Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies

Louis Giannetti’s extensive critique chapter in his book, Understanding Movies, thoroughly explains several different theories that film critics use to evaluate a film. Giannetti explains a theory as, “an intellectual grid, a set of aesthetic generalizations, not eternal verities. Some theories are more useful than others in understanding specific movies. No single theory can explain them all” (452). The chapter explores five different theories: realism, formalism, eclecticism, structuralism/semiology, and historiography. Each of these theories contributes to how films are created and how they are evaluated, which in turn, has an effect on the audience’s level of enjoyment. Both The Rookie, featuring Dennis Quaid as Jim Morris, and The Natural, featuring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, are films about baseball players facing their trials and tribulations when trying to

The Rookie tries its best to mirror the surface of everyday life by showing a Navy family that moves a lot, a rough father-son relationship, and a family enduring hardship when Jim is pursuing his dream of being in the major leagues. The filmmakers are trying to portray this as real life by giving the audience something that could relate to their personal life. On another note, The Rookie has a neatly plotted storyline where the audience can easily predict the final outcomes of each situation. The Rookie also emphasizes emotions, particularly when it comes to the topic of baseball. Young Jim Morris was devastated to learn that there was no baseball in Texas and with the move being as hard as it was, it didn’t help when his father told him, “There are more important things in life than baseball, sooner you figure that out, the better”. Jim’s emotions were consistently hit hard when people doubted his potential success,