Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301608978
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6301608976
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Release Date: 1990-03-22
Running Time: 100
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 1957

From its early scenes of a young Jimmy Piersall literally suffering his father's abusive determination that the boy should play baseball, Robert Mulligan's 1957 Fear Strikes Out becomes more about mental health than love of the game. But this is a compelling drama about the real-life Piersall's gradual breakdown one season before a national audience, the legacy of his domineering dad's overbearing ways. (Karl Malden plays Piersall's father.) Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) brings his usual, civilized mix of poignancy and dramatic urgency to the proceedings, keeping any viewer (sports fan or not) involved. Perkins looks out of place on the field and is meant to appear that way; his fragility and intensity underscore the sad tale of Piersall's woes. --Tom Keogh

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great movie, great acting by all...
Comment: I was very satisfied by everyone's performances in this film. Anthony Perkins plays Jimmy Piersall, a player for the Boston Red Sox, who suffers a breakdown and mental illness after his father, played by Karl Malden, pushes him to the brink. He ends up in a hospital and must rediscover himself and how he got there, where he will go next. He also must face his father again. I don't know the other actors' and actresses' names, but all are excellent. This is a movie about ambition, tragedy, and ultimate triumph. Anthony Perkins was an excellent but underrated actor and had a real talent for playing "unhinged" characters; it's a shame that a lot of people only knew him for his "Psycho" character Norman Bates. Although he was great in that role as well, it wasn't his best role; this one very well may have been. I've enjoyed every movie I've seen him in, but this one was his most outstanding to me. The breakdown scene is one that the viewer won't ever forget. The movie is enjoyable and entertaining regardless of whether or not you're a sports fan. Highly recommended.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Demons on the Diamond
Comment: This is not supposed to happen in professional sports, with our heroes who wear the uniforms of our home team....right?

Director Robert Mulligan tackles what remains a delicate issue, mental illness - bipolar disorder - of an athlete, in this 1957 release based on the nervous breakdown of Boston Red Sox player Jimmy Piersall and his struggle to get back to the major leagues while confronting his personal demons.

Anthony Perkins portrays Piersall and Karl Malden turns in an outstanding performance as his father (John Piersall), who is driven to get his son into the majors and has such tunnel-vision that he does not see the price being paid through his demanding ways.

Though Jimmy Piersall reportedly was highly critical of the movie, Perkins does an excellent job in delving into the serious issues of the star power at a young age - Piersall signed a pro contract at the age of 18 and saw action with the Red Sox two years later - the stigma of mental illness in pro sports and the ramifications of a dysfunctional family when a child is driven to succeed for all the wrong reasons.

The batter's box in life can be daunting, especially when every pitch seems to be coming wild, high and tight. To hit the demons out of that ballpark makes this movie - that happens to have a baseball motif - even more special.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Chiling and revealing.
Comment: Anthony Perkins does an incredible job of portraying someone with bi-polar disorder. If I were in charge of the Academy Awards I would have given him the oscar for this role. His acting was phenomenal. The movie is very serious. It is well done and they treat the subject matter of Jimmy Pearsal's illness very delicately. It is an excellent movie, however, not one for a happy-go-lucky evening. It is more for a serious evening. The only flaw I saw in the movie is that they never portrayed the more entertaining side of Jimmy Pearsal. l had the opportunity to meet him in person at the old-timey Birmingham Baron baseball game and I can say that the movie only portrayed the ailing side of his personality and not his entertaining side. Nonetheless, it is an incredible movie.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Tense and dramatic from beginning to end
Comment: Both Perkins and Malden turn in possibly the greatest performances of their illustrious careers in this story of the gifted but troubled center fielder. Perkins is truly brilliant in the role, and its hard to imagine anyone at this point who could have done a better job in the role. Maldon is relentless as the overbearing sports dad, who does love his son and wants him to do well, but whose love is truly a two-edged sword. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, the movie has a fine script, and the film is taughtly directed by Robert Mulligan. One minor quip I did have was that the wife's part, played capably by Normal Moore, could have been bigger. Coincidently, I attended the Norma Moore private school my last two years in high school. :-)

Overall, it's a fine movie about a great baseball player's descent into mental illness and his struggle to return to normalcy, but be aware that it does take some artistic license with the facts. In the film, Piersall's disorder is portrayed as an "anxiety disorder characterized by obsession and occasional auditory hallucinations," (from the Wikipedia article on Piersall), rather than bipolar disorder, which was how it was actually diagnosed. These inaccuracies eventually led Piersall to disown the film. Also, the movie makes no mention of the fact that Piersall's mother was diagnosed with mental illness.

A little trivia note, he became a professional baseball player at only age 18 with the Red Sox, after having been an outstanding high school basketball player. In a career marked by bizarre behavior and various antics, he celebrated his 100th career home run by running the bases running backwards, as promised (although in the right order). He had a career batting average of .272, led the American League in doubles with 40 in 1956, was elected to the American League Hall of Fame in both 1954 and 1956, and earned Golden Glove awards in 1958 and 1961.

Interestingly, Piersall and Perkins, who last names both begin with P, share their first and middle names, since Piersall's middle name is Anthony. Finally, in his autobiography, Piersall once said, "Probably the best thing that ever happened to me was going nuts. Whoever heard of Jimmy Piersall, until that happened?"

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Makes you think twice
Comment: Excellent movie for all parents with children playing
any sport to watch.

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