Cobb (1994) from Tuna

Cobb is the story of sportswriter Al Stump who, during the course of his career, wrote two very different biographies of baseball immortal Ty Cobb. Stump's dilemma was whether to tell the story Cobb wanted him to, or to tell the truth. He chose to romanticize Cobb in the first biography, and not until years later did he write the story accurately. The film chronicles a trip in which Cobb and Stump traveled together to the Hall of Fame for a testimonial. Stump was to work on the (first) biography en route.

The film was directed by Ron Shelton, who has brought us many popular sports films including The Best of Times, Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump, and Tin Cup. Cobb was not as popular at the box office as Shelton's other films, and the probable reason for that is that Ty Cobb himself, arguably the greatest ballplayer of all time, and the first inducted into the hall of fame, was a world class maniac and monster. Although the film does not neglect Cobb's brilliant baseball career, or the successful stock trading which left him very wealthy, the star is accurately shown to be a bigoted, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, abusive bully who always carried a loaded gun (even on his death bed).  Hence, the entire film is about an extremely unsympathetic character. Roger Ebert accurately isolated the film's greatest problem in his largely unfavorable two star review: Ty Cobb was simply not someone you would willingly spend 128 minutes with.

James Berardinelli liked it better at three stars, and pointed out how well the film shows the gap between legend and real life. Both Ebert and Berardinelli are right, in my opinion. Cobb does accomplish everything it was trying to do. I found it a very well made film. Cobb was played brilliantly by Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Wuhl did fine as the everyman, "Stumpy." On the other hand, it's a film about a despicable character, and the experience of sharing his life is often unpleasant.