[yasr_overall_rating]
In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.
Man, how fun must this movie have been to shoot. Can you imagine hanging out on set with eight other guys close to your age, shooting through your days, improvising some of the most fun and just going with it? We’re twenty-five years after this movie came out (coincidentally the same year I was born) and it holds up as a treasured gem. “The Sandlot”’s sheer playfulness both in story and in style proves its timeless quality.
The thing you have to understand is this movie comes from a very boyish perspective. It’s literally the story of an eleven(?) year old boy moving into a new neighborhood in the summer of 1962. He meets a misfit gang of other boys who play baseball on the run-down sandlot behind everyone’s houses. It’s a tale full of ’60s boyish activities: campouts in the treehouse, late nights at the county fair, and lots of unorganized baseball. In fact, one could argue the baseball game these boys play (one in which nobody wins or loses, everybody gets a turn, and they’re all just in it for the fun) mimics the storytelling style of the film itself.
“The Sandlot” is almost narrowly episodic moving from one storyline to the next all the while teasing this ‘Big Pickle.’ Not every character gets a plot or even get to be anything other than a punchline. In a sense, it’s as much Benny’s story as it is Smalls. Their development is tied together with Benny’s self-confidence emanating out of a need to rescue his friend from the very dire situation.
We’re not meant to wring the plot for deeper meaning. This is just a joyous summer in the life of a new kid on the block and for its 25th time around, it doesn’t date itself. Oddly enough, it’s boyish atmosphere makes it what it is: all the joking, the corny thoughts. It’s joyously overwrought with a surprisingly deft use of camerawork turning slow motion to create tension in a movie with no stakes. Its production design flares as much in service into the story as to elevate it. The final climax of the movie demonstrates everything that makes the movie so great.
This edition of the movie, in its 25th anniversary, comes with all sorts of exciting additional features. Commentary, reunion interviews with the cast years later. This movie might exist as my summer movie, but it’s maybe a little too sugar-coated for me to watch more than once every couple years. Enjoy this 25th Anniversary Edition as it’s a pleasant reminder of a different time. Not the times we learned to grow up, but the times we learned to make friends.
“The Sandlot: 25th Anniversary Collector Edition” is now available on Blu-ray
