The Sandlot
I can’t count how many
times I’ve watched The Sandlot. It can be viewed so many times, and still be as
funny and entertaining as the first time you watched it.
Little Scotty Smalls is
our main character. The new kid on the block, he moves to a different town in a
whole other state, with no friends. But he quickly learns about a bunch of kids
his age who get together and play baseball. Not for any team so to speak,
rather just for the fun of it. Scotty tracks them down to a place called The
Sandlot; an old baseball pitch looking like it was abandoned years ago. With
hardly any grass left, and surrounded by old houses and fallen fencing, it’s as
far from the glory and glamour of Yankee Stadium as you could get. But these
kids don’t care. The Sandlot is theirs – and they own it. Trying desperately to
get accepted by them, Scotty bravely joins the game with his plastic, toy
glove. Failing to catch a ball, he gets laughed at. To make matters worse he
can’t throw, and the boys fall to the ground in hysterics. Distraught, Scotty
runs off but it’s not the end of his chance to make friends. Benny, the leader
of the baseball crew, decides to give Scotty a shot.
Lending Scotty a glove,
the introduces him to the rest of the “team”. Lining up like suspects for a mug
shot, there are; brothers Timmy and Tommy, Squints, Yeah Yeah, Bertram, Kenny and
Ham. Half of them go by nicknames obviously, but all of them don’t think much
of Scotty. Only Benny treats him like a friend from the very beginning. We’ve
all been that kid who didn’t fit in at some stage. Being the odd one out is
hard, especially when you don’t have a choice and the only group you can turn
to doesn’t accept you.
Heading back to The
Sandlot, Scotty shows he still can’t catch or throw. As the other boys look on
in disbelief, Benny runs to the rescue and gives Smalls a crash course in baseball.
Magically, he then learns how to throw and catch rather quickly. Before too
long, Smalls is part of the team. But his next problem will come when he learns
the truth of the local legend. At the far end of The Sandlot, behind one of the
fences, something evil lurks. You can hear it growl, you can sense it move, and
nothing can prepare you for The Beast.
When the ball gets hit
over that fence the next day, Smalls willingly offers to go get it. His new
mates run to his resuce, dragging him down from the fence. They tell him “The
ball’s gone”. When Scotty asks why, they all reply “The Beast”. The best way
for Smalls to see the terror for himself is to peer through a hole in the
fence. He sees it, although we don’t. What is it exactly? And why are all the
kids scared of it? The truth is exaggerated of course, as The Beast is in fact
just a really large dog. But a dog that claims any baseball that goes over the
fence, and will eat any kid who tries to retrieve their ball. This is the story
the kids believe anyway, and convince Scotty of the legend.
The Sandlot doesn’t follow
any particular plot so to speak, but who cares. It’s just for fun. There’s a
scene at the local pool, where the boys head on a hot day. Squints has his eyes
on lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, and fakes his own drowning just to receive mouth
to mouth and then kiss her. Then the boys head to the carnival to celebrate
their big win against a rival team. Walking on cloud nine, Bertram brings some
chewing tobacco for the boys to try. They feed their gobs with it then go on a
ride that twists, turns and tips upside down. Of course, they can’t stomach the
massive amount of tobacco in their mouth, and throw it all up. Or another great
scene,where the guys play a night game under the light of the fireworks on July
4th night.
The film then goes into
“Home Alone” mode when a certain, special baseball gets hit over the fence and
into the lair of The Beast. This ball must be retrieved, because Scotty stole
it from his step-dad and it’s autographed by none other than Babe Ruth. Worth
more than any amount of money the boys could imagine, they launch their mission
to get it back.
Coming up with one crazy
idea after another, the boys will do antying to get the ball back, but The
Beast thwarts their brave attempts at every turn. This is no ordinary dog.
Whatever contraption or device they create to steal back their ball, The Beast
will either stop it, break it, or eat it. And the rest of the time, the boys
ideas just backfire, because that happens when you try to use three vacuum
cleaners at once to suck up a ball that malfunctions, and Ker Boom!
The Sandlot is purely a
film to be enjoyed. It’s fun, fast paced and light-hearted. The characters are
well thought out and the young actors playing them were perfectly cast. It’s
about baseball. It’s about facing your fears. But it’s about friendship more
than anything else. Scotty starts out with none, but by the end is accepted by
the Sandlot Kids and becomes a pretty good ball player in the process. Childhood
movies always seem nostalgic when we think back on them, but The Sandlot is a
nostalgia piece without you needing to look at it that way. It’s set in the
1960’s, it’s about baseball, and it’s about kids playing in the fresh air all
day, all the time. You don’t see that in many kids movies made today, or many
of today’s kids doing that themselves for that matter. It’s a nice throwback to
a pleasant time, but goes to show kids are kids, no matter what generation they
come from. And they’ll always get into trouble and stick by each other in hard
times… as good friends do.
No comments:
Post a Comment