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The Legend of Bagger Vance (1999)
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:12
Rotten:20
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Despite the talent involved in The Legend of Bagger Vance, performances are hindered by an inadequate screenplay full of flat characters and bad dialogue. Also, not much happens, and some critics are offended by how the film glosses over issues of racism.
Theatrical Release:Nov 3, 2000 Wide
Box Office: $30,366,277
Synopsis: THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, based on the book of the same title by Steve Pressfield, uses golf as the basis for this spiritual tale of friendship, self-discovery, and faith. His incredible prowess... THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE, based on the book of the same title by Steve Pressfield, uses golf as the basis for this spiritual tale of friendship, self-discovery, and faith. His incredible prowess at the game of golf makes young Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) the pride of Savannah, Georgia in 1916. When Junuh enlists and is sent overseas to fight in World War I, the reality of war proves too much for him. Rather than return to Savannah a broken man, he simply disappears, much to the dismay of his girlfriend, feisty socialite Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron). When Junuh finally does return to Savannah in 1931, he is coerced into representing his hometown in a golf tournament against legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. But Junuh has lost his swing, and only begins to find it again with the help of Bagger Vance (Will Smith), a mysterious drifter who appears out of the night and offers his services as a caddy. Ultimately, Vance is a spiritual force, teaching Junuh not only about the game, but also about life in this beautifully filmed work directed by Robert Redford (ORDINARY PEOPLE, THE HORSE WHISPERER). Jack Lemmon narrates and makes a brief appearance in the film. [More]
Starring: Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Dermot Crowley
Starring: Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Dermot Crowley, Joel Gretsch, Jack Lemmon, Bruce McGill, Karen Moncrieff, Danny Nelson, Michael O'Neill, Harve Presnell, Carrie Preston, Thomas Jay Ryan, Lane Smith
Director: Robert Redford
Director: Robert Redford
Screenwriter: Richard LaGravenese, Jeremy Leven
Producer: Jake Eberts, Robert Redford, Michael Nozik
Composer: Rachel Portman
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC
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Reviews for The Legend of Bagger Vance
Another lusciously produced, emotionally clammy Redford enterprise -- forced, phony mythmaking filled with tinged sunsets and full moons.
Supernatural is not much better than subhuman: Hollywood is still, in the year 2000, disinclined to let black actors play human beings.
The competition sequences on the golf links, with the splendid camera work of Michael Ballhaus, and exactly the right amount of digital tweaking, are the real revelations of this film.
For all the wood-paneled Southern opulence, manicured fairways, and glowingly golden sunsets on display, there's nary a whiff of anything that will stick to your ribs.
The real contest for audiences is weathering the tonal shifts and forgiving the screenplay’s shallow depths and weak undercurrents.
[Redford] turns a solitary, often romanticized sport into a shimmering life metaphor.
It should be noted that the movie works uncommonly well for what it is; what's aggravating is the lost opportunity.
Why ... would someone of Redford's proven abilities waste his time on something this frivolous, this negligible -- this out of touch?
The men and women inhabiting this motion pictures are types, ciphers, and mouthpieces for slogans, not individuals we can believe in and care for.
It's a feel-nothing movie, too calculated and cautious to locate anything that might resemble a genuine or spontaneous life moment.
It offers pleasures of a kind that fewer and fewer films even seem to remember, much less aspire to.
So meticulous in its craftsmanship and so earnest in its storytelling that it feels both physically and spiritually airbrushed.
Relies on a ritualized filmmaking style that leaches [Redford's] story of excitement.
It's so utterly vague and mystical -- or, to be unkind about it, so slow the movie itself seems to be suffering from a hardening of the arteries.
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