Customer Reviews

Cobb

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

To Dhaval Vyas.. quit copying and pasting the exact same thing under every baseball movie complaining about how they haven't made a movie yet about an african american baseball player and giving the movie a 1-star rating just because it's a movie about a white athlete. Don't be so sensitive, and write a meaningful review... if you've even seen any of these movies! Oh I forgot, your narrow view of the world will never allow it..

Anyway where was I? Oh yes.. Cobb. This film is a terrific insight into who Ty Cobb really was. Was he a saint? Was he a monster? This movie tells it all. I was hoping for more from Cobb's playing days, where all we get is just one scene where he is sharpening the spikes on his shoes and then bets two guys $100 that he would double, then steal third and steal home. Cobb pulls it off, wins his $100, and starts an on-field brawl in the process. Great stuff!

Otherwise, this movie focuses almost entirely on the relationship between Cobb and Al Stump, the sportswriter Cobb hires to help write his autobiography, with a few snippets of info about Cobb's relationship with his family. Stump soon finds out all that he needs to know about Cobb. Difficult at best, psychotic at worst, and although I'm sure there was nothing at all amusing about the real Ty Cobb, this movie manages to throw a little bit of humor into the mix, but not so much that you lose track of who Cobb really is.. a mean, bitter, drunken old man lost in the glory days of his legendary baseball career.

Tommy Lee Jones was absolutely brilliant as Cobb, and he alone makes this movie worth seeing. Not alot in this film in the way of baseball action, but an interesting look inside the mind of the Georgia Peach. Worth a watch!

Ty Cobb was called "the greatest baseball player of all time" and he enjoyed the spotlight. He was also known as "difficult person" to put it mildly. He drank hard, was prone to violence, insulted everybody, beat his wife, alienated his children, was a racist, beat a man to death and was accused of fixing games. In 1960 he had his biography written by a sportswriter named Al Stump. At the time Al Stump wrote a flattering portrait. Later, Stump wrote another book, telling the "real" story about Cobb. And this 1994 film is based on this second book.

The film is set in 1960 when Cobb, then 72 years old, engages Al Stump to write his biography. Stump's a young sportswriter who's flattered by the assignment. At first he hates the arrogant Cobb, but later finds himself admiring him for his "bigger than life" personality. And so he winds up being Cobb's only friend, traveling with him, drinking with him and playing nursemaid to his wild rages and need for constant medication.

Tommy Lee Jones is cast as Cobb, in a larger-than-life performance that humanizes the aging Cobb in spite of his raging racism and generally obnoxious behavior. Robert Wuhl is cast as Al Stump and his performance is equally good as we see him starting to have sympathy for the aging man. Lolita Davidovich is cast as a Reno cigarette girl who is pursued by both Al Stump and Cobb. She gives a good performance but I think the main reason she's in the film is to liven it up with a bit of flesh. There's also a small role played by Roger Clemens, the real-life pitcher in a scene of a baseball game played around 1916. Wisely, the camera doesn't stay too long on Tommy Lee Jones for this scene because he just can't look like a very young man.

The screenplay was ambitious but it lacked something. It was overlong and tended to be boring. Once the general situation was set, there was just one kind of outrageous behavior after another to prove the point that Cobb was difficult and that Stump was starting to admire the old man. In my opinion, the whole film could have been condensed to a one-hour television movie. As I'm interested in baseball, I did enjoy the film. But it certainly isn't one that I can highly recommend.

To me, this movie is a dark comedy. Ty Cobb is obviously a racist, abusive mean spirited human being who also happens to be a baseball legend. This movie is about Cobb off the field during his last days as he plans an autobiography on his baseball career. Throughout the movie, he is verbally and physically abusive to those around him. Tommy Lee Jones manages to make his character, at times, sympathetic towards the end of the film as he gets sicker and sicker from one of his many illnesses. This does not change the fact that Ty Cobb was a vicious human being and writer/director Ron Shelton writes the character in a way that makes him funny in some ways. I can't imagine this movie being what it is without Tommy Lee Jones. Jones tends to play arogant know-it-all characters in movies and this one tops them all. This movie was not a hit because of limited release(40 theaters instead of the planned 400 according to Shelton's commentary) but it is easily one of the best movies made about baseball and the people who play the game. Without a doubt Tommy Lee Jones' best performance. Worth taking the time to watch despite the wretched character he portrays in the movie.

