History Film / BangTheDrumSlowly

-->'''Joe and Red'''

* FirstPersonPerspective: As with the entire Henry Wiggens tetrology, the film is entirely from Henry's perspective, [[CharacterNarrator with his narration]].

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Near the end, it looks like Bruce is recovering and will play the next season. Instead, he [[OffscreenDeath dies offscreen]] and the next scene is Henry walking away from Bruce's funeral.]]

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: In one of the most touching scenes, Henry sings the 19th century ballad "Streets of Laredo", [[SuspiciouslyAproposMusic which is about a dying cowboy]].

* RousingSpeech: Dutch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLPkiFsCfMA gives one]] prior to having to face their chief opponent Baltimore Orioles.

''Bang the Drum Slowly''' is a 1973 UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} {{Melodrama}} based on the 1956 book of the same name by the film's screenwriter Mark Harris, starring Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/MichaelMoriarty, and Creator/VincentGardenia. The story revolves around a pair of New York Mammoth players: dim folksy catcher Bruce ([=DeNiro=]) and snarky pitcher Henry (Moriarty); Bruce reveals privately to Henry that he has incurable Hodgkin's Disease and probably won't last the year. Henry promises to help Bruce since the disease is sapping his ability to play, and keeps it a secret from the team and manager Dutch (Gardenia, [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActorInASupportingRole who earned an Oscar nomination for his role]]).

''Bang the Drum Slowly''' is a 1973 UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} {{Melodrama}} based on the 1956 book of the same name by Mark Harris, starring Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/MichaelMoriarty, and Creator/VincentGardenia. The story revolves around a pair of New York Mammoth players: dim folksy catcher Bruce ([=DeNiro=]) and snarky pitcher Henry (Moriarty); Bruce reveals privately to Henry that he has incurable Hodgkin's Disease and probably won't last the year. Henry promises to help Bruce since the disease is sapping his ability to play, and keeps it a secret from the team and manager Dutch (Gardenia, [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActorInASupportingRole who earned an Oscar nomination for his role]]).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bangthedrumslowly1973.jpg]]

* CharacterDepth: The book and film hit all three dimensions. The entire story is about how Henry deals with Bruce's ailment; the fact that the Mammoths are gunning for a World Championship is almost incidental.

* BlandNameProduct: The Mammoths are wearing uniforms ''identical'' to the New York Yankees, while the other teams they play wear the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies. They all apparently play in the same fictional league, since in '73, there's no way the Yankees would be playing the Mets, Pirates or Phillies. The film thanks all of those real MLB clubs at the end, so they did have the option of using the real Yankees name, but the film remained faithful to the book.

''Bang the Drum Slowly''' is a 1973 UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} {{Melodrama}} based on the 1956 book of the same name by Mark Harris, starring Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/MichaelMoriarty, and Creator/VincentGardenia. The story revolves around a pair of New York Mammoth players: dim folksy catcher Bruce ([=DeNiro=]) and snarky pitcher Henry (Moriarty); Bruce reveals privately to Henry that he has incurable Hodgkin's Disease and probably won't last the year. Henry promises to help Bruce since the disease is sapping his ability to play, and keeps it a secret from the team and manager Dutch (Gardenia, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role).

* CharacterStudy: The book and film hit all three dimensions. The entire story is about how Henry deals with Bruce's ailment; the fact that the Mammoths are gunning for a World Championship is almost incidental.

-->Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.\\
Play the dead march as you carry me along.\\
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me\\
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong

-->Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.//
Play the dead march as you carry me along.//
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me//

'''Bang the Drum Slowly''' is a 1973 UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} {{Melodrama}} based on the 1956 book of the same name by Mark Harris, starring Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/MichaelMoriarty, and Creator/VincentGardenia. The story revolves around a pair of New York Mammoth players: dim folksy catcher Bruce ([=DeNiro=]) and snarky pitcher Henry (Moriarty); Bruce reveals privately to Henry that he has incurable Hodgkin's Disease and probably won't last the year. Henry promises to help Bruce since the disease is sapping his ability to play, and keeps it a secret from the team and manager Dutch (Gardenia, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role).

'''Bruce:''' Everybody'd be nice to you if they knew you were dying.\\