Eight Men Out is the story of the 1919 World Series, and the Chicago White Sox who end up deciding to throw the World Series. After an entire season of penny-pinching by the White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, a group of gamblers see a spot where they can take advantage of the situation presented to them. Back in 1919, baseball players were not making very much money, and when Comiskey declined to give the White Sox players their bonuses for winning the American League, a lot of them were upset, and a few really needed the money. This is where the gamblers come in to the equation, and it is conjectured that they offered 2 of the players money to lose games. Those two players were Pitcher Eddie Cicotte and First Baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil. The story evolves though as they realize that they cannot lose all of the games by themselves, and they recruit additional players to join the fix.


Seeing that two of their teammates are going to do it, and being told that each other is doing it by the gamblers, 5 more players become involved in the taking of money. Those players were Pitcher Lefty Williams, Centerfielder Happy Felsch, Shortstop Swede Risberg, Third baseman, Utility man Fred McMullin, and Star Outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson. The movie changes history a little, in the fact that it plays off the 8th player, Buck Weaver, as deciding that he wanted to not be involved with the fix, and instead plays his hardest to win games. Unfortunately for him, he does not tell anyone about the proposed fix, and everyone soon assumes that he is as guilty as everyone else is.


In order to pull of such a big cast that involves the players, the manager, the press, the bosses, and the gamblers, a lot of big-name, and rising star actors were cast in the roles so that the audience would be able to remember the players by their stage names. Since this was not a "big-Hollywood" picture, a lot of the actors took less money in order to be in this movie. What came out of all of it was a great ensemble cast that did the movie a great service. Here are who the actors were and the parts that they each played:

Jace Alexander .... Dickie Kerr
John Cusack .... Buck Weaver
Gordon Clapp .... Ray Schalk
Don Harvey .... Swede Risberg
Bill Irwin .... Eddie Collins
Perry Lang .... Fred McMullin
John Mahoney .... Kid Gleason
James Read .... Lefty Williams
Michael Rooker .... Chick Gandil
Charlie Sheen .... Hap Felsch
David Strathairn .... Eddie Cicotte
D.B. Sweeney .... 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson
James Desmond .... Smitty (as Jim Desmond)


As you can see, all of the actors playing the title roles were, or are now quite famous. A few of the people that really shined in this film are John Cusack as Buck Weaver who just gets caught up in the mess, D.B. Sweeney as a quiet and reserved Joe Jackson, and John Mahoney as the manager Kid Gleason. They are all given a lot of screen time to show off their acting talents, and they all play the roles very well. In fact, the entire cast, which was comprised of actors who were also athletic, was very able to pull of the roles of baseball players from the early 1900's. The ball playing scenes came off very cleanly, and at no time did I think that they were actors while watching the movie. The only bad part was that because some of the roles had bigger name actors in it, they switched around some of the real-life story lines to better cater to the actor. I will get to that in just a second, but first I want to talk about the whole story in the film.


So, just like the historical event it is based on, the Chicago White Sox play, and then lose the world series. They virtually throw away their chance at immortality in order to get a quick pay-day from the gamblers who are footing the bill. The problems started because there were just too many people becoming involved in the fix. From the players, to the gamblers, to the people dealing with the money, the list kept growing. Soon, people were betting tons of money on the Reds to win the series, and it became obvious that something was going on. Word got around, and it became even more obvious that the players were throwing the games. Piled on top of that, a few reporters had been keeping a close eye on every play made in the series, and had come up with a hypothesis, that indeed some of the White Sox were losing on purpose. This got them riled
up, and they started writing editorials about what they thought was going on.


Everything in the movie leads up to a grand conclusion that involves a court case brought against the 8 players accusing them of participating in the running of a "confidence game." With that charge, if found guilty, there would be jail time for all of the players, and the people involved with dealing with the players. This is where I will stop reviewing the movie, because I want everyone to see it, and see just what baseball was going through back in the early 1900's. We look hard at the scandals that we have these days in sports, and forget how bad things have been, or could be, if some of the rules that we have now were not in place. It is things like the 1919 White Sox that ended up making it illegal for there to be any gambling in baseball, so there was at least one good thing that came out of it.


Now we come to the parts that I had a problem with in this movie. First of all, they switched the real life stories of Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver when they did the movie. It was Joe Jackson who professed his innocence in real life, and actually said he went to the owner with information, and asked to be benched so that he wouldn't be put on the spot. He ended up setting the record for most hits in a single world series with 12, but people still believed that he was involved in the fix. That is, everyone except for the die-hard fans, who are still out there rallying for him to go into the Hall of Fame. Having been one of the best hitters we have seen, it was a shame that he did not play longer. Also, the movie leads us to believe that the court hearings, and aftermath take place right after the World Series, when in fact another year, and another season of baseball passes with them all playing before something is done.


I highly recommend that anyone who is a baseball fan see this movie. The important thing that I urge, is that you not get bogged down by the fine details. In 1919 the fans did not even suspect that something was wrong until sports writers started digging for the truth. They ended up being dubbed the "Black Sox", and the end result was a black mark on baseball history. This is a great film not only because of the acting, but because the story works in the way that they fashioned it. This is the reason I give it a good rating, and I will leave the facts to stand up in the real world, and not in a movie made to sell tickets.






Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups