drwingirlsinc Warning this review has spoilers!A wonderful film that revisits the days of women in professional baseball at the onset of World War II. Reluctantly, Dottie Hinson played by (Geena Davis) along with, sister Kit Keller played by (Lori Petty) are recruited and make the cut to join an All-American Girls Baseball League, alongside Mae Mordabito played by Madonna and Doris Murphy played by Rosie O'Donnell. Their team the Rockford Peaches is managed by former baseball great Jimmy Dugan played by (Tom Hanks). Throughout the film there are struggles with the complexity of human relationships and each character makes the most of their newly found roles as women baseball players during the war.Dottie struggles with the idea of attending a reunion of former players and her sister Kit, whom she hasn't seen in many years, at the first induction of women players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The motif that is represented in this film is a bus. Dottie returns to the Doubleday Field and reunion on a newer Greyhound Bus. After Dottie arrives she began to reminisce of the time that she spent as a Rockford Peach. The more modern music soundtrack that is playing transitions to the music of an old Columbia Movie-Scope clip that gives headway to what the baseball league is going through during the war efforts, Black and white film is also used to show how this portion of the film clip is a flashback. During their time as a Peach several of the women's husbands were away at war, including Dottie's, and women began playing professional baseball to keep the league going so it could help support the war. Although, Dottie did not want to leave her home in Oregon and her traditional role of a wife, she chose to leave home so that her sister Kit could have a chance to play in the league. With the use of invisible sound, the train whistle breaks the silent thoughts of Dottie when she decides to take Kit up on pleads to try out for the league. Kit had to work through the problem of low self-esteem, because the league did not want to recruit her without her sister. Kit was self-conflicted because Dottie was haled as the "better" sister, taller, faster, prettier, smarter, bossier and a better baseball player. Whereas, in the film Death at a Funeral brothers Aaron, the older brother, played by (Chris Rock) and Ryan, the younger brother, played by Martin Lawrence had a similar struggle with their relationship but the roles were reversed.During the era of the war, in the year of 1943 it was very nontraditional for women to be ball players. They were subjected to heavy scrutiny because they were taking on roles of men, by playing baseball and traveling from town to town on buses. Several of the players endured receiving telegrams telling the fate of their husbands in the war, Doris met a pair of new love interests and let her old relationship go, all the while of living in transition traveling from town to town on a bus. However, Dottie's husband returned from the war and she decided to leave the team to return to Oregon with her husband, because living the life of a professional ball player was too hard.Enduring the change of the times, relationships, love, marriage and losses being a woman playing professional baseball in 1943 was a very liberating but hard thing to do. "It's supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard everyone would do it, the hard is what makes it great!" stated Jimmy Dugan as the team leaves for the first Women's World Series (Abbott, 1992).

leplatypus This is not Dick Tracy 2! Sure Madonna delivers a nice song, but during the movie, she has not a big part: i don't remember to see her playing the ball actually because she is rather here to have fun, dance, seduce boys and talk with a big mouth (so it's not really acting from her). That's why she is as essential as Téa Léoni who appears in two plays for her team ... The movie is more about Geena Davis and Tom Hanks; Honestly i expected the movie to be enjoyable all the more that the 40s period is well done but however, it is not he case: the pace is terribly dull, Hanks is really not cool here and there is not much good scenes... Maybe the ending with the true players redeems a bit the quality but otherwise, it's too late and too little...

