Moneyball

“Moneyball” stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team, whose exploits were originally recited in the non-fiction book “Moneyball, the Art of Winning in an Unfair Game” written by Michael Lewis. Taken with the story Brad Pitt, in the role as Producer, sought the services of his friend, Steven Soderbergh (with whom he worked in “Ocean’s Eleven”) and began production in conjunction with Sony Pictures. Differences later arose between the studio and Soderbergh who then left the film. Just as A’s General Manager Beane was forced to regroup and create a new team when his stars left to go to higher paying clubs, so did Pitt, in a real life dramatization of the Beane character’s problems, seek and get Scott Rudin to join Pitt, Michael DeLuca and Rachel Horvitz as one of the film’s producers. Rudin’s prior association with Aaron Sorkin (“The Social Network”) brought Sorkin on board to work on Steve Zaillian’s script and thus create the finished product.. Also, like the story of Beane, Pitt got a new director, Bennett Miller (known for low budget films (“Capote”). Again the similarity between life and art is striking (no pun intended). This is a movie rich with the tradition of the sport and an insight as to how high financed clubs can dominate league play. More importantly, it represents how a new approach, dictated by economic needs and lack of funds, can alter conventional attitudes and bring about the unthinkable i.e.a team with a 39 million dollar budget outperforming those having four or five times that sum. Joining Pitt as the maverick general manager is Jonah Hill who portrays what some believe is Paul Podesta, an ivy league economics major who helps the Pitt character look at statistics in a whole new light. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the field manager This is a Cinderella story which sees the team win an unprecedented 20 games in a row, the first time this ever occurred in the 103 year history of the sport.. More importantly, it is the story of resilience, confidence and focus and is all the more meaningful because it really happened. Of course a love of baseball is an added plus for any viewer of the film but the writing and directing are of such a high quality that even those unfamiliar with the sport will enjoy the story and its message. I give the film 3 and ½ stars with special kudos to Mr. Pitt who showed that in baseball and in show business, tenacity and dedication can still get big “hits”.