Film Review: "The Legend of Bagger Vance"

At first glance this film appears to be a story about golfing. It evolves around three famous golfers and takes place predominately on a golf course so it’s understandable the uneducated viewer would think it’s a film about golfing. If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and….well you get the point.

But…if you think this movie it about golfing you would be wrong. Golfing is simply the vessel used to carry a story with a much deeper undercurrent.

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Our tale takes places pre and post World War I Savannah Georgia and highlights the story of Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon), a young golfer who appears to have it all. His incredible skills with the clubs have made him a bit of a local hero and he has won the love of the beautiful Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron), the daughter of the county’s’ most wealthy man.

When America enters World War I, with visions of glory and valor, our hero takes up the call of duty and soon finds himself a Captain in the U.S Army. However his fantasies of heroism are quickly cut short when the realities of war leave him a spiritually broken man. Hardened and haunted by the memories of war he vanishes. Ten years later he returns to Savannah hoping to lead a quiet meaningless life as a drunk only to find himself hustled into the largest exhibition golf game in Georgia’s history. Junuh quickly realizes he’s lost his “original swing” and fears complete humiliation on the course as he faces the two greatest names in golf at the time, Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill) and Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch).

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Enter a mysterious and mystical caddy that literally appears out of the dark of night, Bagger Vance (Will Smith). For a guaranteed fee of five dollars Bagger offers his services to Junuh, which the golfer accepts, hey what the heck, what else does he have to loose?

With the added help of an 11 year old caddy-in-training, Hardy Greaves (J.Michael Moncreif), Bagger shows Junuh how to get “his swing back” and along the way teaches him there’s more to the game of life than hitting a few balls around and hoping to get one in the hole every now and then.

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This was adapted from the book by the same name and was directed by Robert Redford. At first Robert wasn’t interested in doing a film about golf, mostly because he really didn’t “get it but once he “got it” he jumped on board. After that assembling an all star cast was easy, I mean who wouldn’t want to work with “The Natural"

The story is told completely as a back-story from the point of view of an elderly and ailing Hardy Greaves, played by Jack Lemmon (one of his final roles) who had idolized Junuh as a child and spent a lifetime convinced golf was, is and always will be the greatest game ever played.

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There are some very fresh moments in this film, especially in new comer J.Michael Moncrief who makes you just want to pick him up and hug him to pieces. He’s delightful to watch. Will Smith takes a refreshing change from his typical hot-shot funny guy to the quiet, serious and often seemingly unaffected, Bagger Vance. At the same time he still manages to add the light side of the film as he appears to be simply minded, straightforward golf caddy but clearly shows the audience his deeper ability to see and know the “not so obvious”, that the truth is far below what’s seen on the surface. Charlize does a bang up job of portraying the feisty southern belle who can clearly take care of herself and handle her own around even the most powerful of men.

It’s an enjoyable film even though it sports a few slow moments. There is a saying in scriptwriting that goes “in order to write a good scene, the scene can not be about what the scene is about”. Basically a good scene or in this case a movie is about something else that what is see with the eye, something that lies below the surface of the obvious. In this case “The Legend of Bagger Vance” appears to be a film about golf, but through excellent screenwriting and a well put together film, it’s clearly about something much deeper and much more personal and is clearly NOT about golf.

Watch the Trailer:

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