| The Legend of Bagger Vance | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Redford |
| Produced by | Michael Nozik Jake Eberts Robert Redford |
| Written by | Steven Pressfield (novel) Jeremy Leven (screenplay) |
| Starring | Will Smith Matt Damon Charlize Theron |
| Music by | Rachel Portman |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Editing by | Hank Corwin |
| Studio | Allied Filmmakers |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures (USA) 20th Century Fox (non-USA) |
| Release date(s) | November 3, 2000 |
| Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $80,000,000 |
| Box office | $39,459,427[1] |
The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 American film directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron. It is based on the 1995 book of the same title by Steven Pressfield and takes place in the U.S. state of Georgia in 1931. This was Jack Lemmon's final film before his death in 2001. In the intro of movie from studios, the fanfare is not included.
On release, the film was attacked by several African American commentators and reviewers for using the "magical negro" as a plot device.[2][3][4] Since the film's release, some in the mainstream media have also described the film as flawed and racially insensitive.[5]
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Promising golfer Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) is Savannah, Georgia's favorite son, and Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron) is his beautiful girlfriend from a rich family. But after fighting in World War I traumatizes Junuh, he returns to Georgia and lives a shadowy life as a drunk, golf being just a distant memory.
Years later (circa 1930,[6] as Bobby Jones retired from golf at age 28, during the Great Depression), Adele is trying to recover her family's lost fortune by holding a four-round, two-day exhibition match between Jones (Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill), the best golfers of the era, with a grand prize of $10,000. She's holding it at a golf resort her father built as the Depression struck. However, she needs a local participant to generate local interest, so she asks her estranged love Junuh to play.
Junuh is approached by a mysterious traveler carrying a suitcase who appears while Junuh is trying to hit golf balls into the dark void of night. The man identifies himself as Bagger Vance (Will Smith) and says he will be Junuh's caddy. He then helps Junuh to come to grips with his personal demons and helps him to play golf again.
When the match starts, Jones and Hagen each play well in their distinctive ways, but Junuh plays poorly and is far behind after the first round. With Bagger caddying for him and giving advice, Junuh rediscovers his "authentic swing" in the second round and makes up some ground. In the third round, closes the gap even more. Junuh and Adele also find their romance rekindling.
Late in the final round, Junuh disregards Bagger's advice at a crucial point and after that plays poorly. He hits a ball into a forest, where he has a traumatic World War I flashback, but Bagger's words help him to focus on golf. Junuh pulls back to a tie with Jones and Hagen, then has a chance to win on the final hole, but calls a penalty on himself when his ball moves after he tries to remove an obstacle.
Seeing from this that Junuh has grown and matured, Bagger decides his golfer doesn't need him any more. Bagger leaves him as mysteriously as he met him, with the 18th hole unfinished. Though losing a chance to win because of the penalty, Junuh sinks an improbable putt to tie Jones and Hagen, so the match ends in a gentlemanly tie, the three golfers shake hands with all of Savannah cheering, and Junuh and Adele get back together.
During the match, Bagger Vance has a young assistant, Hardy Greaves (J. Michael Moncrief), who caddies after Bagger leaves. The beginning and end of the film features Hardy as an old man (Jack Lemmon) playing golf in the present day, and the story ends with an old Hardy seeing a never-aging Bagger Vance on the golf course. Bagger beckons, Hardy follows.
The plot is roughly based on the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita, where the Warrior/Hero Arjuna (R. Junuh) refuses to fight. The god Krishna appears as Bhagavan (Bagger Vance) to help him to follow his path as the warrior and hero that he was meant to be. This relationship was fully explained by Steven J. Rosen in his book Gita on the Green, for which Steven Pressfield wrote the foreword.[7]
Reaction from movie critics was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 42% based on 128 reviews.[8]
Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave it 3½ stars, said, "It handles a sports movie the way Billie Holiday handled a trashy song, by finding the love and pain beneath the story. Redford and his writer, Jeremy Leven, starting from a novel by Steven Pressfield, are very clear in their minds about what they want to do. They want to explain why it is possible to devote your life to the love of golf, and they want to hint that golf and life may have a lot in common".[9] The BBC's George Perry called it a "sumptuously photographed film" but added that "in spite of being lovely to look at, it is pretentious piffle, although Will Smith shows skill and subtlety in his ludicrous role".[10]
Director Spike Lee said that Hollywood's new idea was now the "Super-Duper Magical Negro" after seeing Bagger Vance.[2] He said that it was just a reincarnation of "the same old" stereotype or caricature of African Americans as the "noble savage" or the "happy slave".[3][4] Time called it one of the most "embarrassing" films of recent years for its treatment of African Americans and the use of a "Magical African-American Friend".[5]
The Legend of Bagger Vance opened at #3 at the U.S. box office, grossing $11,516,712 from 2,061 theaters.[1] According to the Internet Movie Data Base website (imdb.com), the film's total gross came to $30,695,227, far short of its estimated $60 million budget.
The now out-of-print soundtrack to The Legend of Bagger Vance was released on November 7, 2000. It was mostly written by Rachel Portman, except for tracks one ("My Best Wishes"), thirteen ("Bluin’ the Blues") and fourteen ("Mood Indigo"), which were written by Fats Waller, Muggsy Spanier and Duke Ellington, respectively.
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