"Cobb" is a tragic and humorous account of the tumultuous life of the baseball legend. Tommy Lee Jones delivers an intense, gripping portrayal of the aging, diseased, foul-mouthed, volatile old man known as Cobb, yet still manages to draw sympathy and intrigue from viewers. Jones' mastery of this character is evident as a mere glance or gesture from Cobb can evoke dramatic tension, anger, and humor from anyone unfortunate enough to be near him. I couldn't take my eyes away from Tommy Lee Jones. This film is incredible!!

This is absolutely one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen. Tommy Lee Jones is just incredible, actually able to make us feel a degree of sympathy for the menacing, hate- spewing, racist Cobb. Some hilarious, very non Politically Correct dialogue! Very different movie than most of the trite trash that Hollywood churns out these days.

First off I want to say that although this movie revolves around Ty Cobb, it is not only about baseball. This movie probes deep into a very driven and disturbed ballplayer and husband. While watching the movie you go through what the director is hoping to convey to the viewer...first you hate Cobb, then you start to think that he may not be the monster he has been made out to be.

The acting of Tommy Lee Jones is stellar! One of his finest performances of his well established career. This movie is hard to find on store shelves due to it was not very popular and still isnt, however that should not impeed you from seeing this 5-star film. There are many lines that are quotable for the rest of your life in this film. Cobb's view on the world in general is very entertaining. I laughed out loud many times during his frequent outbursts. My wife, who doesnt like baseball all that well, recommended this film to her grandparents, and they loved it.
So in closing, take two and a half hours and watch a film that will become a sought after movie for your own personal collection!

Make no mistake: this is Tommy Lee Jones' vehicle. Cobb was a larger than life icon both on and off the field, the first superstar in American sports, and Jones plays him larger than life.

This movie, based on Al Stump's second biography of Tiger great Tyrus Raymond Cobb, is the biography Stump didn't release after Cobb's death in 1961 - that was the cleaned up version, the version Cobb wanted published, that talked of the nuts and bolts of baseball: how to steal second base, how to hit to the opposite field - all the things Cobb felt the public wanted to read about from one of the game's "immortals."

It wasn't until the 1990s, shortly before Stump's own death, that his second biography of Cobb was released, the one that painted the darkest depths of Cobb's very complex character. He was a man driven by inner demons who, only in the end, revealed to Stump, the highest paid sports writer of that era, some of what haunted him. Stump spent several months with Cobb shortly before his death to write the story as Cobb wanted it written, but late at night he wrote the other version.

Cobb was a monster, but the viewer is unable to look away, which only serves to peel away another layer of this movie: our fascination with greatness, our inability to look away, to deny ugliness in an effort to glimpse or brush up against greatness. When Stump threatens to quit before the book is finished, the result of Cobb's constant abuse and manipulation, Cobb tells him: "You won't quit. You've never been this close to greatness."

Jones' performance in Cobb is nothing short of brilliant: some of his expressions reveal more about Cobb's character than many other, less accomplished actors, could reveal even with a page of dialogue. When Cobb pulls up in front of his daughter's home (he hasn't seen her in 15 years), she looks out the window, recognizes her father, and pulls down the shade and closes the curtains, and the viewer aches for the pain Jones reveals in his simple expression.

We see Cobb as the consummate showman: "Do you know what it's like to have 50,000 fans boo and throw things at you?" he asks Stump. "It's the greatest feeling in the world." We see him at his worst: at a Reno nightclub, where he walks onstage to a cheering crowd enamored with seeing a living legend of the game, only to, within minutes, clear the room with racist slurs. We see him beat his wife and pistol whip to death in an alley a man he would later claim tried to rob him (he was later acquitted, largely in part because of his celebrity status - shades of O.J. and Kolbe Bryant). We watch him jump into the stands to beat up a fan who had no hands.

