Daniel de Visé

“Bull Durham” ranks as a great sports film because, like the best baseball games, it transcends sport. More than a baseball movie, “Bull Durham” endures as a classic romcom with the backstop as backdrop. If you want to persuade some sports-sneering snob to watch it, tell them it’s also a remake of Lysistrata, the Aristophanes comedy about Greek women withholding sex to stop a war.

The Church of Baseball, a new memoir from filmmaker Ron Shelton, recounts the making of “Bull Durham,” the film that established Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon as major stars and affirmed Kevin Costner as an actor on The List, a secret ledger of names, like Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, that studios build films around. 

Read the complete review here.