zkonedog For a long time, "A League of Their Own" was one of those movies that I had never watched all the way through. Of course, I knew the iconic "No crying in baseball!" quote, but I had just never sat down and experienced the whole thing. What I found upon doing that is a movie that starts off quite slowly and seems a bit "low-rent", but then builds and builds to an emotional experience and ending.For a basic plot summary, "League" tells the story of of the Rockford Peaches, a team in the first ever Women's Professional Baseball League (organized during WWII with most of the men professionals overseas). It focuses primarily on the contentious relationship between sisters Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty), as well as featuring some great banter between characters played by Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna. Of course, overseeing it all is manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), a boozy former pro charged with "leading" the Peaches.For the first 20-30 minutes or so, it is very easy to get bored by this movie. If not outright bored, then surely a bit wary of what looks to be a rather low-rent experience. It seems like something one would find in a made-for-TV movie. As soon as Hanks' Dugan is introduced, however, everything starts to come together. By the end of the film, I can also guaranteed you'll be moved emotionally...a far cry from what it looks like in the early goings.It helps that the acting is generally quite solid throughout. Madona and O'Donnell play the perfect roles for their types, while Davis easily has the acting chops to carry the whole thing. Hanks, as usual, is brilliant throughout, providing the funniest lines of the film (including that one iconic one, of course).I wish the film would have taken itself a bit more seriously, but I can't really blame it for being a product of its times. In today's culture, I think a bit more care would have been taken in telling these women's stories (instead of so much tongue-in-cheek, almost goofy setups), but that wasn't the case in 1992.Overall, "A League Of Their Own" is a solid movie, if not grand enough to be spectacular. It might be a little tough to get into because of the slow start out of the gate, but it truly does a remarkable job of building up steam and ending on a very emotional high. It's a movie that all baseball fans should see, for sure!

calvinnme I watched this film for the nth time after many times as part of the "Trailblazing Women" series on Turner Classic Movies. After watching the Rosie the Riveter documentary, it really stands out how much women were "used" during World War II. They were told how important they were to the war effort. What wasn't emphasized was the transient nature of the situation, that it was "until the men come back", so they got used to doing something other than housework if they were married or pretty mind numbing low paying jobs if they were not. The women working in the factories during the war had good paying jobs and some independence for the first times in their lives, the same with the girls in this movie. They not only had good pay, but a place in the limelight, doing something they were good at doing - baseball - with crowds rooting for them, but like Dottie and Kit, they had just been playing as amateurs pre-War. Dottie doesn't want to join the league at first. What Kit says is true - Dotty is the prettier sister, the sister with more baseball talent, and she doesn't want to admit her own competitive spirit until she is given a chance to exercise it, and then that competitiveness somewhat scares her. Tom Hanks is brilliant as Jimmy Dugan, a washed up ball player who drank away the five best years of his career and is recruited to coach the Rockford Peaches. At first he doesn't take this job seriously, but time, a few verbal bouts with Dottie, and a growing attachment to the girls change that. Towards the end of the film he delivers one of the best monologues that I have ever heard about talent, opportunities lost, and the fact that certain moments never come again. I know somebody else wrote these lines, but he delivered them with heart. One line should be emblazoned on everybody's mind - "If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great." Don't run away from anything because it is hard.Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell provide great comic relief - they actually had a pretty good off-screen friendship - so their back and forth comes across naturally. Even if you don't like these two individually, I think you'll like them here. It's funny how much women playing ball just offends American society's sensibilities about what is proper for a woman so much that a big part of the girls' training is basically a charm school, and that as players the women actually have curfews and places like bars that are off limits to them due to publicity, as though they were minors or gentle flowers that need protection.And now let me talk about Oregonian sisters Dottie and Kit, specifically Kit. Kit has talent. Kit has beauty. She just doesn't have as much as her sister. She definitely shows the audience how to be both a bad winner and a bad loser and just how much jealousy can make anybody ugly inside and out. And now the debate on the ending - that has been rehashed endlessly. I'll just say what I THINK happened makes me furious, because if I'm right then one person let an entire team down just to give another person who was green with envy a false victory in the hope that it would give them a lifetime of confidence. I know this is just a movie, but envy is a condition that is not cured by an external victory, earned or not. It can only be cured by a person changing their viewpoint, that THEY are responsible for their lives and actions. Give a jealous person one victory today and this time next year it will just be something else they feel is unfair and responsible for their misery.I highly recommend this one. It is almost perfect on every level, even the soundtrack!