And still we are unable to look away. What causes a man to act in such a way?

We get a glimpse of some of Cobb's goodness: he left the largest portion of his fortune - yes, he was immensely wealthy, not so much from his playing days but from his investments in General Motors (ground floor) and Coca Cola ("Invest in Coke, Stumpy, it's coming out in cans.") - to be used to build a children's hospital, and for years he supported Mickey Cochrane, one of the game's all-time greatest catchers, and many other destitute players - "You won't put that in the book," he tells Stump. "But why not?" Stump asks. "Because it would embarrass Mickey."

Yet the good cannot justify the many monstrous acts; but Jones' riveting performance brings to mind another well-known monster, this one fictional, and the viewer realizes that monsters are not so much born but created, as was the Frankenstein monster, who, like Cobb, only sought to be loved and accepted. Yes, Cobb's monstrous behavior was due in part to our acceptance of that behavior, our willingness to look the other way in the presence of greatness. A telling moment in Cobb has him confessing to Stump: "You're the best friend I have."

Only in the end do we get a glimpse of what fueled Cobb's demons, a glimpse into a childhood that left him marked for a lifetime, that both drove him to greatness on the ball field while at the same time prevented him from achieving intimacy with anyone - wife, lover, team mate: "But a man must defend his mother at all times, shouldn't he, Al?"

Cobb was a pathetic man, worse than a curmudgeon, unable to give up his past achievements on the field, a feared and hated competitor, unable, even in his 70s, to allow another man to best him, loathed even by his own children; yet thanks to Jones' portrayal, Stump's book and Ron Shelton's brilliant screenplay, we find that he is also pitiable.

Robert Wuhl is cast as Al Stump and his performance is good, while Lolita Davidovich is the Reno cigarette girl to whom the impotent Cobb, on medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and half a dozen other ailments, gives $1,000 to tell everyone that she slept with "the great Ty Cobb." Roger Clemens, the real-life pitcher, makes a cameo appearance as an opposing pitcher in a flashback to a game played during Cobb's prime, and Ernie Harwell, Hall of Fame announcer for the Detroit Tigers, also makes a cameo appearance in a scene at a Hall of Fame banquet.

If you're looking for a baseball movie, a how to steal second base or hit to the opposite field movie, look elsewhere, but for the human drama of a real life monster and a glimpse into the dark side of the human psyche, both the monster's as well as our own, Cobb is highly recommended.

Ty Cobb was certainly one of the greatest ballplayers to ever put on cleats, but this film does not him justice. As a historical biopic it falls far short. Cobb comes across without a shred of humanity and is dislikeable from his first appearance. This really isn't a baseball story per se, it's more of a character study with a baseball backdrop. The story starts near the end of Cobb's life as reporter Al Stump is summoned to Cobb's Tahoe hunting lodge to write the life story of the great ball player (all of which is based on a true story and you can find Stump's books on Amazon). The vast majority of the movie is spent on the interplay between Stump and Cobb as Stump (and the audience) discover what kind of man Cobb really is (and it ain't pretty). Throughout the film we get a few vignettes of Cobb's life, his career in baseball, his early upbringing, the accidental (?) slaying of his father by his mother, but we basically learn that Cobb was a drunken, racist pig. Stump is torn as to whether to write the hero-worship story that Cobb wants, or whether to write the true-to-life story that presents Cobb to the public as he really is, warts and all.

There is a lot to like about this film. The performances of both Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Wuhl (who is the main character in the tale in spite of the title and billing) are outstanding. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is probably one of Tommy Lee Jones' best performances in his long and varied career. He convincingly makes Cobb dislikable from the get go. Roger Clemens makes a guest appearance as well. In this film, Cobb represents everything that is wrong with professional athletes. The arrogance, the sense of self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement. They are only baseball players, and batting titles in the grand scheme of things aren't that important. Cobb may be rich and famous, but I wouldn't want to have lived his life. If even half this film is true, he must have been a pretty sorry man. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge baseball fan, but some (many) pro athletes lose perspective, and the man presented in Cobb took this to the extreme.

