A quiet picture with a love for character that sometimes derails its pacing, but the central relationship is compelling, watching two men deal with their emotions and the reality of mortality while handling the ups and downs of a baseball season.

| Original Score: B | Mar 3, 2025

The baseball paraphernalia may or may not strike experts as authentic... What is indisputably good is the flavor of the dialogue.

| Jan 23, 2024

BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY is a slow-paced drama masquerading as a sports movie. Robert De Niro and Michael Moriarty give decent performances, but there's more sport and action in a game of TEGWAR than anywhere in this film.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 10, 2023

The film profits immeasurably from the performance of Robert De Niro, a Northerner who completely transformed himself into the Georgia cracker with the fatal crack running through him.

| Jul 23, 2020

I found it an appealing and affecting study of a man who has everything and a man who has nothing, and the great need they have for each other.

| Oct 2, 2019

Even though it's forty-five years old is it as poignant and relevant today as it was back in the 1970s. It's worth watching for any young person, especially those involved in sports.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 15, 2019

The movie sometimes loses track of its story and rambles for puzzling stretches of unfocused scenes. But it succeeds best with the breezy, warm scenes of baseball life and with such sterling character bits...

| Aug 28, 2018

There's a low-key, melancholy feel to the film, thanks in part to De Niro's turn, which never patronizes his character or begs for sympathy.

| May 31, 2018

Heartbreaking and heartwarming.

| May 31, 2018

Make sure you have a box of tissues with you when you watch. Make that two boxes.

| May 31, 2018

The baseball version of "Brian's Song" has reduced more than a few tough guys to tears.

| May 31, 2018

Packed with powerfully emotional moments, but the use of the title song in the closing moments is a guaranteed tear-jerker.

| May 31, 2018

By the end, you've taken a fastball in the gut without even knowing how it got there.

| May 31, 2018

I remember [it] leaving a really deep mark on me as a kid when I saw it.

| May 31, 2018

The material is trite, but Hancock's slow-motion treatment of the experience of athletic performance is adroit and graceful.

| May 7, 2014

Until Field of Dreams came along, director John Hancock's moving buddy drama held the title of the best baseball movie ever made.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2014

This sports melodrama about a dying athlete is sentimental and predictable, but it's also very well acted by the young De Niro, Vincente Gardenia and Michael Moriarty.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 3, 2011

Talky, leisurely, and poetic baseball drama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2010

A funny, gentle and honestly sentimental movie that is easily one of the best of the year in any category, and very possibly the best movie about sport ever made in this country.

| Aug 3, 2008

It was first filmed for television, where it seems best suited as a 'disease of the week' movie.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 16, 2007