"Cobb" is not about baseball, but a film about "greatness" and America's need for heroes. While anyone can be a drunken SOB, not everyone can hit .367 lifetime.
Through an Oscar-caliber performance by Tommy Lee Jones, we see the tortured life of "The Georgia Peach" through the eyes of Al Stump, the sportswriter Ty Cobb hired to write his autobiography. The few scenes on the diamond include a cameo by Roger Clemens as he and Cobb trade insults while Cobb aloofly takes two strikes, then doubles, mowing down three infielders en route to the plate.
Robert Wuhl plays the naive Stump who cannot believe he's being paid by the wealthy Cobb to elaborate on such topics as how to steal second base, when the despised Cobb's real story is much more fascinating. Did he sharpen his spikes before games? Did he beat a heckling cripple and kill another? Disruptive, bigoted and mean, Cobb alienated his family and teammates throughout his life, allegedly due to a tragedy he witnessed as a boy.
As Stump drives Cobb from California to his native Georgia, he secretly compiles a second book about Cobb's ugly side and, has to wonder if he himself is emulating Cobb. When the dying Cobb finds Stump's scribbled notes, he realizes he's been betrayed. Still, the odd friendship between these two men continues with Cobb on his deathbed and Stump pondering which version of the biography to publish.
The film is set in 1960 when Cobb, then 72 years old, engages Al Stump to write his biography. Stump's a young sportswriter who's flattered by the assignment. At first he hates the arrogant Cobb, but later finds himself admiring him for his "bigger than life" personality. And so he winds up being Cobb's only friend, traveling with him, drinking with him and playing nursemaid to his wild rages and need for constant medication.
Tommy Lee Jones is cast as Cobb, in a larger-than-life performance that humanizes the aging Cobb in spite of his raging racism and generally obnoxious behavior. Robert Wuhl is cast as Al Stump and his performance is equally good as we see him starting to have sympathy for the aging man. Lolita Davidovich is cast as a Reno cigarette girl who is pursued by both Al Stump and Cobb. She gives a good performance but I think the main reason she's in the film is to liven it up with a bit of flesh. There's also a small role played by Roger Clemens, the real-life pitcher in a scene of a baseball game played around 1916. Wisely, the camera doesn't stay too long on Tommy Lee Jones for this scene because he just can't look like a very young man.
The screenplay was ambitious but it lacked something. It was overlong and tended to be boring. Once the general situation was set, there was just one kind of outrageous behavior after another to prove the point that Cobb was difficult and that Stump was starting to admire the old man. In my opinion, the whole film could have been condensed to a one-hour television movie. As I'm interested in baseball, I did enjoy the film. But it certainly isn't one that I can highly recommend.