The faults of this film are many, however. The story bounces along as Cobb commits one outrageous, druken, racist act after another, becoming more despicable to the audience. In fact, the story is essentially the same series of scenes repeated throughout the film. Stump/Wuhl is torn about the story he wants to write, Cobb commits another self-indulgent, offfensive act, Stump and Wuhl argue about it, then patch things up and it happens again. The film really drags at times. Additionally, for a film purportedly about one of the early stars of baseball, you'll learn almost nothing about Cobb as a player, and even less about the dead-ball era in baseball more generally. This film is largely a character study, and I would have liked to know more about Cobb's baseball days. Don't be misled thinking that this film is largely about Cobb's playing days, because it isn't. This is a decent film that even a non-baseball fan can enjoy as a rental. No need to add this to your collection though, even a hardcore baseball aficiando isn't likely to be watching this over and over.

This great movie chronicles the life of Ty Cobb, one of baseball's all-time greatest players and one of the original members of baseball's hall of fame. Ty Cobb played baseball during the "deadball era", when the baseball wasn't wound as tight as it is today. Home runs came at a premium back then, and one season, Cobb led the league in home runs with nine. He has the highest lifetime batting average of any player to play the game at .367, and he hit over .400 three times. He also stole 892 bases and scored over 2,000 runs in his career. Babe Ruth may have been the greatest home run hitter of all-time, but Ty Cobb was the best all-around player.

Tommy Lee Jones stars as Cobb. The year is 1960, and he is now 72 years old and battling cancer. He calls on Al Stump (Robert Wuhl) to write his autobiography. Stump was recognized as one of the greatest sportswriters of his time, having published atricles in many national newspapers and magazines, but he jumped at the chance to write about the great Ty Cobb. He accepts the job.

Al drives to Nevada to meet Cobb at his hunting lodge. Upon enetring, he hears gunfire from upstairs. The houseman tells him its Cobb shooting off his pistol. Unsure, Stump heads upstairs. There' he meets Cobb for the first time. Their initial meeting is shaky at best, but Al accepts Ty's offer of writing the autobiography. This sets off a series of events that last well over a year. During this time, Al becomes Ty's only true friend and nursemaid by administering Ty's numerous medicines to him. They drink together, fight with each other, chase the same women, and shoot at each other, but something more important develops; a sense of trust and friendship. Ty loses some of his toughness around Al, and Al learns to accept Ty for who he really is and not who Al wants him to be.

During his writing, Al decides to write two different manuscripts; one strictly about Ty's baseball life which he allows Ty to see, and another about Ty's secret life, which he keeps hidden away in his suitcase. As the film progresses, Ty becomes more and more impressed with Al's work, but he still doesn't know anything about the other manuscript, until one day, he discovers a piece of paper hanging from Al's suitcase. It is then that he discovers the hidden manuscript. Shortly thereafter, Ty checks himself into the hospital because his medical condition has gotten much worse. He died on July 17, 1961 at the age of 73. He will probably be remembered for sharpening his spikes before games, starting fights with opposing players, hating blacks, women, and Jews, and even going into the stands and fighting with a fan, but he should also be remembered as one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball.

This is a teriffic baseball movie. Tommy Lee Jones delivers an Oscar-caliber performance as Ty Cobb, and Robert Wuhl is equally good as Al Stump. Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens even has a cameo as an opposing pitcher. He even knocks Cobb down in one scene. The story is excellent.

I give this movie my highest recommendation. I'm a huge fan of baseball movies, and this film ranks with the greatest ever made. I only wish that there would have been more game footage. Watch this absolutely fantastic movie and learn about one of baseball's biggest stars.

Tommy Lee Jones is incredible as Ty Cobb. The movie is basically the first few pages of Al Stump's biography of Cobb he wrote sometime in the early 90's. Cobb is old and dying and we see his life through flashbacks and such. Jones becomes Cobb and gives truly superb performances throughout the film. This movie should spark an interest in Ty Cobb which you should act on, he was a very interesting individual who lived a very hard life. He was a tragic figure in baseball. A must see!