Review of The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) by David C — 11 Jul 2014

Steven Pressfield's novel, which translates the Bhagavad Vita into a story about golf, is here turned into a film by Robert Redford, who tries to do for golf what his own "The Natural" and Costner's "Field of Dreams" does for baseball, but sadly it doesn't have the magic touch that such a fantasy requires.

Will Smith's "Bagger" is particularly problematic, because whilst he is as charismatic as usual, he doesn't have the depth his character requires, and the plot glosses over the racism of that era and community that would have made the idea of a mystical negro caddy in such a context a potentially interesting idea.