The Greatest Game Ever Played tells the story of how 20 year-old amatuer golfer Francis Ouimet won the 1913 U.S. Open by beating his boyhood idol, Englishman Harry Vardon. Really, the movie is about breaking class barriers to succeed on merit rather than social station.
Franics came from a working class family and taught himself to play golf while caddying for country club members at the golf course next to his house. As a young man Francis fights for the right to play in an amatuer tournament. He is first told he is not allowed to play in the tournament because of his social status. Golf is a "gentleman's" game. After failing to make the cut in the tournament, his father's criticism keeps him from playing golf until an opportunity is offered to play in the U.S. Open. This is the same tournament Harry Vardon has returned to the United States to play in. Another leading English golfer, Ted Ray, accompanies Vardon and the two are financed by English aristocracy to take the U.S. trophy back to England and therefore prove English dominance in the sport.
Peaks into Harry Vardon's past parrallel Francis' struggle to get past the class barreirs to play golf in a time when aristocrats view social position with more weight than merit.
The wonderful part of this movie is the portrayal Ouimet's rivals Vardon and Ray. Unlike Cinderella Man where the rival Max Baer was falsely portrayed as a womanizer and a dirty fighter, Vardon and Ray are not villianized. They both compete with integrity and recognize the talent of the younger golfer. At the end of the movie I was as much a fan of Vardon and Ray as I was of the unlikely champion Ouimet.
The show stealing character was Eddie Lowery. Unable to pay a caddie, Ouimet is forced to use 10 year-old eddie. His youthful exuberance and comments on the golf course, "easy peasy, lemon squeezy," contrast with wisdom beyond his years when he gives Ouimet valuable advice during the tournament. Somehow the combination works and makes for an entertaining character.
The movie's theme of men struggling against the odds to become champions in a sport that doesn't welcome their working class backgrounds is one that American's love. The way it is able to do it so that rival competitors are both admired is masterful.
4 stars (I laughed, I cried. It changed my life. Better than Cats.)
