Director
John Sayles
Leading Actors/Actresses
John Cusack, John Mahoney, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, D.B. Sweeney, Michael Rooker, Don Harvey, John Sayles
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Michael Lerner, Clifton James, James Read, Richard Edson, Kevin Tighe, Christopher Lloyd, Studs Terkel, Michael Mantel
Genre
Drama, History, Sport
Language
English
Awards
n/a
Date of Release
1988
Producer
Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford
Setting and Context
Chicago, New York and Cincinnati, 1919 during the Word Series
Narrator and Point of View
We see this film from the point of view of Buck, the children of Chicago, and that of many of the players on the Sox team including Eddy.
Tone and Mood
Serious, Realistic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists are Buck, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Gleason with Antagonists being Rothstein,
Major Conflict
Most of the players choose to go in on a fix to lose the World Series while others don't, and the money men determining that they aren't going to pay the players for losing anymore.
Climax
The Sox are brought before a grand-jury with charges of conspiracy that they are found not guilty of, but they are banned from Major League Baseball for life.
Foreshadowing
When Comiskey serves the team flat champagne as their bonus instead of paying them the cash we can foreshadow that these players will make a decision based on money, because they don't have any.
Understatement
Sayles understates the devastation this has on the kids of Chicago who idolize the White Sox. We don't see this until the near end when the kid says, "Say it ain't so, Joe." as he weeps.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
n/a
Allusions
Gleason before game 1 of the Series tells his team that they can't be beat, they can only beat themselves. This alludes to the fact that he knows they are planning to fix the series.
Paradox
The team is cleared of all charges in federal court, but banned from baseball for life by the league.
Parallelism
The way Rothstein seeks to gain power and wealth parallels the way Comiskey runs his ball club. It's just that one is seen as underhanded while the other is pure and the great American Pastime.
