Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)

sports drama
directed by : John Hancock
featuring : Robert DeNiro - Michael Moriarty -Vincent Gardenia - Phil Foster - Ann Wedgeworth
running time : 1 hour 36 minutes
A guaranteed tear-jerker, Bang The Drum Slowly centers on professional baseball player Bruce Pearson (Robert DeNiro) and his team mate Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty), who supported Bruce to the bitter end after learning that the young catcher was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and would soon die. When hayseed Pearson first joined the team, he and Wiggen, the team's red-hot pitcher were oil and water. The other team members were none to thrilled to have Pearson on their team. Wiggen changes his attitude when he learns of Pearson's illness, and when the other team members find out, they too become more helpful until the inevitably teary ending. Look for popular character actor Danny Aiello in his feature film debut. The story is based on a novel by screenwriter Mark Harris and was first filmed for television.

Masterfully acted and mercifully restrained, the screen version of Harris' novel Bang The Drum Slowly is a genuinely moving account of an unusual friendship between two baseball players. Though a story about mortally ill mediocre New York catcher Bruce Pearson and his bond with his star pitcher roommate Henry Wiggen has the potential for bathos, director John Hancock and writer Harris eschew lingering tearful farewells and prolonged death scenes. Along with stylized game sequences (shot on-location at Shea and Yankee Stadiums), Hancock mines emotion from Wiggen's laconically fierce protectiveness and Pearson's barely articulate yet palpable appreciation for his friendship, and the team ensemble provides moments of gentle comic relief. Moriarty shines as Wiggen, while DeNiro's simple Southern boy Pearson was light years away from his hopped up performance as Mean Streets' volatile Johnny Boy. Greeted with rave reviews for its heart and delicacy, Bang The Drum Slowly helped make DeNiro a star and earned him a New York Critics' Circle prize. Vincent Gardenia, though, got the Oscar nomination for his humorously suspicious manager Dutch Schnell.