History Film / TheNatural

* ArtisticLicenseSports:
** The Knights somehow are batting in the bottom of the inning in Chicago despite being the visiting team[[note]]In baseball, the home team always is at bat in the bottom of innings, to give them one last chance at the end of the game. However, in the early part of the 20th century it was known to happen occasionally, and in 2006 the Seattle Mariners batted first in their home park during a makeup game against the Indians which was rained out in Cleveland earlier in the season.[[/note]].
** After the starting pitcher falls behind in the count to Roy 2-0, in the last at bat, the opposing manager calls in a different pitcher. Although this is not against the rules, substituting a pitcher in the middle of an at-bat virtually never happens unless the pitcher that started the at-bat is injured. However, it has happened before, ''especially'' in important games, when the manager felt the pitcher was too wild, too nervous or both.

* TheThirties: The film takes place during the 1939 season.

* WomanInWhite: Iris standing in the stands in her white dress as the sun sets behind her hedges towards EtherealWhiteDress.

* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Max forgets meeting Roy 16 years earlier (though insists he knows him from somewhere), but Roy remembers him well and tries hard to avoid him.

** The Knights somehow are batting in the bottom of the inning in Chicago despite being the visiting team[[note]]In baseball, the home team always is at bat in the bottom of innings, to give them one last chance at the end of the game[[/note]].

** The New York Knights somehow are batting in the bottom of the inning in Chicago despite being the visiting team[[note]]In baseball, the home team always is at bat in the bottom of innings, to give them one last chance at the end of the game[[/note]].

* GiveMeASword: A baseball bat, this time. "Pick me a winner, Bobby."

** Roy's statement he wants people on the street to say "There goes Roy Hobbs, the greatest hitter who ever lived" was something Ted Williams stated.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: To keep the Knight's from winning their next few games, Memo offers an unsuspecting Roy a bite of drugged food at a party. He ends up ill and has to be rushed to the hospital, where he spends several days recovering.

* TruthInTelevision: Players have indeed hit home runs into scoreboard clocks, light arrays, and through the outfield fence. When Greg "The Bull" Luzinski was playing for the Phillies back in the 1970s, he hit a ball off the Jumbotron. It started smoking and they had to turn it off.

* DemotedToExtra: Roy's agent Sam dies of a heart attack from a ball to the chest when Roy strikes out the Whamemr in the book and gives his last money to Roy to get to Chicago while later appearing to him in a dream. In the film, he still sets up the match with the Whammer but has no other role.

* BlandNameProduct: The Knights are obviously the New York Yankees/Giants, but with the Arthurian theme.

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Based on the 1952 novel by Bernard Malamud, ''The Natural'' is a 1984 film directed by Creator/BarryLevinson and starring Creator/RobertRedford as Roy Hobbs, a supernaturally gifted young baseball talent whose career is derailed when he is shot in the gut by a deranged fan. Sixteen years later he makes his belated big league debut, but his dark secret threatens to destroy him.

Also stars Creator/WilfordBrimley as New York Knights manager Pop Fisher, Creator/GlennClose as Hobbs' childhood girlfriend Iris Gaines, and Creator/RobertDuvall as sportswriter Max Mercy.

This is the first film to be produced by Creator/TriStarPictures (but not released, as that honor goes to ''Where the Boys Are '84'').

* LifeImitatesArt: In Game 1 of the 1988 World Series at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson emulated Roy by battling through injury to hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run when down to his (and the team)'s last strike and facing an ace pitcher (in Gibson's case, legendary Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley). Dodger bullpen coach Mark Creese taped a sign reading "Roy Hobbs" over Gibson's locker after the game, while NBC's pregame video for Game 2 narrated by Bob Costas included both Roy's and Gibson's home runs.

* DarkIsEvil: Implied with [[NoNameGiven the Judge]], who refuses to light his office. Roy doesn't hold this belief, saying that the only thing he knows about the dark is "you can't see in it."

* EvilCannotComphrehendGood: The Judge and Max are completely baffled by Roy.

** After the starting pitcher falls behind in the count to Roy 2-0, in the last at bat, the opposing manager calls in a different pitcher. Although this is not against the rules, substituting a pitcher in the middle of an at-bat virtually never happens unless the pitcher that started the at-bat is injured. However, it has happened before.

** After the starting pitcher falls behind in the count to Roy 2-0, in the last at bat, the opposing manager calls in a different pitcher. Although this is not against the rules, substituting a pitcher in the middle of an at-bat virtually never happens unless the pitcher that started the at-bat is injured.

** The whole plot appears to be heavily influenced by Myth/GreekMythology and Creator/{{Homer}}'s writings. Roy is Odysseus, the hero trying to find his way home. Max Mercy is Vulcan, the God of Fire and Forging; he can "make or break" upcoming ball players and is always seen in red or brown clothing. Pop Fisher is Zeus, King of the Gods; his uniform is #1 and both the oak tree and lightning bolt are his symbols. The Judge is Hades, God of the Underworld; he is always in the dark a.k.a. death, and the dead are "judged" in the underworld. Memo Paris is Kalypso, a sea nymph who had an affair with Odysseus and held/distracted him from returning home. Gus Sands is the Cyclops with the one strange eye. Iris Gaines is Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, who patiently and faithfully waited for her true love to return home. {{Lampshaded}} early in the film when Harriet Bird compares Roy striking out the Whammer to something out of Homer.

* KarmaHoudini: Memo, Max, Gus and the Judge get no comeuppance at the end, though the Judge does lose his shares to Pops in the film and gets a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in the book. Gus also loses a lot of money he bet on Roy (having made a phone call earlier saying to bet "everything), although its implied he makes and loses big bets regularly,

* BlandNameProduct: The Knights are obviously the New York Yankees, but with the Arthurian theme.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: Adapted from the novel by Bernard Malamud. Malamud's novel is considerably darker in tone (Hobbs becomes an arrogant {{Jerkass}} as a result of his sudden fame, whereas he remains a goal-oriented NiceGuy in the movie) and has a [[spoiler:DownerEnding in which Roy turns out to be completely useless without the Wonderbat at the end, striking up and is about to be disgraced by Mercy's (highly-inaccurate) report]], whereas in the movie, [[spoiler:he gets the Knights to the World Series]].

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: One that proved very controversial at the time, at least among fans of Bernard Malamud's book. In the novel, Roy strikes out, the Knights lose, and his career ends in defeat and disgrace. In the movie, of course, Roy hits the mammoth HappyEnding homer.

Based on the 1952 novel by Bernard Malamud, ''The Natural'' is a 1984 film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Creator/RobertRedford as Roy Hobbs, a supernaturally gifted young baseball talent whose career is derailed when he is shot in the gut by a deranged fan. Sixteen years later he makes his belated big league debut, but his dark secret threatens to destroy him.

* DemotedToExtra: Roy's agent Sam dies of a heart attack from a ball to the chest when Roy strikes out the Whamemr in the book and gives his last money to Roy to get to Chicago while later appearing to him in a dream. In the book he still sets up the match with the Whammer but has no other role.

* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit: