Screen:

...But no recent film has been more truthful about a sport: the by-play about' 'religion" is riot allowed to sink the film, as in The Natural...

...Shot with a "forties" look to match style with content, Tucker begins as an exuberant promo newsreel with a basso narrative voice-over...

...As their work "matures," it has become clear that these directors can't develop deep character unless guided by a strong source (in Coppola's successful films, Conrad and Puzo), which saves them from filmic excess...

...major information on her character comes late...

...Sarandon's role has plausibility problems...

...This general exclamatory mood also dominates the sets and acting...

...The hybrid language is nicely divided...

...worse, his handling is uneven throughout...

...Although Coppola is the best of these directors, even he doesn't have enough background in drama to ballast his delight in surface tricks and texture...

...Superstitions about what to wear on a winning streak abound...

...Know-It-All, pops off on quantum physics and reincarnation, which prompts Costner's best rejoinder...

...The acting is delicious, with Robbins excellent as a dolt with talent...

...his daughter (Nina Ciemaszko) and crew (especially engineer Elias Koteas) are also good as vibrant free spirits...

...he mock-threatens an innovative employee, "If you ever do that again, I'll-give you a raise...

...The world," Annie says, "is made for those without the curse of self-awareness.'' Surprisingly, the best poetry in Bull Durham is not romantic but realistic...

...He strongly identifies with Tucker: just switch industries, and recall Coppola founded a studio (Zoetrope) that failed...

...Phone calls are shot split-screen, often with a comic-book dividing-line between speakers...

...Sometimes Coppola makes him resemble a Faust...

...Like Tucker, he may not have the luck, or depth, to imitate David...

...Baseball lingo comes from a grubby, hard-nose catcher, "Crash" Davis (Kevin Costner), whose job is to instill horse sense about the game in the arrogant young firearm "Nuke'' Lalosh (Tom Robbins...

...Many scenes are slyly cut to provide instant elisions in the narrative and a steady, pulsing, dramatic pace...

...more often he strains to make us like Tucker too much...

...Moments of brilliant style and flash are paralleled by a loud, off-putting reliance on every film device except character...

...Myth works in Bull Durham because it grows around the plot as quietly as outfield grass...

...It was written and directed by Ron Shelton, a former second baseman in the Oriole farm system, who has peppered it both with baseball terms like "flares," "quails," and "groundballs with eyes," along with quotes from Blake, Gray, and Whitman...

...big band tunes add to the driving tempo...

...he involves his family (in an inspirational way) in his work...

...Like Wall Street, another thoughtful but deeply flawed film, Tucker pushes film treatment of technology and business beyond both simplistic anticapitalist satire and blind (Dallas-like) worship of greed...

...The romantic poetry comes mostly from Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) a part-time English teacher and full-time post-hippie who "worships in the church of baseball...

...Care for consumers, the film says, can enhance profit-if only (alas) competitors play fair...

...a scene where Tucker serves some rare roast beef might symbolize his creator's own extreme tastes...

...Cartoon style also infuses the photography, with frequent shots from low angles to accent the "larger-than-life" aspects of the hero...

...Her scene listening to Edith Piaf is acted with fine mock-heroic pathos...

...The minors only have Battles and Jaymes ads on distant fences...

...But at least he believes people will buy better products than those provided by Philistine giants...

...Tucker's wife (Joan Allen) is fortunately no pale flower, but a tough cookie with a Veronica Lake haircut...

...Coppola tries too hard to make his films rare-so rare they become self-obsessed...

...Coppola (always strong on the theme) makes Tucker's entourage into an extended family...

...A brainy, bawdy romp through a season in the minors, the film is set in the picturesque Caro-League, and features a fictional version of the team owned by one producer, Thom Mount...

...Coppola's style, however, gets in the way...

...Bull Durham is colorful, wacky, and brilliantly written-the first smart baseball movie...

...But that gaffe is minor compared to Coppola's persistent flamboyance...

...he dedicates the movie to his dead son, Gio, "who loved cars...

...Coppola films an early road scene, supposedly in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with a mountain backdrop-no doubt near the studios of producer George Lucas in San Francisco...

...TOM O'BRIEN...

...just see how she reads Whitman to the ballplayers...

...His values are real, but you get your nose rubbed in them too often...

...No one has ever accused Coppola (maker of successes like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather and daring flops, such as One from the Heart) of taking easy routes to success...

...According to accounts by car enthusiasts, Coppola has the basic story right: Tucker made some management mistakes, but his failure resulted from sabotage by a Detroit threatened less by his engineering than by his emphasis on safety...

...Heaven is "the Show," the major leagues, where Nuke might end up if he will only listen to the sage, Crash, who was there "for twenty-one days," there where the stadiums are "big as cathedrals...

...Tucker (Jeff Bridges) not only predates Naderite consumerism, in a court scene near the close of the film, he stunningly predicts the decline of our auto industry:' 'If you let big business block inventors like me, in thirty years we'll be buying our radios and cars from our former enemies...

...The film is unique-the product of the fertile inventiveness of Francis Ford Coppola at his best and brashest...

...They won't with Tucker either...

...Costner's performance comes complete with a real switch-hitting swing and a dignified world-weariness...

...At its best, Tucker synthesizes compelling personal drama and populist sentiment...

...Although dedicatedly unchaste, she is also archly witty...

...Tucker weaves myth around an actual episode in industrial history...

...She follows the team as an over-age groupie with a self-appointed pagan priestess role of breaking in the rookies in bed...

...Disappointed, Crash has to swallow his pride and hunker down after Nuke finally makes "the Show" where Crash believes he should be...

...Like many California film-school directors (Lucas, Spielberg, Scorcese), Coppola gets lost in style at a cost to character...

...The film recalls his youth in the forties, when, a Midwesterner, he learned the story at his father's knee...

...Despite anti-Japanese feeling, he employs a Nisei engineer...

...Sarandon enjoys herself to no end in her "bad girl" role...

...Eventually Bridges's Tucker fails to surprise because Coppola makes him persistently surprising...

...Sentimental scenes between Bridges and the supporting cast are also uneven, especially those with Martin Landau as Bridges's financial adviser and best friend...

...His phrases are locker-room lewd (and perhaps offensive), but often brilliant, especially when he recites his "creed...

...The hero combines public responsibility and creative entrepreneurship, as if Coppola had just read In Search of Excellence...

...Naturally they squabble about who has more to teach the "kid...

...Costner and Sarandon neatly execute a Benedict-and-Beatrice sexual ballet of hostility and eros...

...Coppola is even more involved...

...As a result, Bridges's best scene comes only at the end of Tucker...

...Savoy/ Sarandon, Ms...

...Amid this stylized overstatement, mere is one small mistake and major flaw...

...It tells the story of a maverick inventor who, in the late 1940s, tried to challenge Detroit automakers with an unusually designed car, having both advanced engineering (a streamlined look, rear motor, fuel injection system) and advanced safety features (seatbelts, pop out windows, and three headlights-one in the middle-to provide greater surface coverage at night...