Two sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller join the first ever professional baseball league and must fight against the struggles to make it successful.
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In 1988 Dottie is due to attend the opening of the exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League which she was part of, this flashbacks to 1943 and the start of the league and the adventures this created. With World War II and the shutting down of the Major League Baseball the idea strikes that having a women’s league would be a great idea.
They set up trials and decide to have four teams with sixteen players in each of the teams. The issue is though that the men who have came up with the idea to create these teams want them to be attractive women that men would want to watch, along with short uniforms. As the game goes forward and develops though the power of the actual sport will shine through which is very reassuring.
Dottie and Kit both are selected for the Rockford Peaches and they certainly have a very lively bunch as part of the time. The manager Jimmy Dugan who was a former player for the Cubs is very cyclical about it all and things it is a complete joke. To begin with not helping or even intersecting with his players and continues to drink a lot. We get the rivalry between the two sisters as Kit cannot cope with how easily everything comes to Dottie and that she must work very hard to improve. Seeing Jimmy eventually come round and care about the game again was inspiring to see. Showing that attitudes towards women in sport has always been an issue and quite scary that it is still a problem in 2020!
Everything about the film is just quite frankly lovely and enjoyable. It has some fantastic comedy moments and this helps with how utterly watchable the film is. When you think about women’s sport we (still) don’t have many films that focus on it. I find this being based on actual sports history to be just fantastic. I have seen this film quite a few times over the years and I have to say it gets better with each and every viewing.
The film is inspired by baseball legend Dottie Collins who during World War II she played for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) having a six year career. So while the league did exist and happen the story in the film is fictionalised. Which I am perfectly happy about as the story created shows how women came together during World War II in different ways while the men went to fight.
Geena Davis is fantastic in the leading role and creates such an amazing atmosphere each time she is on screen. Working very well with Lori Petty. Tom Hanks in one of his few horrible characters, well to begin with anyway as the alcoholic but he does show great character development and changes his ways. The whole cast which is made up mainly of women is very impressive.
A film that should be appreciated for everything that it brings not forgetting “There’s no crying in baseball” which has become a very iconic quote. Penny Marshall was inspired to develop the film after seeing a PBS documentary about the AAGPBL which I think is evident in the Ffion is he’d film due to her passion towards it!
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