Main Cast: Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty, Vincent Gardenia, Phil Foster, Ann Wedgeworth
Release Year: 1973
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
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. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
Masterfully acted and mercifully restrained, the screen version of Mark Harris's 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. Michael Moriarity shines as Wiggen, while Robert De Niro'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 De Niro 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. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Heather MacRae - Holly Wiggen; Danny Aiello - Horse; Barbara Babcock - Team Owner; Donny Burks - Perry; Selma Diamond - Tootsie; Marshall Erwin Efron - Bradley Lord; Hector Elias - Diego; Ernesto Gonzalez - Dr. Chambers; Barton Heyman - Red Traphagen; Tom Ligon - Piney Woods; Alan Manson - Doc Loftus; Pierrino Mascarino - Sid Goldman; Patrick McVey - Pearson's Father; Tom Signorelli - Goose Williams; Nicholas Surovy - Aleck Olson; Maurice Rosenfield - Team Owner; Jack Hollander - Legwar Player; Andrew Jarrell - Ugly Jones; Tony Major - Jonah; Hector Troy - George
Credit
Allan Wertheim - First Assistant Director, John Hancock - Director, Richard Marks - Editor, Stephen Lawrence - Composer (Music Score), Robert Gundlach - Production Designer, Richard Shore - Cinematographer, William Badalato - Producer, Lois Rosenfield - Producer, Maurice Rosenfield - Producer, John Bolz - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Harris - Screenwriter, Mark Harris - Book Author
The 1973 film was directed by John D. Hancock and stars Michael Moriarty as Henry ("Author") Wiggen, and a then young unknown actor named Robert De Niro in the role of Bruce Pearson. It was met with box office success and critical acclaim. De Niro's performance in the film and in Mean Streets, released two months later, brought him widespread acclaim. Compared with other roles which have seemed to typecast him as a troubled loner (as in The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver) or a charismatic sociopath (as in The Godfather: Part II, Once Upon A Time In America, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Heat), the Pearson role has been regarded as one of his more tragic and sensitive characters.
The non Florida baseball sequences were filmed at New York's Yankee and Shea Stadiums during the late May and June of 1972 when the Yankees and Mets were on extended roadtrips. The opening scenes of the movie show the stars running on the warning track at Yankee Stadium, in addition the visitors 3rd base clubhouse, walkway from the yankees 1st base side dugout and front of right field bullpen were used as well as the "away" game sequences baseball scenes. The few scenes of the stadium - particularly the wide pan at the end of the rain delay sequence are some of the best clips of the stadium before the renovation. Dugout shots of "home" games were shot at Yankee Stadium. The "home" game sequences were filmed in Shea Stadium the filmmakers also used the walkway that connected the Mets clubhouse and 1st base dugout, the TV studio that was the home of "Kiner's Korner" post-game show for the singing scene. The Opening Day/band clips came from MLB, they were recorded before the 4th game of the 1969 World Series at Shea, wide crowd shots are from a regular season game, MLB films also provided clips of Tony Perez (from '70 World Series) and Brooks Robinson hitting. Spring Training baseball scenes were shot at the Philadelphia Phillies complex in Clearwater, which is still in use. Rain delay footage of a grounds crew covering the infield with a tarp was from the 1969 All-Star Game in Washington's RFK Stadium, the game was postponed by rain and played the next day 7/23/69. Audio over this clip you can hear the voice of long-time NY Yankees PA announcer Bob Sheppard. Baseball game action clips starting at 01:21 are from MLB films, they are from Yankee and Mets games 1970 and 1971 - you can see #10 Danny Cater, shortstop Gene Michaels, hitter Jerry Kenney, catcher Thurman Munson and runner Bobby Murcer. The uniforms worn by the NY Mammoths baseball team are NY Yankees uniforms from 1971, the NY on the home pinstriped shirts was changed. Other teams providing uniforms were - Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox.
The film and book include a fictional card game known as tegwar, which means "The Exciting Game Without Any Rules." It is a game basically designed to separate a sucker from his cash. Henry Wiggen plays this game along with other ballplayers and coaches, to sucker passers-by in the lobby of the team hotel. It is generally believed that Bruce Pearson is too dumb to be able to sucker people, so he is excluded. However, Henry begins to include Bruce in the tegwar games as the story progresses.
This film is reportedly Robert De Niro's colleague Al Pacino's favorite film.[1] In reviews, Wiggen is often referred to as being modeled after Tom Seaver.[2]
Cultural References
In the Family Guy episode titled Brian Does Hollywood, Brian is looking over a script for an X-rated movie and he states "This isn't bad". The producer replies with "It's like Bang The Drum Slowly, except the drum is a chick."
