Eight Men Out (1988)

My Review

“Eight Men Out” is a historic sports drama depicting MLB’s Black Sox Scandal where eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to loose the 1919 World Series. Director-screenwriter John Sayles (“The Brother from Another Planet” 1984) solidly directed and wrote this lucid and absorbing drama which baseball fans would especially enjoy. The film thoroughly covered the entire scandal, including the initial conspiracy, its origins in players’ resentment over the owner’s stinginess, scenes of 1919 ballgames where the fixed was depicted, the 1921 trial, and the subsequent lifetime ban by Commissioner K. M. Landis.

The talented cast includes John Cusack, Clifton James, Michael Lerner, Christopher Lloyd, John Mahoney, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, D. B. Sweeney, Michael Rooker, Don Harvey, Jane Alexander, Bill Irwin, Studs Terkel, Nancy Travis, and John Anderson as Judge Landis. The watchable “Eight Men Out” was a flop at the box office for Orion Pictures Corp. Much of the picture was filmed at the Owen J. Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.