Cobb (1994)

Very disappointing...

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I guess one downfall of really being into history like I am, is that you do your homework after watching a supposedly true story like this movie claimed to be, and you find that the whole movie was a total lie. After watching this garbage, I did my normal thing of looking into the main character, and the real stories about them. This movie was far from the truth. The guy who came up with this had it in for Ty Cobb, and wrote a book that was all lies. The sad part about it is that now you have millions of people who watched it thinking it was all true, which in return has besmirched this person's name. I would never watch this garbage again even if you paid me. Don't waste your time or money. It's all a bunch of bull, and it's not even that great of a movie.

Let's start out with a few indisputable facts. At first, Al Stump wrote a glowing book about Ty Cobb which did very well. After Cobb's death, he recanted. He started in stag men's magazines, that also talk about aliens, and Voodoo. Hardly a reputable source. This is where he invented the details of the shooting. Eventually he gave credit for the details to a neighbor of Cobb. There's only one problem, this guy was dead 4 years before Cobb ever approached Stump to write his book! They never even traveled to Royston Georgia. Where Stump claims Cobb started telling Stump about the incident.Stump stole tons of artifacts from the Estate and eventually got caught! This is the character of the story teller here folks. He was even selling multiple copies of forged letters! Forged Autographs. Writing new stories and selling Cobb memorabilia was his meal ticket.Somehow this aspect never gets reported. Go ask anybody in the sports memorabilia market if they're interested in stuff from Al Stump, and get ready for an earful. It's all considered fake and forged. But what he said about Cobb is gospel? So I come here and read all these reviews and as usual people just believe all these things and even stamp them as authentic and true.By the time Stump met Cobb he was elderly and frail. None of that manic misadventures stuff happened! There's no corroboration on any of those insanely made up movie events. Nobody shot off a gun in a casino. Or any of the rest of it.Cobb was a curmudgeon who pushed everybody away, even family. Most of the Urban legends about him are just that. I run into old miserable guys all day long. I've actually been to Royston Georgia and interviewed people.They all have stories about Cobb being off putting and speaking his mind. But they all also have stories about his generosity. He made it possible for children charities to thrive 70 years after his death. He donated the single biggest endowment in US history at the time. As the black lady who ran his Museum said "Look around, who do you think that benefited?" She also mentioned how all of his staff received pensions. Something unheard of back then.I'm not saying the guy wasn't racist. From all of his quotes, he didn't particularly care for people of any race! But he came from a time period where everybody was racist.There is only one truth in this entire movie. At the time of his death, he was considered far and wide the best player ever. By the sports writers who saw him play! Day in, day out. How that has morphed into him not even making lists nowadays is the true intolerance. While Ruth is still right there on on top of many.

Ty Cobb is in the top five of the greatest players in Baseball history. In fact, he was the first man elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but there has never been a film about his life. While Cobb was a great baseball player and one the toughest men to ever live, he was also an outspoken racist, who was quick to fight anyone, including his wife and kids. In 1960, a dying Cobb contacted sportswriter, Al Stump to ask him to tell his story. That is what I thought this critically acclaimed film would be, but it wasn't. While the title is Cobb, the film is really about Al Stump and what it was like to spend time with the great Ty Cobb, after he'd completely lost his faculties. While it wasn't the film I'd hoped it would be, Tommy Lee Jones gave the performance of a lifetime. What can you say about Jones that hasn't already been said? He is the best actor in Hollywood and can play absolutely anyone. Jones was very convincing, showing Cobb as a deeply troubled man who covered his shame with outrageous behavior. In recent years, since the passing of Al Stump, many people who knew Cobb have come out saying the book and film were overly exaggerated, but even so, the facts about Cobb are well documented. Cobb is not the film most people expected it to be and it ranks among the biggest flops in box office history. The story however is one you haven't heard before and is performed admirably by an all-star cast. This is not your typical baseball movie, but rather a moving look at a man who was destine to either be a legend or an inmate.

Tommy Lee Jones may not look much like the infamous ballplayer Ty Cobb, but he sure does embody his spirit, hatred, and consistent belligerence wonderfully. To play a person of his magnitude certainly requires ambition and drive but also talent and diversity. Jones tackles the player with the hatred and evilness that many archived articles and reports have claimed he proudly wore with piercing accuracy.Today, in 2012, baseball players are often viewed as "heroes," "role models," and sometimes even people who provide us with more motivation and passion than those we know in real life. Players like Starlin Castro, Alfonso Soriano, and Jim Thome have etched themselves into the hearts of many. Cobb would've etched himself in the dark side of someone's heart. He was a racist, sexist, selfish, mean-spirited, cocky, gun-toting ignoramus who hated everyone except himself. He thought of himself as "the sport of baseball," completely shunning teamwork and thoroughly enjoyed being hated by literally everyone in the audience. He thought the fact that they showed up to the stadium to throw food and garbage on him was the highest compliment someone could pay.The film centers around not his baseball career, but how a famed sportswriter had the questionably fortunate opportunity to dig into Cobb as a real person in 1959. That man was Al Stump (Robert Wuhl), who was hired to act as a ghostwriter for Cobb's autobiography. Initially, Stump is incredibly honored and thrilled to be given such a job, being able to spend days and nights with "the best baseball player of all time." But when Stump arrives, he is immediately greeted with loud rants from a writer who walks on him and we eventually see Cobb, as he lies in bed, frail and uninspired, verbally assaulting the poor man as he tries to simply reason with him and remain civil.Cobb suggests that him and Stump drive down to Reno to have sex with random women - an act he hopes to accomplish before he dies. He insists on driving recklessly through a terrible blizzard and, as he slips and slides down the road, Cobb briefly illustrates his baseball history for Al.You'd believe the film was told entirely in flashback, but the flashback ceases only after a few minutes and we are back in the present with Al and Cobb, and that's where we remain for the remainder of the picture. It is widely known that Stump published a book shortly after spending days on end with Cobb, but that was the fabricated version he was conned into writing for the man, which the film heavily explores. Al secretly kept a real recollection of his treatment and relationship with the man, but resorted to scribbling notes on cocktail napkins, small pieces of paper, etc. He then released a book detailing the true accounts of the man years after his death - accounts that are depicted in this film.Ron Shelton's Cobb is far from a perfect biopic. It's a little choppy, somewhat dry in sequences, and may run twenty minutes too long, but the fact that it humanizes an unbelievably despicable character, is written with little tongue in cheek innuendos, and the fact that it showcases many honorable performances makes it one that proves its existence nicely.Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Wuhl, and Lolita Davidovich. Directed by: Ron Shelton.