Mar 2nd  
The Natural**      

(US 1984)                          

A gifted baseball player leaves his farm to pursue his detiny, but the road to the Major league is an unexpectedly long one.
Semi-allegorical sports fantasy in evocative post-Depression America, with heavy hints of Arthurian legend and a bevy of sporting cliches. Beautiful to look at, although glossing over many of the plot's shortcomings.

Written by: Roger Towne, Phil Dusenberry, from the novel by Bernard Malamud.
Producer: Mark Johnson.
Director: Barry Levinson.
Starring: Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth, Darren McGavin, Barbara Hershey, Joe Don Baker, Robert Prosky, Michael Madsen.
Photography: Caleb Deschanel.
Music: Randy Newman.
Production Design: Angelo Graham, Mel Bourne.

Preceded by:
The Kiss in the Tunnel 
(GB 1899. 1m. bw. silent; d: G.A. Smith.)