It’s time for a Baseball film with a lot of hype but also one that deals with tragedy later on. After all the movie is about Lou Gehrig who was well known for getting quite sick at one point. It definitely put him through a lot but most of the movie happens before that at least. They do a good job of showing Lou to be a really nice guy and the Baseball scenes are fun. So all in all there’s not a whole lot to dislike about the film.

It starts with Lou growing up as a big Baseball fan even though he plans to be an Engineer when he grows up the way that his Mom wants him to. Baseball is just not something you really aim for because so many people end up crashing out early. Well, he’s scouted for the Yankees anyway and ultimately ends up going for it. He becomes one of the best Baseball players out there and gets married to Eleanor. The two of them get to have many good times before he eventually ends up passing.

There’s not really an antagonist in this film at all. Sometimes a film like this may try to at least have a really tough reporter or someone like that to shake Lou up but that doesn’t really happen here. There is one heckler who tends to bet against Lou but it’s never really played in a mean spirited way. The guy struck me as being competitive but not actually nefarious. He was actually pretty entertaining the whole time. Meanwhile Lou’s mother was a tough customer about Baseball and then being jealous of his wife for a while but eventually she got better. I was glad that Lou stuck up for Eleanor there and helped her out.

At the end of the day your wife is supposed to be the head of the household when it comes to decorating, equipment, and any of the rules there. Lou’s mother was nice enough in most instances but even if she was to have been perfectly kind, it’s just not her place anymore. Eleanor ultimately should have been a little more determined and stuck up for herself too though. Allowing herself to be on the backfoot the whole time definitely didn’t help matters. It made her look a bit too timid the whole time. If you’re not able to have an honest conversation with your husband then the relationship doesn’t feel too sound.

That’s where I have to criticize Lou as well though. When he gets sick, he tells everyone not to tell his wife so she won’t worry. I would consider this to be selfish in the highest degree. She absolutely has a right to know, particularly since others already do. To be the only one left out like that is pretty awful. Yeah she figures it out pretty quick but I think he owed it to her to tell her directly rather than her having to confirm with alternate sources.

The writing is pretty solid and the script is always on point. Lou can appear to be a bit naive at times but that’s how it goes sometimes. The film is long and it does feel long so perhaps the pacing isn’t perfect but they did have a whole lot to cover. I would say that by and large they did manage to cover a whole lot of it excluding the Baseball parts which was definitely more on the unfortunate side. We definitely got to see that Lou really had a lot of support among his fans and friends to the very end though. The montage of everyone rooting for him was rough even if he ultimately could not end up beating out the illness. Sometimes you just are not able to overpower it like that. Particularly since this is based on true events it’s not like they could change the ending. So instead I’m glad that the film doesn’t dwell on it for too long.

I feel like a modern movie might try to milk that part a bit more. Letting us see the main character in tears on multiple occasions or something like that. Bringing up the sad music and everything to amp things up to the next level. I definitely prefer the more subtle touch, it’s the way to go since you still feel the sad impact without it absolutely taking over and starting to drown out the happy beginning. After all Lou still got to live a very complete life with a whole lot of highs so I imagine he would still have been pretty satisfied with the end result.

Overall, The Pride of the Yankees is definitely a celebration to Lou and they do a really good job of that. Fans of him should be pretty pleased with his portrayal and of course the Yankee fans will like seeing all of the home runs and the glory days here. I would have liked to have seen more of the actual Baseball action myself considering how long the movie was though. They definitely should have been able to squeeze in at least another 45 minutes or so right? Especially if you play it like an extended montage you could have squeezed many more scenes in. Ultimately this is more about the man than the ballplayer although it hits both to an extent. Either way it’s a film worth checking out.