| Eight Men Out | 
 enlarge | Actors: Jace Alexander, Gordon Clapp, John Cusack, James Desmond, Richard Edson
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $1.68
You Save: $13.30 (89%)
New (34) Used (53) Collectible (1) from $1.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 33625
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 120
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
MPN: TM2534
ISBN: 0792849477
UPC: 027616860972
EAN: 9780792849476
ASIN: B000059TFM
Theatrical Release Date: September 2, 1988
Release Date: May 8, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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Product Description
The great Chicago White Sox team of 1919 is the saddest team to ever win a pennant. The team is bitter at their penny pincher owner, Charles Comiskey, and at their own teammates. Gamblers take advantage of this opportunity to offer some players $ to throw the series (Most of the players didn't get as much as promised.) But Buck Weaver and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson turn back at the last minute to try and play their best. The Sox actually almost come back from a 3-1 deficit. 2 years later, the truth breaks out and the Sox are sued on multiple accounts. They are found innocent by the jury but baseball commissioner Landis has other plans. The eight players are suspended for life, and Buck Weaver, for the rest of his life, tries to clear his name.
Amazon.com
Eliot Asinof's detailed book Eight Men Out illustrates how the system of American sports collapsed in 1919, the year the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series. Filmmaker John Sayles worked on his script years before the 1988 film (or before he had the rights to make the film) as a labor of love. Sayles's adaptation proves one can make a historically accurate film in the day and age of artistic license. And what a story. Although many know about the "Black Sox," made famous--again--in the 1989 hit film Field of Dreams, the details of the saga are far less known. The center of Dreams, Shoeless Joe Jackson (portrayed correctly by D.B. Sweeney as illiterate and left-handed in Eight), is not the core of this film; it's ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte (Sayles favorite David Strathairn), who took the money, and third baseman Buck Weaver (John Cusack), who did not. The film fits nicely into Sayles's (Lone Star) strong suit: the ensemble drama. We are introduced to bickering owners, famous crooks, high-minded judges, lowlife gangsters, investigative reporters (played by Studs Terkel and Sayles himself), and, most of all, players who are at the breaking point when it comes to low salaries and degrading rewards. While some may feel the film is not as visceral as it should be, there is a great amount of verisimilitude when watching finely tuned athletes telling their bodies to play poorly--heartbreak on the nation's diamond. Beautifully detailed (like Sayles's previous labor-drama, Matewan), Eight Men Out gives us powerful lessons in which everyone lost: players, gamblers, and especially the fans who love the game. --Doug Thomas
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| Customer Reviews: Read 54 more reviews...
 Black Eye in Baseball November 23, 2008
Eight Men Out tells the story about one of baseball's darkest days; the 1919 World Series scandal. Eight baseball players from the White Sox team decide to throw the World Series due to the own of the team poor treatment to the players. Though one of them, Buck Weaver, defends his innocents. The movie seems to be true to fact, but it suggests it all took place in the same year. The players were not banned from baseball til the end of the 1920. If nothing else, like the period clothing back then.
 If You Are A Baseball Or Movie Fan September 12, 2008
It is hard to believe that this movie is 20 years old already, it seems like yesterday that it was released, and this disc does it justice.
If you are a baseball fan of any level you probably know of the infamous Black Sox Scandel and the "fix" of the World Series, which rocked the baseball world much like the steroid issue today.
In Eight Men Out, the scandel is chronicled in a first class movie. The acting is superb throughout and the events surrounding the "fix" are well done. When the scandel is placed in the context of how baseball was during those times - players were far from having any power with respect to the owners - the nuances of how and why people reacted the way they did becomes more telling. Not as a justification for their actions, but more for how it could happen.
Even if you are not a baseball fan, this movie stands on its own and the collector's edition is one worth having.
Great Movie September 10, 2008
This is a great movie!
We watched it as a family. It has great lessons throughout. It's great to have a film that depicts such a pivotal event in sports history with such a great storyline- even better that it's not rated R!
Five star new edition! April 25, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The new edition is a nice upgrade, since it includes several behind the scenes documentaries which give a lot of background regarding the choice of actors, interviews with the director and actors, and info regarding the sets and filming of the movie. The picture looks very sharp, and the soundtrack is 5.1. If you are a fan of this film, you will find the new edition well worthwhile.
My favorite baseball movie March 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just read Roger Ebert's review of this movie and was amazed that he said you have to be a baseball insider to understand it. ???? I'm certainly not an insider, not even an avid fan, but I had no trouble following the story. In fact, I thought it was told with unusual clarity and elegance. And the actors were perfectly cast. Each seemed to slip into his role as comfortably as an old shoe. They weren't actors playing ball players. They were ball players. The movie flowed perfectly as the gamblers first approached a couple of the more receptive players. You could easily see the others being slowly drawn into the fix by the lure of easy money. You could also see, even before the players did, that they were nothing more than suckers themselves. They would not get the money - ever. Go to bed with criminals expect to get robbed. Roger Ebert was concerned about the way the "fix" unfolded, saying it was far too obvious. Of course it was! That's why they were caught!
Some of the other reviews here justify the actions of these players, based on the way their owner treated them. Man! That's certainly 2008 logic. They commited a serious criminal act! What's so hard to understand. Are we now at a point where unfair treatment legitimizes criminal actions? Yeah, many of the owners were most likely rotten. Yeah, the players were not treated fairly but NO, that doesn't justify their actions, including the ones who were guilty by omission. They let themselves down, they let the league down, but most of all, they let the fans down (Remember, "Say it ain't so, Joe?") Judge Landis was a tyrant but he did the right thing.
The last scene, where a much older Bucky Weaver sits in the bleachers of some nameless sandlot ballpark watching his old team mate, Joe Jackson, play is heartbreaking and sums up the movie perfectly.
The bottom line is: this movie is a wonderful example of intelligent story-telling and film-making. I'm not a big fan of Sayles usually but he knocked this one out of the park.
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