Bang the Drum Slowly (film)

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Bang the Drum Slowly
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John D. Hancock
Produced by	Maurice and Lois Rosenfield
Written by	Mark Harris
Starring	Michael Moriarty Robert De Niro
Music by	Stephen Lawrence
Cinematography	Richard Shore
Editing by	Richard Marks
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	1973
Running time	96 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Budget	$1,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Bang the Drum Slowly is a 1973 film adaptation of the 1956 baseball novel of the same name by Mark Harris. It was previously dramatized in 1956 on the U.S. Steel Hour with Paul Newman and Albert Salmi.

The 1973 film was directed by John D. Hancock and stars Michael Moriarty as Wiggen, and a then young unknown actor named Robert De Niro in the role of Pearson. It was met with box office success and critical acclaim. De Niro's performance in the film and in Mean Streets, released two months later, brought him widespread acclaim. Compared with other roles which have seemed to typecast him as a troubled loner (as in The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver) or a charismatic sociopath (as in The Godfather: Part II, Once Upon A Time In America, Goodfellas and Cape Fear), the Pearson role has been regarded as one of his more tragic and sensitive characters.

[edit] Production

The opening scenes of the movie show the stars running the track at Yankee Stadium before its 1973 to 1976 renovation, but due to the renovation, the baseball scenes were filmed in Shea Stadium.

The film and book include a fictional card game known as tegwar, which means "The Exciting Game Without Any Rules." It is a game basically designed to separate a sucker from his cash. Henry Wiggen plays this game along with other ballplayers and coaches, to sucker passers-by in the lobby of the team hotel. It is generally believed that Bruce Pearson is too dumb to be able to sucker people, so he is excluded. However, Henry begins to include Bruce in the tegwar games as the story progresses.

This film is reportedly Robert De Niro's colleague Al Pacino's favorite film.^{[citation needed]} Legend has it that Pacino was originally cast in the Pearson role but was offered the coveted role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, which he accepted. De Niro, also cast in The Godfather but in a smaller role, was offered up as a substitute by Francis Ford Coppola.^{[citation needed]}

In reviews, Wiggen is often referred to as "the Tom Seaver character." Reinforced by the Shea Stadium locale, this has led some viewers to incorrectly believe that the story is factually based. The result is that when the film came out, Seaver, more than once, had to reassure concerned fans that battery mate Jerry Grote was alive and well.

[edit] References

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