A League of Their Own
I don't know if you've noticed, but things here at HC have been a bit negative of late. We haven't given anything more than a couple of stars since March. Depressed by this, I thought it was time to pull out an old favorite and see how it held up to a re-watch.
It didn't disappoint. I love A League of Their Own. And how could I not? It features two Heroine Content all-stars, Geena Davis (from The Long Kiss Goodnight) and Lori Petty (from Tank Girl). It's got Madonna, back when Madonna was cool. It's directed by grrl-power director Penny Marshall (making her Heroine Content debut!). And it's about women playing baseball.
Set in the mid-40s, A League of Their Own doesn't pretend sexism doesn't exist. In fact, the central conflict of the film, aside from the sibling rivalry between Geena Davis' Dottie and Lori Petty's Kit, is about sexism. First, it's about convincing obnoxious drunk manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks, in my favorite role of his ever) that yes, "girls" can absolutely be ball players. Then, it's about convincing both the game's audience and its financial backers than it is worth it to them to let the "girls" play (which, eventually, they do, at least for a dozen years or so).
The women in the film actively fight sexism. Yes, they are forced to play baseball in ridiculous short dresses and take etiquette and deportment classes, but they do play. And they are shown playing--hitting and throwing and catching and running and sliding. They get tired. They get dirty. They get bruised. That, all by itself, is worth something. I have watched a lot of baseball movies. A League of Their Own is a baseball movie.
It's also a movie about women. Women who have relationships with each other that are highlighted above and beyond their relationships with men. It would have been so easy to slip into a stereotype and write in a romantic relationship between Hanks' Jimmy and Davis' Dottie, and, to the credit of everyone involved, they didn't. Ostensibly, this is because Dottie is married, but it's also because that's just not the point.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is the one during which the ball players sneak out and go to a dance hall. In part, I just like the dancing--Madonna tears it up--but the really great thing is how May, Madonna's character, and Rosie O'Donnell's Doris are really dancing with each other. Again and again, the film focuses on this relationship--the one between the women--and that puts it in a distinct minority.
The inclusion of O'Donnell's Doris, and of the much-maligned non-beautiful Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), also forces at least some discussion about women who are not traditionally beautiful or feminine. Marla's initial scene, in which the scout, Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz), rejects her as a possible player due to her looks, is unpleasant to watch. That discomfort is only made worse by the girls' deportment teacher's snide remarks towards Marla (she suggests that the only thing to be done about Marla's looks is "lots of night games"). It gets better, though. Marla is redeemed. She not only gets to play; she's the only character to fall in love in the film. Her teammates include her in the dance hall escapade where she meets her husband because she's one of them. She may not be pretty like they are, but, like them, she's a ball player.
A League of Their Own is also one of the few cinematic portrayals of older women that doesn't make my stomach turn. The film begins with Davis' Dottie getting ready to go to a reunion of her teammates upon the occasion of them getting inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it ends with that reunion. Having followed these women through what had to be one of the best times of their youth, the viewer immediately sees the older versions of the women as complete, interesting characters. You wonder what has happened to each of them, in between when you left them in the 40s and where you pick up with them in the 80s. They don't suffer the invisibility to which older women are so often relegated, both in cinema and in real life. Making this part even better, many of the women featured are actual members of the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League, most of whom were in their 70s and 80s when the movie was filmed.
The All-American League was an all-white league, and this is an all-white film. Given the historical moment it portrays, I have to forgive that. I wouldn't have been able to, however, if it hadn't included a moment's nod to this racist mistake. At one point, a ball is thrown out of the practice field, and a Black woman picks it up. Dottie, standing not far away, asks her to throw it. The woman hauls off and throws it over Dottie's head, far away. And she throws it so hard that the woman who catches it is left taking off her glove and shaking out her sore hand. Even though the whole thing takes up less than a minute of the movie, it makes a pretty strong impression about who is being left out.
A League of Their Own is a greatest hits movie for me. When it comes to heroine content, I have no complaints. Four stars.
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It gets better, though. Marla is redeemed. She not only gets to play; she's the only character to fall in love in the film. Her teammates include her in the dance hall escapade where she meets her husband because she's one of them. She may not be pretty like they are, but, like them, she's a ball player.
is Marla redeemed, or is the movie trying to say that because she's ugly, she's the only one whose life prospects are limited to marriage & housewifery? IIRC (and i may not - it's been years since i've watched the movie) - after marriage, she isn't playing much ball.
She does leave mid-season when she gets married, but a couple of things lead me to believe she continues to play ball. For one, she says, as she and Nelson are driving off, "I'll be back next season" (this counters Dottie, who says she won't be back because she and Bob want to have kids). Secondly, her husband is clearly supportive of her as a ball player, as indicated by her teammates holding bats up above the couple's head when the exit the church after their ceremony.
Do not crush my spirit on this one. I have to believe Marla keeps playing! :)
Yay! I was hoping you'd review this film. My cousin Katie let have her pick of her old VHS collection, and this was one of the tapes I chose.
For all the reasons in your review, ALOTO is one of my favorite films. After I saw it the first time, I was so enchanted that I bought a copy and have watched it five times now.
It's a pity Penny Marshall wasn't able to include the outtakes in the film itself. That would have added even more richness. Especially as Marla returned the same season because she and her spouse needed the money, and what came of that (I won't spoil it for those who haven't watched the outtakes).
I thought it a pity that the woman who played the Black pitcher/fielder didn't apparently get credit - nor have I been able to discover her name. But it was a perfect, tiny vignette description of the time: she's easily qualified to play--as Ellen Sue's stinging hand testifies--but kept out by racism.
Another girl-buddy film I like, though I have some conflict about the glorification of the FBI itself, is the comedy "Feds", where polar-opposite roomies at the FBI academy (Rebecca de Mornay as a tough ex-Marine NCO who's not academic and Mary Gross as a CPA not good at athletics) gradually develop a strong relationship and save one another from being dropped from the program. It's a little stereotyped, but still funny with a nice women's-revenge outcome.
It's sickening that those are the only two feel-good films I can think of where chemistry between women is the primary focus.