YMMV / Bang the Drum Slowly

• Adaptation Displacement:
  • Not only has the film overshadowed the original novel, but the latter was only the second in a quadrilogy about protagonist Henry Wiggen. The first novel was The Southpaw, the third was A Ticket for a Seamstitch, and the fourth (which was published 22 years later in 1979) was It Looked Like For Ever.
  • Despite starring Paul Newman, almost no one remembers the 1956 television adaptation.
• Awesome Music:
  • Tom Ligon's performance of "Streets of Loredo" during a rainout, a song about a dying cowboy (and unintentionally honoring secretly dying Bruce.)
  • The touching main theme, featuring a mournful flute and guitar combo that serves as Bruce's Leitmotif.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • One of the ballplayers, Horse, is played by a young Danny Aiello in his film debut.
  • One of the ballplayers in the 1956 television adaptation is played by a young George Peppard, years before The A-Team or even Breakfast at Tiffany's.
• Tear Jerker: There's a reason it's often mentioned alongside Brian's Song as "men's weepies". Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice in his review basically threw up his sands and said as formulaic as the film was, people were still going to cry, himself included.
  Sarris: Let's face it. I cried. My companion cried. Everyone around us was crying.
• Values Dissonance: There is no way having a loaded gun in one of the lockers of a professional player would be Played for Laughs these days.

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