Holmes. Robert Redford plays Hobbs, with Robert Duvall as sportswriter Max Mercy, Glenn Close as Iris Gaines, Kim Basinger as Memo Paris, Wilford Brimley as Pop Fisher and Barbara Hershey as Harriet Bird. Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry wrote the screenplay, and Mark Johnson produced. The production cost about 28 million dollars and returned roughly 48 million worldwide.

On IMDb, the film holds 7.4 out of 10 from more than 51,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.9 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 46 reviews places professional assessments close to the broader audience response, suggesting a film that has been received with steady approval rather than strong disagreement across groups. It runs 137 minutes and is a drama.