Baseball Watch: Eight Men Out (1988)

Watched:  07/23/2024

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  Second or Third

Director:  John Sayles

I haven't seen a ton of John Sayles, but if you want to see me get excited, let's talk Matewan or Lonestar sometime.  Sayles has become sidelined in the movie conversation.  If folks like Coppola, Lynch and Cronenberg are having a hard time out there, you can only guess how it's going for a guy who has always had a hard time convincing exhibitors that people will like his movies when he was at the top of his game.  Sayles' general lack of huge Hollywood success is partially why I think we can safely ignore awards/ box-office and just enjoy a movie.

I remember watching Eight Men Out (1988) the first time back in college, well before I was watching baseball, and eventually kind of fell in love with the sport (I'm currently watching the Cubs try to lose to the Brewers here in the 9th - whoops.  Yup.  They lost.).  But movies were a huge part of how I developed an interest in baseball to begin with.  

Eight Men Out tells the story of the infamous and very real 1919 White Sox World Series scandal.  What is a complex situation with dozens of characters is - entirely to Sayles' credit as the script writer and director - transformed into a lyrical fable of greed, of the working man, of cynicism and childish belief.  

Rightfully, the film is about how the working and pay conditions for pro-ballers before players unions was an absolute mess and the players had no chance at bettering their pay or situation - which almost inevitably led to players accepting bribes/ taking pay-offs to throw games. 

The film takes you through the set up of how and which players are approached - which gets screwed up as the players outsmart themselves and decide to double-dip by finding a second party to pay them off after the first secures them.   We see the actual series as the pay-offs themselves falter (fixes work better when fewer people are involved), and the team decides to win some games - but does lose the series.  

And, then, of course, discovery, prosecution and punishment by MLB.  

You don't have to like or know much about baseball to get the movie - it's clear enough what's happening and, as is true in many a sports-movie, the game is framework upon which to hang the human story.  A pair of sportswriters (one of which is played by Sayles) are there as a sort of Greek Chorus to comment and explain.  Thematically, we see a broken system and who gets punished and why, and, of course, that old college thematic favorite: loss of innocence.  

But here it's not just "wouldn't it be nice if people could remain blissfully naive, like Adam and Eve before they ate that darn apple?"  The way the scandal impacts the players impacts baseball, players, adult fans, and, of course, the kids who cheered these guys on.  While the players are found innocent in a court of law, the MLB itself declares the players guilty and bans them for life.  It doesn't even matter if you are innocent or not once you're aware of the shenanigans.

And, I swear to god, there I was at the end of this movie getting choked up about the idea of Shoeless Joe Jackson never getting to play MLB baseball again in a second goddamn movie, when the money was fine, but all most of these guys really wanted to do was play and instead were handed a lifetime ban.*  

The cast in this movie is. frankly, insane.  It catches a ton of actors, some established, some on their way up.

John Mahoney, Michael Rooker, John Cusack, Bill Irwin, Jace Alexander, DB Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, Don Harvey, David Straithairn**, Studs Terkel!, Clifton James, Richard Edson, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Tighe, Nancy Travis...  I mean, go take a look.  The movie should be remembered just for having all of these people in one place.  

Like with Matewan, Sayles manages to completely sell the period - from men's suits to the construction of baseball stadiums to sets.  It's beautifully shot - making the most of the film stock of the era's saturations of greens and reds and knowing when to deploy them.  And there's some really clever moving camera work throughout - and the baseball scenes are dynamic and work well.  But per direction - he clearly was able to capture what he wanted as there's so many characters and so much happening, he's able to convey so much through small moments and quick beats.

Anyway, maybe people in 1988 and 2024 don't have a lot of taste for a story about corruption in baseball, or how justice doesn't feel like justice.  This isn't a story about underdogs winning, this is a story about people we want to see as heroes being terribly human, and for the most human of reasons.  If it dispels the myths we tell ourselves about fair play and the purity of the game, that's a lesson sport seems to learn over and over and over again.  And fans watch again and again with the same surprise.

The movie doesn't have the nostalgic gut punch that Field of Dreams, League of Their Own, or The Natural have, but it does work on a different level - showing the tragedy of what happens when people make bad decisions - from team owners to players to gamblers.  And that you can't ever anticipate how this will go and what the fallout might be.

I flat out love this movie.  I remembered loving it the first time I saw it, and had avoided it for some time, concerned it wouldn't hold up.  But, man, it's just better now than it was back when I saw it about ten years after it came out.

*Field of Dreams, guys

**jesus, this guy is always so good.  You can put him in literally anything and he kills it.