Finally, about 2 months after it came out in America, and after I’ve read countless reviews, I went to see Moneyball yesterday. It came out on Friday, and the Saturday showing only had 6 people in (including me and my Dad). I did think that might be the case though, as the film was purely about baseball, and not many English people are that interested. I’m guessing Brad Pitt is the main reason the film is even showing in the UK.

It was really cool seeing baseball on the big screen, and I loved the film. Having read the book, I sort of knew what to expect, but I think the film was really well made. Brad Pitt played a great Billy Beane and Jonah Hill was great! I loved the way that they interspersed real clips of baseball with the film, to give it that authenticity, but then reproduced some great shots from different angles (like David Justice chasing the ball into the corner, the camera angle on that was so unusual from normal baseball viewing).

One thing that I found quite interesting (if that’s how it really happens), is how General Managers call each other up to discuss trades. I don’t know if it’s at all like the movie, but I like the idea of Billy Beane calling Mark Shapiro and saying ‘ I need a outfielder, what have you got…’

It’s hard to pick a favourite part from the film, but I loved the end where Billy puts in the CD with the song his daughter (played by Kerris Dorsey) recorded for him. The 20th consecutive win was also pretty great. Not being a baseball fan in 2002, I never saw that, but I found myself genuinely caught up in the excitement, especially when Scott Hatteberg hit the walk off home run – great moment! My favourite quote from the film had to be this exchange at Hatteberg’s house:

Billy Beane: You don’t know how to play first base?
Scott Hatteberg: That’s right.
Billy Beane: It’s not that hard, Scott. Tell him, Wash.
Ron Washington: It’s incredibly hard.
Billy Beane: Hey, anything worth doing is. And we’re gonna teach you.

According to Ron Washington, that conversation did actually happen, just not at Hatteberg’s house.

Now the film was great, the experience at Cineworld, not so much. I usually go to the Vue, but the film wasn’t showing at the right time, won’t be making that decision again. When we got there, they let us in to the film 20 minutes late because they took too long cleaning up from the film before, but they had already turned off all the lights and started playing the trailers. Not great for my disabled Dad to walk up the stairs in the dark. Then about 5 minutes before the end, they dragged in all the cleaning trolleys and stood in the entrance talking on walkie-talkies. Obviously in a rush to get us out of there, and didn’t really care about the 6 of us who were actually interested in the film and how it ended.

I’ll leave you with this clip of Kerris Dorsey singing The Show with some clips from the film, great voice!