Moneyball star actor Brad Pitt does a fantastic job representing Oakland Athletics Billy Beane in both the personal and professional aspects of his life.
Beane is a man obsessed with living up to his predictions, and using statistics and mathematical formulas to determine which players can be successes in Major League Baseball.
Pitt plays this role perfectly, and really gives us a sense of how difficult Beane’s life was as he rose to prominence among the ranks of baseball’s great minds.
Beane’s struggles as a general manager, father, and husband are well played throughout, and the film is as much about losing and dealing with that disappointment than it is about baseball.
Despite the 2002 Oakland Athletics not winning the World Series, and Beane not taking the Boston Red Sox job, one that would have been easier to do than in Oakland, Beane handles the failures with great strength, which Pitt displays beautifully.
Most of us know the story already, but the emotional impact and hardship behind the obvious is the reason to see the movie, and each part is done to perfection.
Pitt shows the struggles of Beane to create a winner with the Athletics, and trying to convince himself, his organization, and his friends that his way is a winning way.
In a movie that accurately portrays Beane as someone who couldn’t make it in the big leagues, that even has an even deeper meaning seen throughout the film.
“One of the things I think the story accurately portrays,” Pitt went on, “is how imperfectly we understand ourselves. We are so full of contradictions. Our weaknesses are our strengths and our strength are our weaknesses, and those things are constantly in flux.”
Moneyball is a fantastic film that pays great attention to the small details of Beane and his story, and in the process creates an emotional and exciting film.
Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. Follow @NicholasGoss35.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com