In today's era of greedy athletes and their employers, the story of Lou Gehrig seems almost quaint. Here's a young man who by all accounts was selfless, kind-hearted, and rather introverted. And, of course, it didn't hurt that he was also a very good baseball player too. Put him on a lineup card today and he might not be the same player. Up until a few years ago, Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games played was a record, a record that many thought would stand forever. For 16 years he was in the lineup as the Yankees' first baseman, never asking out for any reason. That alone should show you how special a person Gehrig was.
This biography is pretty straightforward. Unlike many of its kind, it doesn't show its protagonist somehow succeeding against all odds. Gehrig didn't have an abusive mother, he wasn't beaten up by kids at school, he wasn't learning-disabled, he didn't have attention-deficit disorder, he didn't come from abject poverty. He was simply a son in a working-class, immigrant family, as many were during the early decades of this century. And that's why Gehrig is so special to so many people - he symbolises their own hopes.
Gary Cooper is aces as Gehrig, and Teresa Wright is wonderful as his wife, Eleanor. If there's anything imperfect about the movie, it's that it is...well, a little predictable. That's something biopics can't avoid, of course, so it's no big problem. But even if most of the film doesn't impress you, the final speech at Yankee Stadium - when Gehrig was suffering visibly from the disease that would eventually be named after him - will move you past tears. And even better, when Gehrig's done his brief speech, he walks offscreen. If that movie were written today, he'd play another game and hit a game-winning home run. It's this film's honesty and sincerity that win you over.
