On the surface, this movie appears to be about baseball. But what it's really about is the tribalism of human nature and how petty and simple minded people can be about broken records of grown men playing a child's game. The amount of pressure put on Marris to break or, better yet, not break the record was the most abhorrent aspect of the film. That fans threatend him and his family was sickening: the boos, the harrassment, the potential violence. Nothing has changed today, just the players and conditions. I've seen players lives threatened because they've missed an important shot or didn't get the hit or make the play in a playoff game. It's really sickening to see how seriously people take a game, one which means so very little in the overall scheme of things.
Review of 61*
