The Sandlot

The Sandlot (1993) is set in the summer of 1962. Scotty has moved to a new town, knows nobody and cannot play baseball. He joins the eight boys who play on a vacant lot in the neighbourhood. Then he takes his stepfather's signed baseball, puts it into the game, and it goes over into the neighbour's yard. There is a dog in that yard and the boys call it the Beast. The whole structure rests on one summer; the plot is a sequence of attempts to get the ball back. The signed ball belongs to Babe Ruth, and Ruth appears briefly in a dream sequence. The best known passages are the swimming pool and the carnival, neither of which advances the plot, and the film does not care. David Mickey Evans wrote and directed it and provides the adult narration himself. It was shot in Utah, around Salt Lake City, with the lot built specially for it. It did moderate business on release and built its cult standing through television and video, becoming a generational film in America. It runs 101 minutes. Good for: nostalgic films about childhood, baseball, and the atmosphere of summer. Less good for: there is barely a plot and the film moves in episodes. There are no girls in it. For anyone who does not know baseball, the emotional weight of several scenes does not land.