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Moneyball

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Brad Pitt never ceases to amaze me. Moneyball, his latest movie production, is in my opinion a much different role for him. It isn’t an action movie or an epic costume filled movie or a comedy. It is a drama, plain and simple. And it just so happens to be based on the true story of Billy Beane and the 2002 Oakland Athletics.

After a disappointing loss to the Yankees in the 2001 postseason and losing the 3 top players to free agency, Billy Beane has the worst job in the world – creating a stellar team with not so stellar money. He hires a Yale graduate – Peter Brand – as his assistant general manager because of his radical idea to base players not on the money but on the player’s on base percentage (OBP). Most of you know how the story goes – opposition amounts from Beane’s scouting staff and team manager and the team doesn’t start off well. But what happens just goes to show that money doesn’t buy everything.
Besides the acting, one of the most interesting parts of this movie was the silence. During dramatic scenes, there was no music, very little talking and it resonated throughout the whole theater. The tension was building with every second that went by of silence. The music producer did a very good job deciding when to use it and when to not.

Going back to the acting, Pitt took a very different approach in this movie. He acted like he didn’t know what he was doing – like he was 100% clueless in every decision he made and every step he took. It was incredible. Pitt immerses himself into the character so much you don’t see the star that is Brad Pitt – you see Billy Beane. That might sound like something easy for an actor to do but as an avid movie fan and someone who watches a lot of movies, it isn’t that easy and not a lot of actors can put it off as smoothly as Pitt does in Moneyball.

Even though you knew what the ending was, you couldn’t help but hope that the writers and producers changed the ending to make it a true Cinderella story. But no such luck. The real Cinderella story came 2 seasons later with the 86-year cursed Boston Red Sox. That was a great day.

My thoughts – This movie is hands down on my favorite movies of all time lists. And I will be the first to admit, I was not expecting it to be on any list. I wasn’t even expecting to like the movie let alone love it as much as I did. It might have to do with the fact that it is a sports movie (I love those) but it grabbed me from the minute the movie started and didn’t let go until the end (which funny enough the beginning and end were basically the same scene). Again, one of my all-time favorites going up on the shelf with Star Wars, Stargate SG1, Lord of the Rings, and I can’t name anymore – my favorite movies list would comprise an entire blog. Crazy I know J

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