<<Movies of My Childhood list
The Sandlot
I
can’t count how many times I’ve watched The Sandlot. It can be viewed so many
times, and still be as funny and entertaining as the first time you watched it.
Little
Scotty Smalls is our main character. The new kid on the block, he moves to a
different town in a whole other state, with no friends. But he quickly learns
about a bunch of kids his age who get together and play baseball. Not for any
team so to speak, rather just for the fun of it. Scotty tracks them down to a
place called The Sandlot; an old baseball pitch looking like it was abandoned
years ago. With hardly any grass left, and surrounded by old houses and fallen
fencing, it’s as far from the glory and glamour of Yankee Stadium as you could
get. But these kids don’t care. The Sandlot is theirs – and they own it. Trying
desperately to get accepted by them, Scotty bravely joins the game with his
plastic, toy glove. Failing to catch a ball, he gets laughed at. To make
matters worse he can’t throw, and the boys fall to the ground in hysterics.
Distraught, Scotty runs off but it’s not the end of his chance to make friends.
Benny, the leader of the baseball crew, decides to give Scotty a shot.
Lending
Scotty a glove, the introduces him to the rest of the “team”. Lining up like suspects
for a mug shot, there are; brothers Timmy and Tommy, Squints, Yeah Yeah,
Bertram, Kenny and Ham. Half of them go by nicknames obviously, but all of them
don’t think much of Scotty. Only Benny treats him like a friend from the very
beginning. We’ve all been that kid who didn’t fit in at some stage. Being the
odd one out is hard, especially when you don’t have a choice and the only group
you can turn to doesn’t accept you.
Heading
back to The Sandlot, Scotty shows he still can’t catch or throw. As the other
boys look on in disbelief, Benny runs to the rescue and gives Smalls a crash
course in baseball. Magically, he then learns how to throw and catch rather
quickly. Before too long, Smalls is part of the team. But his next problem will
come when he learns the truth of the local legend. At the far end of The
Sandlot, behind one of the fences, something evil lurks. You can hear it growl,
you can sense it move, and nothing can prepare you for The Beast.
When
the ball gets hit over that fence the next day, Smalls willingly offers to go
get it. His new mates run to his resuce, dragging him down from the fence. They
tell him “The ball’s gone”. When Scotty asks why, they all reply “The Beast”.
The best way for Smalls to see the terror for himself is to peer through a hole
in the fence. He sees it, although we don’t. What is it exactly? And why are
all the kids scared of it? The truth is exaggerated of course, as The Beast is
in fact just a really large dog. But a dog that claims any baseball that goes
over the fence, and will eat any kid who tries to retrieve their ball. This is
the story the kids believe anyway, and convince Scotty of the legend.
The
Sandlot doesn’t follow any particular plot so to speak, but who cares. It’s
just for fun. There’s a scene at the local pool, where the boys head on a hot
day. Squints has his eyes on lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, and fakes his own
drowning just to receive mouth to mouth and then kiss her. Then the boys head
to the carnival to celebrate their big win against a rival team. Walking on
cloud nine, Bertram brings some chewing tobacco for the boys to try. They feed
their gobs with it then go on a ride that twists, turns and tips upside down.
Of course, they can’t stomach the massive amount of tobacco in their mouth, and
throw it all up. Or another great scene,where the guys play a night game under
the light of the fireworks on July 4th night.
The
film then goes into “Home Alone” mode when a certain, special baseball gets hit
over the fence and into the lair of The Beast. This ball must be retrieved,
because Scotty stole it from his step-dad and it’s autographed by none other
than Babe Ruth. Worth more than any amount of money the boys could imagine,
they launch their mission to get it back.
Coming
up with one crazy idea after another, the boys will do antying to get the ball
back, but The Beast thwarts their brave attempts at every turn. This is no
ordinary dog. Whatever contraption or device they create to steal back their
ball, The Beast will either stop it, break it, or eat it. And the rest of the
time, the boys ideas just backfire, because that happens when you try to use
three vacuum cleaners at once to suck up a ball that malfunctions, and Ker
Boom!
The
Sandlot is purely a film to be enjoyed. It’s fun, fast paced and light-hearted.
The characters are well thought out and the young actors playing them were
perfectly cast. It’s about baseball. It’s about facing your fears. But it’s
about friendship more than anything else. Scotty starts out with none, but by
the end is accepted by the Sandlot Kids and becomes a pretty good ball player
in the process. Childhood movies always seem nostalgic when we think back on
them, but The Sandlot is a nostalgia piece without you needing to look at it that
way. It’s set in the 1960’s, it’s about baseball, and it’s about kids playing
in the fresh air all day, all the time. You don’t see that in many kids movies
made today, or many of today’s kids doing that themselves for that matter. It’s
a nice throwback to a pleasant time, but goes to show kids are kids, no matter
what generation they come from. And they’ll always get into trouble and stick
by each other in hard times… as good friends do.
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