| Eight Men Out | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | John Sayles |
| Produced by | Sarah Pillsbury |
| Written by | John Sayles |
| Starring | Jace Alexander John Cusack Gordon Clapp Don Harvey |
| Music by | Mason Daring |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Editing by | John Tintori |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures Corporation |
| Release date(s) | September 2, 1988 |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Eight Men Out is a dramatic film, released in 1988, based on the book, published in 1963, of the same name by Eliot Asinof. It is a dramatization of the Black Sox scandal in 1919, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the World Series. The film was written and directed by John Sayles. Much of the movie was filmed at the old Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Tagline: The Scandal That Rocked A Nation.
Plot summary
The Chicago White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, is portrayed as a skinflint with little inclination to reward his team for a spectacular season. When a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein gets wind of the players' discontent, it offers a select group of stars — including Buck Weaver, and outfielder 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson — more money to play badly than they would have earned to try to win the series against the Cincinnati Reds.
Cast
- Jace Alexander .... Dickie Kerr
- John Cusack .... Buck Weaver
- Gordon Clapp .... Ray Schalk
- Don Harvey .... Swede Risberg
- Bill Irwin .... Eddie Collins
- Clifton James .... Charles Comiskey
- Perry Lang .... Fred McMullin
- Christopher Lloyd .... Bill Burns
- John Mahoney .... Kid Gleason
- James Read .... Lefty Williams
- Michael Rooker .... Chick Gandil
- Charlie Sheen .... Hap Felsch
- David Strathairn .... Eddie Cicotte
- D.B. Sweeney .... 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson
- James Desmond .... Smitty (as Jim Desmond)
- John Sayles .... Ring Lardner
- Studs Terkel .... Hugh Fullerton
- John Anderson .... Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Trivia
- Former Chicago White Sox outfielder Ken Berry served as a baseball coach for the cast.
- In preparing for the role, D.B. Sweeney, a former Tulane University outfielder, spent a season training with the Class-A Kenosha Twins of the Midwest League. A natural righthanded hitter, Sweeny learned to bat lefty in the six months prior to filming.
- This film contains one of the hardest plays for live-action baseball broadcasters to execute. Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by D.B. Sweeney, drove a triple into the right-field corner while the camera operator was able to keep the batter-runner and the ball in the camera frame for the duration of play. The camera was positioned on home-plate side of the third-base dugout.
- Dickie Kerr was portrayed as a right-handed pitcher in the movie; in real life, he was left-handed.
External links
- Eight Men Out at the Internet Movie Database
- Template:Rotten-tomatoes