Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)
A guaranteed tear-jerker, Bang the Drum Slowly centers on professional baseball player Bruce Pearson (Robert DeNiro) and his team mate Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty), who supported Bruce to the bitter end after learning that the young catcher was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and would soon die. When hayseed Pearson first joined the team, he and Wiggen, the team's red-hot pitcher were oil and water. The other team members were none to thrilled to have Pearson on their team. Wiggen changes his attitude when he learns of Pearson's illness, and when the other team members find out, they too become more helpful until the inevitably teary ending. Look for popular character actor Danny Aiello in his feature film debut. The story is based on a novel by screenwriter Mark Harris and was first filmed for television.
Nothing is more important than friendship. Not fame, not money, not death.
Bruce Pearson: Everybody'd be nice to you if they knew you were dying.
Henry Wiggen: Everybody knows everybody is dying; that's why people are as good as they are.
Clearwater, Florida, USA
New York City, New York, USA
Queens, New York City, New York, USA
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
First produced as an hour-long live TV drama in 1956 on the United States Steel Hour, with Paul Newman as Henry Wiggen and Albert Salmi as Bruce Pierson.
Though the uniforms appear to be New York Yankee uniforms, they're actually the New York Mammoths.
To prepare for his role, Robert De Niro went to Florida to watch baseball teams in spring training, then traveled to Georgia and tape recorded conversations to study their accents.
Continuity
During a game against the Orioles, an overhead shot shows no base-runners. Henry pitches, the batter hits the ball; then the next shot, from the hitter's point of view, shows a runner starting off from second base.
During Piney's song in the clubhouse, coach Joe is shown holding the deck of cards in his hand. The next cut shows him with all the cards spread out on the table. No time has passed since the song is marking the time.
During a rainstorm, the grounds crew is shown pulling the tarp over the field. After a locker room scene, the next exterior shot shows only the home plate area covered, and the rest of the field open to the rain.
When Piney Woods is playing the guitar in the locker room during the rain delay, he clearly has a splint or heavy bandage on the index finger of his right hand. Such an injury would make it very unlikely that he would play. In a scene later that night set in a hotel room, Piney has no apparent finger injury.
Factual errors
Although released in 1973, the Oakland A's and the Cleveland Indians are still wearing their uniforms from the 1971 season. This was done because the real Major League footage in the film was from the '71 season.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
The Yankees (Mamouths) are seen in the film playing Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are National League Clubs and wouldn't play the Yankees unless it was the World Series as there was no interleague play before 1997. The New York Mammoths are a fictional team, and the disclaimer in the opening credits claims that all teams and players depicted are fictional, so it does not matter what leagues the actual teams play in.
All game action was shot at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium, but the Mammoths wore their home white and road gray jerseys at both fields. The action was all shot there, but it was supposed to represent them playing home games and road games, hence the switch in uniforms.
Revealing mistakes
Paul shoots the light in the hotel room using a single action revolver, which requires manually cocking the hammer. However, the hammer is clearly in the down position and his finger is not even on the trigger.
In the same at-bat Bruce Pierson is seen facing pitchers from the Pirates and Indians.
The same tunnel is used to represent both the home and away venues, the only difference being the removal of a stretcher hanging from the wall in the away venue.