August 16, 1996

THE FAN is one of those movies I saw at the time, thought was pretty decent, didn’t think much about for 30 years, watched again, still thought was the same pretty decent. In fact, I might have to bump that up to pretty good.

One good thing about it is the same thing that happens when you watch many of the Tony Scott movies, even lesser ones: you remember that god damn, movies used to look good. The cinematographer is Dariusz Wolski, who’d just shot CRIMSON TIDE for Scott, but also he’s the guy who did THE CROW, and later DARK CITY, and then he did some Gore Verbinskis and Tim Burtons, and then a whole bunch of Ridley Scotts. A high ranking cinematographer of my lifetime, in my opinion. So here he’s doing those hazy orange Tony Scott skies, he’s making shots of the most routine shit look god damn beautiful, he’s staging business meetings in conference rooms with magic hour light shining through slit blinds, just ridiculously beautiful shots in a regular ol’ stalker thriller.

In his followup to CASINO and HEAT, Robert De Niro stars as Gil Renard, a very serious fan of the San Francisco Giants. Not just a guy who watches the games and has the hats and bobbleheads and shit (though of course he does), he’s also a regular sports radio caller, apt to defend his team, for example when radio personalities Jewel Stern (Ellen Barkin, MAN TROUBLE) and Bernie (Kurt Fuller, MIRACLE MILE, NO HOLDS BARRED) are a little too hard on the highly paid new player Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes between WAITING TO EXHALE and MURDER AT 1600).

His day job is as a knife salesman. His father made knives himself and founded the company, but the current owners are not too happy with Gil. He has to close a major deal to keep his job, but the only time the client will meet with him is during opening day, and he wants to bring his son Richie (Andrew J. Ferchland, The Anointed One on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). What he decides to do is not really explain the situation to the kid, just get up and leave him during the game, go try to meet with the guy and come back. It’s not a believable traffic situation in my opinion but kind of a novel twist on the guy-trying-to-do-two-things-at-the-same-time method of cinematic discomfort.

Somebody notices he abandoned his kid and it’s a whole thing with his ex-wife Ellen (Patti D’Arbanville, REAL GENIUS). He brings pizza into Richie’s room and apologizes sweetly while ignoring the sound of stepdad Tim (Chris Mulkey, BROKEN ARROW) understandably pounding on the door threatening to call the police. They get a restraining order but he still shows up at little league practice and over-coaches the kid to tears. Mulkey is really good at being the guy trying to do the right thing but erring too far on the side of caution in regards to not overstepping his bounds with the biological father.

Unlike Gil, we also see some of the inside baseball inside baseball, spending time with superstar Bobby. Like all professional athletes, he is almost always accompanied by his fast-talking, Dwayne-Wayne-glasses wearing agent Manny (Snipes’ TO WONG FOO co-star John Leguizamo between ROMEO + JULIET and EXECUTIVE DECISION). There is some tension between him and another player named Juan Primo (Benicio del Toro, also in BASQUIAT around the same time) because Bobby took his position and also wants to take his number, 11, but Primo won’t give it up. Also Bobby is injured in the first game and immediately goes into a slump.

Gil, of course, realizes that this is all Primo’s fault for not giving Bobby the lucky #11, and as his life goes deeper into the shitter he has more time to dedicate to this issue by stalking Primo and confronting him in a hotel sauna. There’s a very effective shock where SPOILER Gil seems to be receiving a well-deserved beatdown, but when he gets up we see that he stabbed Primo in the leg and blood is pouring out.

It takes its time getting there but a major shift is when Gil is spying on Bobby’s beach house with binoculars and sees his son Sean (Brandon Hammond, MARS ATTACKS!) drowning. Always an awkward situation for a stalker, whether to reveal yourself by becoming a lifeguard. He saves the kid and Bobby just thinks he’s a good samaritan so he invites him inside to get some dry clothes. As you can imagine, things get awkward. At first he pretends not to know who Bobby is or watch baseball, next thing you know he’s asking very specific questions and begging to throw some pitches at him. Snipes is great at trying to be nonchalant and politely get rid of him, and of course De Niro is great at that slow boil from uncomfortable to terrifying. We see him simmering when Bobby says his slump ended after Primo’s death reminded him there are more important things than baseball. Gil wants credit but also it just infuriates him to hear a pro saying he stopped caring about baseball.

Crazy fuckin Gil ends up kidnapping Bobby’s kid, taking him to some old baseball friend named Coop (Charles Hallahan, WARLOCK: THE ARMAGEDDON). Coop is acting weird, and we don’t really know what the deal is, if he’s some unsavory guy, does he know what he’s getting involved in here? But soon he’s definitely sensing that Gil is dangerous and trying to figure out how to help the kid out of the situation. There’s a big reveal that really got me, (SPOILER) when Gil mentions their baseball glory days again, and Coop says “We were 12 years old.” That’s why he didn’t recognize Gil right away, why he was surprised by the baseball talk, why Gil is calling him a nickname he hasn’t used for most of his life. This fucking guy is stuck on shit that happened in little league. He’s further gone than we even thought.

That would almost work as the climax, but there’s a more expensive and Hollywood one that Bobby has to play a game and meet certain demands to save his son. It’s pouring down rain, providing the double whammy of 1) suspense about rain delays or cancellations and 2) Scott and Wolski getting to shoot baseball in the pouring rain. Ultimately there’s a big showdown on the field with all the players and cops and the crowd – a more grounded version of what happens in THE LAST SCOUT. It’s just cool to see a scene like this, because you can’t really make suspense thrillers on this kind of budget anymore.

The screenplay is by Phoef Sutton (Newhart, Cheers, MRS. WINTERBOURNE), based on a 1995 book by Peter Abrahams, an author who mostly writes mysteries for young readers. The score is by Hans Zimmer, who is particularly proud of its experimental dissonance, calling it “as Zimmer as it gets.” He says “There’s a nihilistic poem that I read through a vocoder and you cannot understand the words, but it’s really evil.”

I didn’t notice that, I was too busy with the needle drops, starting with the most overused Rolling Stones ones because Gil loves the Stones and insists on telling his poor kid stuff about “Mick” that he clearly has no context for. The weirdest touch is that when Gil really gets wild it starts playing Nine Inch Nails songs. I don’t think that’s supposed to be diegetic, they are not a Gil band in my opinion, I think they represent his emotional state. “Art of Self Destruction, Part One,” “Closer to God” and “Closer (Further Away)” are all featured. There are also two Massive Attack songs and a Corrosion of Conformity. But also a Terence Trent D’Arby.

Yeah, I like this movie. It’s very good at making me uncomfortable with Gil, this person who attempts to imitate what a normal person behaves like, but can’t quite pull it off. The way he talks to young Richie expecting him to care about his baseball opinions, the poor kid trying to make him happy but not always knowing what the fuck is going on. It gets something right about some sports fans specifically, but also about some fans in general, and also some men in general. (Also I’m realizing how similar the much smaller and less slick BIG FAN was. I should probly rewatch that some time.)

Reviews were middling to poor. Jay Carr wrote that it “isn’t a strikeout, but doesn’t exactly knock the cover off the ball, either,” but Marc Savlov wrote that it “never even makes it to first base,” and James Berardinelli wrote that it “strikes out.” The movie flopped, not making back its budget in theaters. Hans Zimmer later called it “a shitty movie” when talking about how much he likes his score. I disagree, Hans. Go read evil poems to your vocoder.

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Slam Evil Summer connections:

Jack Black is in it briefly as a guy working at the radio station, not unlike his larger role in THE CABLE GUY where he worked at a TV station.