THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE



USA, 2000, 127 min, color

Rannulph Junuh was a gifted amateur golfer from Savannah, GA, until traumatic experiences during World War I shattered his confidence and sent him into a spiral of alcoholism. In 1931, Adele Invergordon, a beautiful heiress who once loved Junuh, inherits a spectacular but financially ailing golf course after the suicide of her father. To attract customers, she proposes a high-stakes match between the two most famous golfers of the day, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. Local businessmen sponsoring the match insist that a local golfer be added to the card, and Junuh is drafted for the position, but it soon becomes obvious that his game is just a shadow of its former glory. When things seem hopeless, a mysterious gentleman named Bagger Vance volunteers to serve as Junuh's caddy and coach, using a mixture of ancient wisdom and past-life knowledge to help Junah "remember" the swing he's lost. In this film is the last role of the great Jack Lemmon, who died on June 27 2001 at the age of 76.

And if this film is old-fashioned, it is in a good way, in the sense that Redford the director is a man you can trust, one who is more than competent at leading his audience along a very pleasing, warm-hearted journey. If you like 'em old-fashioned, well-acted, beautifully evocative and put together with the gentle but assured touch of a man who understands cinema, then yes. And it still works even if you hate golf.