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''Bang the Drum Slowly'' is a 1973 sports drama. It is film adaptation of the 1956 baseball novel of the same name by Mark Harris. It was previously dramatized in 1956 on the ''U.S. Steel Hour'' with Paul Newman, Albert Salmi, and George Peppard. This version was directed by John D. Hancock and stars Michael Moriarty and a then-little-known Robert De Niro as baseball teammates. De Niro's performance in this film and in ''Mean Streets'', released two months later, brought him widespread acclaim. ==Plot== Henry Wiggen is a star pitcher for the New York Mammoths, a fictitious Major League Baseball team. He is a valuable player to his manager Dutch but is in a dispute with the team's ownership, holding out for a new contract and more money. Henry also has a sideline as an insurance salesman working for the Arcturus Corporation, with ballplayers as his clients. Henry's best friend on the team is a catcher, Bruce Pearson, a player of limited skill and intellect. Teammates call Henry by the nickname "Author" because the brainy pitcher once wrote a book, although Bruce misunderstands the origin of the name and, with his thick Southern drawl, often calls him "Arthur" instead. The film opens with Henry and Bruce leaving the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where Bruce has been told he is terminally ill with Hodgkin's disease and has very little time left to live. Henry and Bruce drive down to Bruce's hometown in Georgia, because he always wanted his only friend to see his old stomping grounds. On their first night there, Bruce burns his old baseball memorabilia in a way to acknowledge the inevitable end of his life. The team knows nothing about Bruce's fate. At spring training, Dutch is preparing to release Bruce in favor of a hot young prospect, country boy Piney Woods. So management is amazed and confused when Henry ends his holdout and agrees to a new contract on one condition: that he and Bruce come as a package. If one is on the team, so is the other. If one is traded or sent down to the minor leagues, the other goes too. Dutch tries everything to make Henry reveal why he insists that Bruce catch for him. In the meantime, the Mammoths are losing games and have a low morale, with teammates quarreling among themselves. Knowing that he is dying, Bruce wants Henry to change the beneficiary on his life insurance policy from his parents to his girlfriend Katie. Henry knows she is interested only in Bruce's money and is taking advantage of his circumstances. One day when a player teases Bruce, a frustrated Henry blurts out the fact that Bruce is dying. He asks that it remain confidential, but quickly teammates and Dutch all learn the news. They begin to treat Bruce differently and each other as well, and the team's play and mood both improve. Near the end of the season, Bruce becomes too ill to continue playing. The team eventually wins the World Series, but Bruce returns to see his parents in Georgia. After the season is over, he dies, and Henry vows that he won't "rag" on (tease) anyone again. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bang the Drum Slowly (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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