Review of Legend Of Bagger Vance, The

Introduction

Robert Redford’s most recent project was directing the movie version of the popular novel, "The Legend of Bagger Vance". Coming across as a kind of "Bull Durham" meets "Tin Cup" – but without Kevin Costner – Bagger Vance tells the story of a former golf wunderkind gone nearly mad with his experience in WWI. However, he is given a last chance at redemption – and at gaining back his childhood sweetheart – when she arranges a golf tournament against all-time greats Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. No-one gives him a snowball’s chance, except a young fan and a mysterious caddy by the name of Bagger Vance…

Video

Michael Ballhaus, famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, provides outstanding cinematography. Robert Redford has always had a special affection for sunsets and nature, and just like in his "A River Runs Through It", his eye for beauty just manages to stay on the right side of corny and creates a warm atmosphere.

The picture itself is presented in anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen, and does justice to the fantastic visuals Ballhaus and Redford create. The detail is sharp throughout, with strong and vibrant colours and wholly accurate fleshtones. Overall, an excellent example of the picture DVD can give.

Audio

The soundtrack is excellent all the way through the movie, sounding clear and crisp. Although mostly a dialogue-based movie, the film has several spots where the split rear effects are put to use – in the numerous crowd scenes for instance. The score is not especially brilliant, but is moving at all the right spots.

Features

For such a recent and fairly high profile release, it is very disappointing to find only a few extras on this disc. The two main extras are listed as ‘An Insight into Bagger Vance’ and a ‘Making-Of featurette’, but this is being very flattering. The feature on Robert Redford talking about the movie accompanied by film stills only runs in at just under 5mins. It fails to go into much detail about the transition of book to screen, and the themes explored in it (the novel was inspired by the Hindu text “The Bhagavad Gita”, for instance). The production featurette is only 4mins long and, as well as being short, is also unsubstantial piece of fluff.

Other than that, a couple of trailers, production notes and biographies are included, rounding off a pretty sparse set of extras.

Conclusion

The Legend of Bagger Vance may find it’s critics for being too sweet, or overly corny, but I found myself enjoying this little fable. The story is predictable, but yet still charming, and the golf scenes are superb. Any fan of golf will enjoy the fantastic fairways – reminiscent of Augusta – and Bobby Jones’s swing in particular. It’s also a nice, if a little sad sight to see the late, great Jack Lemmon in his last film role, serving as the uncredited narrator of the fable.

I highly recommend this to any golf fan who just wants to sit back and relax watching an undemanding and enjoyable movie for the evening. The extras on this disc are a little bare, but don’t let that stop you at least renting this.