So I'm not anything close to a movie expert, but I do know a little bit about sports and I like movies so when the two converge, I feel like I can adequately dissect and analyze what I've just witnessed on the screen like I would a game. This past weekend I went to see a movie I was more excited about than any other film since Star Wars Episode II (which eventually ruined that attempted prequel franchise). Moneyball is the screen adaptation of the book Michael Lewis' book about how the 2002 Oakland Athletics utilized a new style of player recruiting and development, founded by Bill James, that attempted to turn the sport of baseball on its head.
In the film, Brad Pitt plays Oakland General Manager Billy Beane; a 40-something former MLB bust turned executive in a small market team that has a payroll nearly $70 million dollars less than that of the AL Champion New York Yankees. After falling to the Bombers in the 2001 ALDS, the A's lose their three best players in Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen to free agency because they cannot compete financially with teams like Boston and New York.
In the off season, Beane travels to Cleveland to try and work on a trade to better his squad. During the conversation, Mark Shapiro (Indians GM) constantly shakes off any attempted deal because of a look his advisor gives him. The advisor, is really being advised by Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill). Brand, is a 24 year old Economics Major from Yale who has developed a style of player evaluation that helps the Indians base a player's worth on stats other than Homers and Batting Average. Beane eventually tracks down Brand before "buying" him from the Indians to come to Oakland.
There, Beane and Brand go into a meeting with Oakland's scouts to figure out how to replace their top players. Beane decides they will in turn sign bottom barrel free agents like Scott Hatterberg, Jeremy Giambi, and Chad Bradford because of stats and things not usually evaluated by typical scouts. After a rough couple first months of his manager Art Howe (played by Philip Seymour-Hoffman) not playing along, Beane shakes things up to ensure the team he has assembled is played the way he wants. The Athletics go on to win an American League record 20 straight games, the Western Division and a trip to the playoffs with the best record in the league. Only to lose in the opening round, again, to Minnesota.
Now that you understand the movie, as if true sports fans didn't already know it, here's what I felt about it. Brad Pitt once again shows his full range and ability on the screen. The man is able to brilliantly capture every aspect of Billy Beane's life, from a man struggling to keep a strong relationship with his estranged daughter, to fighting his own demons of being a wash-out and trying to complete this self-fulfilling prophecy of a new style of baseball, Pitt is able to make you feel the pains and torments of a GM in a small-market city.
More over, what Pitt did in preparation shows his vast devotion to the role he plays. Pitt went and read Moneyball so many times, spoke with Beane personally on multiple accounts, that he actually was sighting passages from the book in production meetings. He wanted to fully portray the man that is Billy Beane and he knocked it out of the park (had to use at least one pun).
Jonah Hill is also a very good actor in this movie. Going in, I kept hearing how good he was, that this was a defining role in his career, I even heard a small murmur of Oscar talk. All that aside, I was still waiting for a random, hilarious outburst from the once large comedic teddy-bear we loved in Superbad. Maybe that's unfair to him as a stigma but it's how I felt. When I was able to put aside my desire to see him scream about some "Seth's Own Dressing", I saw a wonderful performance that again captured the essence that was his character.
Peter Brand was portrayed in ever light I expected. A bright kid with love for sports but who looked incredibly out of place in his shirt and tie amongst the sweatpants and track suits of a professional ball club. There was a wonderful scene where Brand is forced to tell rookie sensation Carlos Pena that he has been traded to the Detroit Tigers. After this exchange, you can see the tense look on Hill's face as if his character is about to get launched threw a window. Once Pena leaves the room, a massive sigh of relief is let out and you see the comfort level of dealing with players rise in Brand. A spot-on depiction of his transformation into a sound MLB executive.
What made the movie for me, however, was not the acting prowess of Pitt, the subtle nuance that is Seymour-Hoffman, or the career growth of Hill. It was the writing of Aaron Sorkin and the direction of Bennett Miller. The two, along with writer Steven Zaillian, are able to capture exactly how a season of Major League Baseball is played out off the field. We as fans see the nine or more innings that are played, the post-game interviews, and the headlines the following morning. What we don't see are the deadline deals being made between clubs, the conversations between Manager and GM, GM and Owner, GM and player.
It's a very well-versed portrayal of a man battling with demons, trying to prove the world wrong, all while taking criticism from every place under the sun. For anyone who ever thought the role of a GM was easy, this will change that. I was extremely pleased with the multiple scenes of Beane driving in his pick-up truck listening to talk-show hosts (and fans) completely ridicule his every move then giving credit to the manager and not him. Also, the random drop-ins of baseball experts like Bob Costas, Tim McCarver, added an outside view of what baseball was seeing happening in Oakland.
In the final 15-20 minutes of the movie, after being unable to "win the last game of the season", Beane takes a trip to Boston where he meets with Red Sox owner John Henry. Henry is infatuated with the style of roster management employed by the A's and wants to bring Beane to Fenway and be the new GM. There is a point before this revelation, where Beane tells Brand that if the A's don't win it all, their experiment will be considered a failure and Oakland will be a laughing stock once again. This meeting with Henry is the completion of the self-fulfilling prophecy. His method has changed the way the game is played, and now a team that has the finances to compete with the big boys, can use the evaluation style of a team that won as many games as the Yankees with tens of billions of dollars less.
Overall, this movie was wonderful. It was brilliantly written, produced, and portrayed. It opens a door inside the world of roster maintenance in the bigs. I personally enjoyed seeing names of guys I emulated in little league on the field again, watching the Kansas City Royals play in their old purple pinstriped jersey, and of course, the film session about Kevin Youkilis and discussion with the Sox. While it will be one of the best movies of the year, I don't see much Oscar buzz coming out of it. Yes, the acting is great and the film is a lot of fun to watch, it's not a "life-changer". You don't feel as if you're watching something special on the screen. Just a very well told story about an eventual loser that finds a way to win elsewhere. But that's baseball, and that's what is great about Moneyball. As Billy Beane says in the film, "How can you not be romantic about baseball?"
Oh, and for those who don't know the end of the story, Beane turns down a $12.5 million dollar offer from Boston (which would make him the highest paid GM in sports, at that time) to stay in Oakland and continue what he started. What the movie failed to mention was that Beane actually suggested Henry hire Theo Epstein, who was also helping to implement the same style in San Diego. Two years later, with a few big names and an island of misfit toys, the Red Sox snapped the 86-year old Curse of the Bambino and won the World Series. Again, how can you not be romantic about baseball?
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