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Bang the Drum Slowly

 Bang the Drum Slowly
type
TVTItem
 Bang the Drum Slowly
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Bang the Drum Slowly
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BangTheDrumSlowly
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Bang the Drum Slowly is a 1973 American sports melodrama film directed by John Hancock, adapted by writer Mark Harris from his own 1956 novel of the same name and starring Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty, and Vincent Gardenia.The story revolves around a pair of baseball players with the fictional New York Mammoths: dim, folksy catcher Bruce Pearson (De Niro) and snarky pitcher Henry Wiggen (Moriarty). Bruce reveals privately to Henry that he has incurable Hodgkin's Disease and probably won't last the year. Henry promises to help Bruce, since the disease is sapping his ability to play, and to keep his illness a secret from their teammates and manager Dutch Schnell (Gardenia, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role).This wasn't the first screen version of Harris' novel; the year it was published (1956), it was adapted for television as an episode of The U.S. Steel Hour starring Paul Newman as Henry, with Albert Salmi as Bruce and a young George Peppard appearing as the ballplayer who sings "Streets of Laredo".The film is regarded by many as a Spiritual Successor to the similarly-themed Brian's Song, although the Harris novel and teleplay predated the latter by nearly two decades.
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2023-12-09T19:00:40Z
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2023-12-09T19:00:40Z
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DBTropes
 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_18d15922
type
Title Drop
 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_18d15922
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Title Drop: From the lyrics of the folk song "Streets of Laredo":
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Breaking the Fourth Wall
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comment
Breaking the Fourth Wall: The original 1956 television adaptation had Newman address the camera directly when he narrated.
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Bland-Name Product
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comment
Bland-Name Product: The fictional Mammoths wear uniforms identical to those of the New York Yankees, while the other teams they play wear the uniforms of the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies. They all apparently play in the same fictional league, since in '73, there's no way the Yankees would be playing the Mets, Pirates or Phillies (outside of the World Series, anyway). The film thanks all of those real MLB clubs at the end, so they did have the option of using the real Yankees name, but the film remained faithful to the book.
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type
Character Development
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comment
Character Development: Henry grows up as a person as the narrative moves along, and famously resolves to never be a Troll to anyone again. The last line was even voted the 95th best last line in a novel by American Book Review.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_414b064b
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Lonely Funeral
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Lonely Funeral: No one from the team save Henry went to Bruce's funeral.
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Secretly Dying
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comment
Secretly Dying: The entire plot revolves around Henry hiding Bruce's Hodgkin's Disease from everyone else, because Bruce doesn't want to be treated differently.
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Public Domain Soundtrack
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comment
Public Domain Soundtrack: In one of the most touching scenes, one of Bruce's teammates sings the 19th century ballad "Streets of Laredo", which is about a dying cowboy. Bruce reacts quietly.
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Never Got to Say Goodbye
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Never Got to Say Goodbye: After Bruce dies, Henry regrets not sending him the program of the World Series, which Bruce asked him to do when leaving the team for the hospital. He had plenty of time to send it, but for some reason never got around to it.
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Rousing Speech
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comment
Rousing Speech: Dutch gives one prior to having to face their chief opponent Baltimore Orioles, mixed with We ARE Struggling Together.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_af4d6174
type
Setting Update
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comment
Setting Update: The book took place in The '50s, the film sets it in The '70s.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_af616e40
type
Accidental Misnaming
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Accidental Misnaming: Henry's teammates call him "Author" because he wrote a book. Bruce misheard it and calls Henry "Arthur".
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Your Days Are Numbered
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Your Days Are Numbered: Bruce's Hodgkin's is terminal. It's just a matter of how long.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_b588a9b6
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Too Dumb to Fool
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comment
Too Dumb to Fool: Or rather, Bruce is "too dumb to play a joke on." This prevents him from being part of tegwar, a card game with ever-changing rules which the ballplayers use to scam money from passersby.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_c151ce3f
type
Character Depth
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Character Depth: The book and film hit all three dimensions. The entire story is about how Henry deals with Bruce's ailment; the fact that the Mammoths are gunning for the pennant is almost incidental.
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 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_c3c18143
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Hope Spot
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comment
Hope Spot: Near the end, it looks like Bruce is recovering and will play the next season. Instead, he dies offscreen and the next scene is Henry walking away from Bruce's funeral.
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First-Person Perspective
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comment
First-Person Perspective: The book has the readers viewing the events through Henry's head.
 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_c6aa9afc
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Character Narrator
 Bang the Drum Slowly / int_d4efe0d
comment
Character Narrator : As with the entire Henry Wiggens tetrology, the film is entirely from Henry's perspective and his narration. He's not omniscient, so he has no idea what the other characters are thinking.
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Famed In-Story
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comment
Famed In-Story: Henry has already won a Cy Young Award and a championship when the story begins.
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Platonic Life-Partners
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Platonic Life-Partners: Bruce and Henry become this, though initially Henry is ambivalent towards Bruce, but helps because Bruce is not very smart but in emotional and physical pain. When Bruce starts to play worse, Henry flat out tells Dutch that no matter where Bruce is sent or traded to, he must go with him; this causes Dutch to briefly wonder if the two are lovers.invoked
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Bang the Drum Slowly

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Bang the Drum Slowly
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Character Narrator / int_f9769253
 Bang the Drum Slowly
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Dissimile / int_f9769253
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Lonely Funeral / int_f9769253
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Sequel Displacement / int_f9769253