RESOURCES

Natural

The book Natural was made into the movie The Natural.

Which one did you like better, the book or the movie?  There are 6 votes for the book, and 8 votes for the movie.

Book details for Natural

Natural was written by Bernard Malamud. The book was published in 1952 by DH Audio. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

Bernard Malamud also wrote The Tenants (1971).

Read More About This Book

Movie details for The Natural

The movie was released in 1984 and directed by Barry Levinson, who also directed Bugsy (1991), Disclosure (1994), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997) and Sphere (1998). The Natural was produced by Sony Pictures. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky, Richard Farnsworth, Joe Don Baker, John Finnegan, Alan Fudge, Paul Sullivan Jr., Rachel Hall (II), Robert Rich III, Michael Madsen, Jon Van Ness, Mickey Treanor, George Wilkosz, Anthony J. Ferrara, Philip Mankowski and Danny Aiello III.

 

Read More About This Movie

From the sun-dappled heartland, a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is cut down by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many year... Read More
From the sun-dappled heartland, a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is cut down by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many years. When he reemerges, a silent mystery, he lands a spot with the New York team and begins tearing up the league--he's still the natural. Fans of the Bernard Malamud novel will be dismayed at the pure mythical hokum of this film, but baseball fanatics have been known to watch and rewatch this one; after all, it's constructed as a kind of shrine to the national pastime. Barry Levinson (Rain Man) directs the movie with an unabashed devotion to the game, although the film could use more of the realities of chewing tobacco and pine tar. Redford is fine, and Kim Basinger and Oscar-nominated Glenn Close are effective as the women in his life. The crowning touch is the soaring, extraordinary music by Randy Newman, the singer-songwriter turned orchestral composer. --Robert Horton