The Pride of the Yankees

Buy This Item The Pride of the Yankees by Fox Home Entertainment  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 8-9-2008     When people say, "They don't make them like they used to," <I>Pride of the Yankees</I> is just the kind of film they're wistfully remembering. Nominated for 11 Academy awards (winning one for film editing), this handsome biographical drama of baseball legend Lou Gehrig is one of the most finely crafted films ever to emerge from Hollywood. Gary Cooper, that great oak of an American actor, progresses from the awkward and naively shy rookie to the seasoned "Iron Horse" first baseman of the New York Yankees without losing his idealism or modesty. Teresa Wright captures the same slice of Americana with her mixture of girl-next-door sweetness and urban sophistication as his supportive wife, Eleanor. After he's diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disease (known today simply as Lou Gehrig's disease), Cooper delivers Gehrig's famous retirement speech from the mound of Yankee Stadium with the courage and spirit of a winner: "I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth." One of the finest sports films ever made, <I>Pride</I> is about more than simply baseball: Gehrig, the hard-working, uncommonly talented son of immigrant parents, is the living embodiment of the American Dream. Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea costar as a Greek chorus of sportswriters, and real-life Yankees Bill Dickey, Mark Koenig, Bob Meusel, and Babe Ruth appear as themselves. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I> Reader Reviews Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was the New York Yankee first baseman who followed Babe Ruth in the line-up before succumbing to the disease which bears his name. Gehrig gave his famous Farewell Speech at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for." This is a black and white classic. Too bad that young audiences are reluctant to watch older films. It is also a shame that baseball players from the steroids generation have so little in common with Lou Gehrig, a man of integrity.

The Pride of the Yankees Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 8-9-2008.

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