It's said that World War II had three fronts: Europe, The Pacific, and the homefront. Of course, the homefront wasn't actual combat, but the sacrifices and losses experienced by the friends and family of those overseas were just as grave as those in combat. Saving Private Ryan is considered to be the ultimate movie in depicting the war in Europe. Who can forget the visceral, extremely realistic depiction of D-Day? A League of Their Own provides the perfect companion piece to Private Ryan, depicting the effect of the war at home. The fact that Tom Hanks appears in both films only serves to further illustrate how well these films go together.
A League of Their Own, like Saving Private Ryan, is told in an extended flash back of an elderly Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) remembering her days as a baseball player during World War II. Her and her sister Kit (Lori Petty) are recruited to play in an all female professional baseball league (the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) to take the place of the men's league that was suspended because of the war. Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna also appear as teammates on the Rockford Peaches and are coached by Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), playing a drunken former baseball star relegated to managing the girls team after suffering a career ending injury. Dugan is reluctant to actually manage the Peaches, and in his place Dottie takes the reigns and quickly becomes the star of not only the team but the entire AAGPBL. Kit quickly grows tired of living in her sister's shadow and their rivalry emerges into a major issue for the team. Meanwhile, the other women on the team struggle to deal with their husbands being overseas, their difficult children, as well as the sexist views of the period that held that women shouldn't be playing baseball, and should be proper, beautiful homemakers.
Geena Davis is the star of the show here, while she hasn't done too much recently, this film came out right in her heyday, immediately after her appearance in the classic Thelma & Louise. It was also fun to see Tom Hanks playing against type as the drunken, antagonistic manager who is ostensibly the bad guy for most of the film. The flashback style of storytelling is used very effectively here, and just as in Saving Private Ryan, it delivers some tear-jerking moments at the end of the film. This film manages to strike a perfect balance between being a fun, funny comedy and an emotional drama. There are a few moments that don't work out quite as well. Some characters appear near the end of the movie and the emotional connection to them aren't established as well as they could have been if they had been introduced closer to the beginning of the film. The film also walks a fine line of becoming formulaic, but the performances save it from becoming ordinary.
Rating: 8/10 - Virtuous
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