It Don't Mean a Thing If
It Ain't Got That Swing
by Sasha Stone

The problem with Robert Redford's latest directorial effort, The Legend of Bagger Vance, is that it expects its audience to have an innately born love of golf. Otherwise, why bother? The love story reveals nothing, the dramatic tension has long since left the building, and the characters seem present with the single intent of drawing in the target demo of 13 to 16-year-olds who see Matt Damon and Will Smith as men instead of boys.

Perhaps that was my problem with the film. I can't see either of them as men who have carved out a history for themselves, each trauma and joy helping to line their face and make them into legends. To me, one is still Will Hunting and the other is the Fresh Prince. Sure, they've gone on to stretch and grow, and perhaps they are technically men, but here they are imposters, high schoolers in grown-up clothes.

Matt Damon plays Captain Junah, the part Redford had originally envisioned for himself - a washed-out ex-golf genius currently battling post-traumatic stress disorder from having returned from the war a hero but left behind a company of dead men. Junah is a legend in Savannah, Georgia, for having been the kind of athlete who inspires a collective hush. So comes the big golf tournament, Savannah can think of no one but Junah to play in its honor.

Much time is invested in the town deciding, seeking out, then cajoling Junah to play. By the time they do, we've stopped really caring about it because we already know that there will be no payoff to those scenes. First, Junah agrees far too readily. Second, he looks way too young to have a past, so we don't believe anything bad has ever happened to him. Third, we already know what the ending will hold by the end of the first act.

By the time Bagger (he who may be called legend) Vance (Will Smith) shows up, we're sure that Junah is going to win whatever game he is about to play. Nonetheless, we wait patiently while Bagger Vance yasuhs and nosuhs his way to helping Junah find his "authentic swing." (Don't mythic creatures have something better to do with their time?) We watch as boy loses swing, boy gets swing back, boy loses swing, boy confronts demons of his war-torn past, boy gets swing back.

There is some magic here, of course. The most powerful scene in the film is when Junah finally relents and accepts Bagger's help, who tells him to watch his opponent's face as he gets ready to hit the ball. We watch the world around him fade away as he (Joel Gretsch) connects with the field. Another powerful scene is the one where Junah gets too cocky with his talent and tries to make an impossible shot and fails, and fails again. It's just that we know he'll regain his stride and we know how the film is going to end, so it takes away the suspense; Matt Damon as Junah is far too young and cute for his great future to be in question.

Even if Redford was wise not to cast himself (lest we be subjected to layers of Warren Beatty-esqe silk screen), he should have cast a man we could believe had many wasted years behind him - Ed Harris, Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, even Kevin Costner, are all actors who could be believable in the role. Matt Damon, as much as he brings to the part and as talented as he is, cannot make us feel anything bordering on sympathy.

Will Smith shows some real promise as a low-key "serious" actor, but this character had no real reason ever to see the light of day - a racist, insulting portrayal of a beaten down black man who exists only to help some blocked golfer find his swing? Perhaps if it had been Ossie Davis and Clint Eastwood we might have cared because they would have been characters whose whole lives had been influenced by one's inability to play golf because of the color of his skin and the other's inability to play because of war trauma. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

As for Charlize Theron, while she may look perfect in the part - like a cover girl for a 1930s issue of Good Housekeeping - her accent is forced, her part totally insignificant and her execution not up to her usual snuff. Not to beat a dead horse, but it would have been quite something if Redford had gone older - if he'd cast, say, aging beauty Kim Basinger (who hails from the South and appeared with Redford in The Natural, a similar film about zenlike athletics).

If Bagger Vance has anything to say, given that the whole point is lost with such a young star, it's that artists, not just people in general, get into trouble when they try to repeat successes from the past. They have an authentic swing that can only be realized when they forget about all the forces out there either cheering them on or whispering about their imminent failure, i.e. fans and critics, respectively. Redford has successfully taken this advice in his own career, straying from the tight personal drama for which he won an Oscar, Ordinary People, and the equally brilliant, albeit not as lauded A River Runs Through It and Quiz Show.

Of course, when Robert Redford directs a film, you're not going to be left holding the bag. You'll enjoy yourself enough, you'll be moved from time to time, and you won't have wasted your money. If Bagger Vance isn't up to his usual level of playing, perhaps it's time for him to find his own authentic swing, to trust his instincts, and cast appropriately. He'll get his swing back -- especially now that he knows there's an ebb and flow to it.

CineScene, 2000