Baseball Movies: The Fan (1996)
I never got to show you my best pitch.
Typically, when talking about baseball movies, fans of the sport grade the film on an accuracy curve. You’ll hear fans ask the question, “What did they get right?” They are the filmmakers, actors, and anyone responsible for putting the game on screen. Bull Durham is praised for its accurate portrayal of life in the minor leagues, while Chadwick Boseman is considered to be believable in his play and demeanor as Jackie Robinson in 42.
Meanwhile, if a movie gets something wrong, they will never live it down. Despite being an excellent movie, Moneyball is known for its complete erasure of players like Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito – who all did more for the Oakland A’s than Chad Bradford could’ve ever dreamt of doing. And don’t even get me started on Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch. I’ve never seen that happen before.
But what if a movie was so completely and utterly inaccurate in just about every way that we stop caring altogether and just surrender to the film’s fictional version of our world?
That’s Tony Scott’s 1996 film The Fan. Much more of a psychological thriller than a baseball movie, The Fan is more The King of Comedy than The Natural.