Natural Film

The Natural is a 1984 American sports drama film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky and Richard Farnsworth. Like the novel, the film recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, a man with great "natural" baseball talent, spanning his long but interrupted career in the sport. In direct contrast to the novel, the film ends on a positive tone. It was the first film produced by Tri-Star Pictures. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Close), and for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Basinger). Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in 1983 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo, New York, built in 1937 and demolished in 1989. All-High Stadium, also in Buffalo, stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field in a key scene.