Bang the Drum Slowly (film)
| Bang the Drum Slowly | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John D. Hancock |
| Produced by | Maurice Rosenfield Lois Rosenfield |
| Written by | Mark Harris |
| Starring |
Robert De Niro Michael Moriarty |
| Music by | Stephen Lawrence |
| Cinematography | Richard Shore |
| Edited by | Richard Marks |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,000,000 |
Bang the Drum Slowly is a 1973 American sports drama film directed by John D. Hancock, about a baseball player of limited intellect who has a terminal illness, and his brainier, more skilled team mate. It is film adaptation of the 1956 baseball novel of the same name by Mark Harris. It was previously dramatized in 1956 on the U.S. Steel Hour with Paul Newman, Albert Salmi, and George Peppard.
This version stars Michael Moriarty and a then-little-known Robert De Niro as baseball teammates. De Niro's performance in this film and in Mean Streets, released two months later, brought him widespread acclaim.
Henry Wiggen, played by Michael Moriarty, is a star pitcher for the New York Mammoths, a fictitious Major League Baseball team. He is a valuable player to his manager Dutch but is in a dispute with the team's ownership, holding out for a new contract and more money. Henry also has a sideline as an insurance salesman working for the Arcturus Corporation, with ballplayers as his clients. Henry's best friend, Bruce Pearson played by Robert De Niro, is the team's catcher, is a player of limited skill and intellect. Teammates call Henry by the nickname "Author" because the brainy pitcher once wrote a book, although Bruce misunderstands the origin of the name and, with his thick Southern drawl, often calls him "Arthur" instead.
The film opens with Henry and Bruce leaving the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where Bruce has been told he is terminally ill with Hodgkin's disease and has very little time left to live. Henry and Bruce drive down to Bruce's hometown in Georgia, because he always wanted his only friend to see his old stomping grounds. On their first night there, Bruce burns his old baseball memorabilia in a way to acknowledge the inevitable end of his life.
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Wikipedia