Research Catalog

Title

The church of baseball : the making of Bull Durham : home runs, bad calls, crazy fights, big swings, and a hit / Ron Shelton.

Author

Shelton, Ron, 1945-

Publication

• New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 241 pages; 25 cm

Summary

"Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball-especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner's leading man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. As he tells the story of Bull Durham, Shelton also explains the rarely revealed ins-and-outs of moviemaking, from a film's inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts-and-bolts of directing, the post-production process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton himself spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film"--

Subject

• Shelton, Ron, 1945-
• Bull Durham (Motion picture)
• 1900-1999
• Motion pictures > Production and direction > History > United States > 20th century
• Baseball films > United States > History and criticism
• Baseball in motion pictures
• Motion picture producers and directors > United States > Biography
• Screenwriters > United States > Biography
• Baseball films
• Motion picture producers and directors
• Motion pictures > Production and direction
• Screenwriters
• Motion pictures
• United States

Genre/Form

• Autobiographies.
• Biographies.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Note

• "This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf."

Contents

Introduction -- Part one: Development. Forbidden fruit -- Dalko, Altobelli, and number 136 -- Lysistrata in the minor leagues -- Edith Piaf and the Texas Playboys (act one) -- It don't get no better than this (act two, part one) -- Aristophanes and the Bermuda triangle (act two, part two) -- Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains -- "Can't anybody here play this game?" -- Casey Stengel -- Part two: Preproduction. Building the tow train set -- "I thought my body of work would be enough" -- Practice -- Part three: Production. There's a hat on the bus -- A thousand pigeons -- Sixty-minute man -- Part four: Postproduction. The third time you make the movie -- Kill your darlings -- Those Baptist whorehouse chords -- The numbers never lie -- Why baseball? -- Afterword.

Call Number

MFLP (Bull Durham) 23-647

ISBN

• 9780593319772
• 059331977X
• 9780593313961
• 0593313968

LCCN

2021049945

OCLC

1287753606

Author

Shelton, Ron, 1945- author.

Title

The church of baseball : the making of Bull Durham : home runs, bad calls, crazy fights, big swings, and a hit / Ron Shelton.

Publisher

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

Copyright Date

©2022

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Local Note

DIRECTOR ON THE MAKING OF POPULAR 1988 BASEBALL MOVIE.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

MFLP (Bull Durham) 23-647