New Cut For The Natural

Sports movies tend to be all cut from the same formula. It’s rare that one breaks out as extraordinary and, even when one does, it’s even more rare for one to become a lasting piece of cinematic history. The Natural is one of those exceptions. The story of a man who arrives seemly out of nowhere to help a failing baseball team is still one of the best movies out there and has been copied and parodied by some of the best people out there. Now a director’s cut of the movie is heading for DVD on April 3rd.

The way Sony is promoting the two disc release makes me think this is one of those Director’s cuts that actually means something, instead of the all-to-common sensational title being added with no real change to the film. Barry Levinson announces through the press release that the film, which has fifteen minutes of added footage and a newly re-cut first act, “is much closer to what I envisioned and it was fantastic to finally bring it to fruition.”

On top of the director’s cut, the set will include more than 10 featurettes, including interviews with stars Robert Redford and Glenn Close, a four part documentary titled “Extra Innings,” a three part “making-of,” and a video intro by Levinson.

April 3rd is still relatively early in the year but, done right, this could be one of the better DVD releases of 2007. We’ll see if the magic remains through this new director’s cut in a couple of months.