The Greatest Game Ever Played

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This movie is ostensibly about golf. What it mostly seems to be about is special effects: golfball POV shots, shots of golfballs hurtling into the camera, shots from under the ball, crowds and landscapes that dissolve, smoke rings that float impossibly downward, unnaturally cute ladybugs and literally countless pirouetting, zooming, fading and panning scoreboard numbers. I’m pretty sure that The Greatest Game Ever Played single-handedly kept a hundred CG artists employed for a year. Director Bill Paxton overplays the special effects often and early, using a 1 wood when a 5 iron would do—and he unfortunately double-bogeys when it matters most.

The film is also about class struggle, and it succeeds better in this department. Both of the film’s legendary golf heroes—Englishman Harry Vardon and the Boston-area teen Francis Ouimet—are from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, and are naturally gifted at a game dominated a century ago by the snootily well-heeled. Vardon and Ouimet both must overcome arrogance, prejudice and terrible manners to win major tourneys. And win they do, in very winning performances.

One of the great tragedies of medieval Western culture, which was borne of and nurtured by the Christian church, was that it never quite “got” the Christian principle that in Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). A massive red sandstone fireplace lintel in the ruins of Scotland’s Huntley Castle illustrates the point. It is inscribed with the words of Romans 8:28, which says that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The Huntleys certainly had it good, and must have been convinced of God’s reciprocal love for them. But what did the Huntleys think of the disadvantaged laborers in their mines? Was their plight evidence of a lack of love for God? Or was misery just God’s way of teaching them some lesson? I certainly don’t know what the Huntleys thought, but the historic evidence suggests that sharing a little more of their wealth with their workers was not a part of the Huntleys’ feudal Christian agenda.

Christianity has, of course, also been at the forefront of correcting such social injustices in the West. Crusades against the slave trade, drives for women’s suffrage, marches to promote civil rights, and South African campaigns of forgiveness have all been primarily motivated by Christian values.

Correcting social injustice is always hard. Learning a new way of thinking is never easy. But in The Greatest Game Ever Played, Vardon’s parliamentary-minded promoter and Ouimet’s labor-minded father both are forced to see a new, very Christian way. The former realizes that honor is more valuable to Vardon than prestige; and the latter learns that dreams are more powerful for his son than institutionalized injustice.

Along the way, though, Paxton’s bio-flick sadly manages to evoke too many of what are now clichés from similar films: The Natural, Iron Will, even Aladdin. And at the end, you may be surprised to find that, all along, the film was actually supposed to be about friendship. Somehow, I missed that.

So the final round of golf between Vardon and Ouimet may have indeed been The Greatest Game Ever Played. But Paxton apparently had little faith that it was the Most Interesting Story Ever Told, and felt he needed to pad its themes with huge wads of digital fluff and feel-good bromides. The result is certainly not the Greatest Film Ever Made.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be. If you’re in the mood for a well-acted but over-directed family-oriented golf story, this might be just the ticket. And you can take my word for it, because this is the Greatest Movie Review Ever Wrote.

Darn! I muffed the putt.