Cheap 61* (DVD) (Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane) (Billy Crystal) Price

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Customer Reviews of 61*

The Yankee fan will love this movie, as Crystal went to great pains to recreate Yankee Stadium and cast actors as baseball players who looked and played not only like Mantle and Maris, but Whitey Ford (Anthony Michael Hall), Yogi Berra, Elston Howard and all the rest. The relentless sportswriters (including a fine performance by Richard Masur as "Milt") who wouldn't leave Maris alone ring true, and Ford Frick, the commissioner of baseball back then, is a bit of a villian--he loved Ruth and clearly didn't want the record broken.

One of the most touching aspects of the film is the open and close, where Crystal intercuts actual footage of Mark McGuire tying and breaking the Maris record with actors and actresses portraying Maris's widow Pat and their kids looking on. Likewise, Crystal's daughter, Jennifer Crystal Foley, is excellent as the young Pat Maris.

The extras on this DVD are nearly as good as the movie itself. Crystal offers off-camera audio and narrates each scene of the movie, which is fascinating, and there's an hour-long behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film which is also powerful...it includes a clip of the "Dinah Shore Show" from 1977 when Crystal, then starring on "Soap," sat next to Mantle, introduced himself and showed his hero a program with his signature from 1956.

Strongly recommended, a movie which will stand the test of time for baseball fans, and another feather in the cap of Billy Crystal--there's very little he can't do, and if nothing else, you'll realize what a true baseball and Yankee fan he is.

Nice look at the '61 home run race
"61*" is the true story of two baseball players, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, who spent the 1961 season chasing Babe Ruth's mythical single-season record of 60 home runs. It tracks the well-known facts surrounding the race such as the way the press openly rooted for Mantle, and how the pressure appeared to get to Maris to the point that his hair was falling out late in the season.

The best part of the movie, however, is how it presents the off-the-field lives of the players. Mantle is shown to be an out-of-control boozer and womanizer, but still manages to come off sympathetically. (After all though, the movie was directed by Billy Crystal, who grew up idolizing Mantle. Kudos to him for not shying away from the weaknesses of his hero.) Mantle roots for Maris to break the record and seems genuinely friendly and caring, despite his neglect of his family.

Maris, on the other hand, is portrayed as a staid but saintly slugger. He lives clean and cares for his family, but his boring earnestness and lack of outward emotion make him the enemy of the newsmen hungry for a story, who prefer the quotable Mantle, warts and all.

One of my only complaints is that Maris is shown as being almost too perfect. I never knew the man and I'm sure he wasn't the carouser that Mantle was, but it strains believeability that a huge star for the Yankees would be so down-to-earth and pure and honest, his only portrayed fault being an inability to engage in back-slapping cameraderie with the hypocritical beat writers. I might just be too cynical about such things, but the feeling I got was that "61*" broke a barrier by displaying Mantle's exhuberant abuse of himself but whitewashed any dirt on Maris.

The other minor thing that disappointed me is that there weren't more cameos from actual players in the movie. As far as I know, the only one was from knuckleball pitcher Tom Candiotti, who played knuckleballer-of-that-era Hoyt Wilhelm. Not sure it would have made the movie better, but I would have gotten a kick out of seeing real ballplayers in bit parts and scenes from ball games.

On the whole though, "61*" was a fun movie to watch, with some nice period detail and good performances from the two leads. Definitely recommended for any fan of baseball and its history.

This movie was a lot like baseball-slow and going nowhere
This movie is just like baseball...you sit in a seat for hours watching an incredibly slow game while you drift off to sleep. Sorry all you baseball fans...but I'm a football fan and I need action to sustain life when I'm sitting in a small stadium seat for numerous hours. You have to hand it to Barry Pepper, who plays Marris quite well. I thought that he had hit an all-time low when he played the ape-like human with dred locks in "Battlefield Earth". Back to *61. What is the deal with the asterik? Is that the most interesting thing that a baseball columnist can think of? But with respect for Marris for breaking the Babe's record, I have to give the film two stars, cause if I gave it one you'd all probably find me and beat me with his signed baseball bat.