The Greatest Game Ever Played. Review on Golf

Inspite of all the disheartening events happening on MS, I decided to post this review just for the sake of quality of the movie called, The Greatest Game Ever Played. Am sure, many of my friends

on MS might have not watched this classic. Some may be due to the lack of interest in GOLF, some due to the fact that in spite of competitive marketing, did not make a box office impact so might have missed. But for sure is a ’must see’ movie.

When I saw the trailors of this movie sometime back, I thought it might not be as much fun to watch golf than to play.Moreover I hardly knew any details of the game except that the person who holes the ball in less number of attempts wins and some goof

Golf

y terms like birdies and eagles. ’Birdie’ means putting the ball in hole in two attempts and ’eagle’ means in one attempt.(?)

Lets come back to the movie..

There are only two types of players... One who control their nerves and win the championship and the others who do not.

This is the sentence that keeps echoing over and over again in the movie and that pretty much sums it up.

This is a movie based on an inspirational real life incidents set in the background of early nineteenth

century. Also when I say inspirational, its about another game, yes GOLF. You might have seen inspiring movies like Lagaan and JJWS(assuming many of us are Bollywood ’pankheys’) but this one is different. Even though you might not be aware of the intricacies of GOLF, it keeps you glued all the time.

The movie starts with background of a poor peasants son(Harry Vardon) somewhere in the ISLE of JERSEY IN England who is thrown away from his house by the clergies(who seem like the illusionary and scary figures from Harry Potter’s movie) so that they can build a golf course in that place. When he approaches the clergies to explain what is golf, he is thwarted saying that its game of the rich and the aristocratic and not related to peasants.Years after the same guy becomes the reigning champion in that game winning Birtish Open and US Open as well but his childhood fears grow along with him frightening him at times.

Now its the period of the early nineteenth centuries when the people were divided by their financial power. Another small kid(Francis Ouimet) is picking up the game by the sheer passion of it. But he is poor which hinders his dream of playing in a tournament or elsewhere.

The movie is all about how an amateur from America plays against two reigning champions from England against all the odds. The character of Harry Vardon is played to perfection and with lot fo grace. Some of the immemorabel scenes are Harry’s. There is lot of humor and vengeance. Vengeance is not the way its protrayed by McNroe or Ganguly/Flintoff or as recently as Zidane but more subtle.

The character of Ted Ray(the other champion from England) is little funny but not without its dark/gloomy side. The pick of the movie is definitely Francis’ caddie played by the young lad who for most part of his stay just steals the show with his one liners "read it, roll it and hole it".

Some of the best scenes are the one to one interations between hary Vardon and Francis Ouimet. The best is the one when Francis swings his club during the final moments of the game and the whole crowd moves their heads towards the ball while Harry Vardon’s head is still watching the vigour of the emerging champion(where he could relate to himself as in his earlier struggling years).

When they say Golf is a Gentlemen’s game, then yes this movie makes us believe it is and not Cricket although am a avid cricket enthusiast.

Apologise for putting this in a wrong section and missing names of actors/actresses and not to say the least the murderous angrezi... Please refer to a more informational movie database. This revu is just to give you an idea that such a film exists. :->

-Sarvesh.