| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | THE ROOKIE (2002) |
| Director | John Lee Hancock |
| Writer | Mike Rich (based on the true story of Jim Morris) |
| Lead Actor | Dennis Quaid |
| Cast | Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Beth Grant, Angus T. Jones, Brian Cox, Chad Lindberg |
| Genre | Biography, Drama, Family, Sport |
| Release Date | March 29, 2002 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 7m (127 min) |
| Budget | $22 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 7.0/10 |
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Just as baseball is the American game, so The Rookie is the American-dream story.
In his youth, Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) had dreams of playing baseball, dreams thwarted by his father’s untimely military transfers. His grown-up dreams of pitching in the major leagues were ended early by an arm injury. Now he’s settled for being a high school teacher and baseball coach. He has a loving wife, Lorrie (Rachel Griffiths), and children he adores, in particular his 8-year-old son, Hunter (Angus T. Jones).
But still Jim dreams, pitching against a chain-link fence in the dark of night. He’s challenged to pursue these dreams when he confronts his baseball team after a loss. The reason they lose, he tells the high schoolers, is because they quit. They don’t dream of winning. “What about you?” they retort. Team members make a pact with their coach If they win the district championship, he’ll try out again for professional baseball.
They win, he tries out and makes it to the majors where he pitches for two years. If the movie weren’t based on a true story, we’d never believe it.
But that’s just the plot, not the movie. This is about much more than baseball and career ambitions. Baseball is only one metaphor in the film for pursuing your dreams. Another is striking it rich by drilling for oil. And both are placed in the realm of legend at the movie’s start. Oil workers hopelessly drilling for oil are reduced to playing baseball to pass the time, until some nuns appear to strew the site with yellow rose petals in honor of St. Rita, patron of impossible dreams. (It’s nice to have the American dream associated with the Catholic dream for a change.)
The pursuit of dreams is seen in several strands: through 10 teenagers battling great odds to win a baseball championship, through Jim’s relationship with his wife and his father, and above all in the eyes of Jim’s young son. Over and over again the camera shows us Jim through Hunter’s eyes, reacting to his father’s struggles and triumphs. And we repeatedly see Jim filtering his own determination through his motivation to be a positive model for his son.
Of course St. Rita’s intercession is efficacious, then and now. She blesses this town once more. Her assist with an impossible dream is not for Jim alone, but through him for the whole community that helped motivate him and that shares in his success.
The themes of the movie are neatly summed up by director John Lee Hancock after Jim’s glorious moment of pitching successfully in his first major league game. He reconciles with his father after many years. He’s embraced by his wife, who had doubted the wisdom of his choice, and by his children who look up to him. And when he exits the stadium, the whole town of Big Lake is there to greet him.
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