The Pride of the Yankees (NR)

Heartwarming baseball classic for tweens and up.

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Movie details

Studio: MGM/UA
Directed By: Sam Wood
Cast: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Babe Ruth, Teresa Wright
Running Time: 121 minutes
Release Date: 05/08/1943
Video/DVD Release Date: 04/10/2007
Genre: Classic
MPAA Rating: NR

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this film, about baseball legend Lou Gehrig, is free of extreme violence or sexual references and Lou himself is a role model for his humility and work ethic. Young kids may be disturbed by Gehrig's illness and the talk of death, however, and it may be too emotionally intense for them. There are bouts of mild violence, including Gehrig getting hit on the head with a baseball and getting into a fight with a man who's trying to humiliate him.

Families can talk about whether there are any sports stars today who are good candidates for a similar movie. Are there sports stars who are also good role models for their kindness, dignity, and humility? How have sports changed since Gehrig was the Iron Man of Baseball? Which stars today aren't good role models and why? Kids who are new to Gehrig's story may want to read up on him and read about the disease that eventually lead to his departure from baseball.

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Lou is a great role model for his commitment to his work, humility, and honesty. There are some pranks, though. Lou accidentally breaks a shop window playing t-ball. He lies to his mom about playing baseball and attempts to lie to his wife about his health. Several Yankees play poker.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Several men drink beer, but no one drinks to excess. One man jokes that he'll "go away and drink himself to death." Another man mentions an opium pipe.

Violence

There's a lot of general rough-housing among the Yankees, involving shoving, pushing, and hitting. Lou attacks a fraternity brother who pulls a prank on him. Lou is hit on the head with a baseball during a game. Later, a Yankee punches out another.

Sex

Lou and Eleanor kiss a few times, playfully wrestle with each other, and there's one mention of "making love."

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Heather Boerner

THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES chronicles Gehrig's life from playing baseball in the streets of New York City to the Ivy League fields of Columbia University and finally, to the House that Ruth Built, Yankee Stadium. Gary Cooper plays the adult Gehrig with sweetness and determination as Gehrig struggles with his shyness around women and grapples with whether to pursue his own dream of becoming a baseball player or follow his immigrant mother's dream that he become an engineer. We see Gehrig woo Eleanor Twitchell (Teresa Wright), become a legend, and then struggle with a disease that hardly anyone had heard of.

Is it any good?

What's so refreshing about The Pride of the Yankees is that Gehrig is a man to be idolized who is also a good boy -- a mama's boy, even -- a sweet man who, as reporter Sam Blake (Walter Brennan) says, "does his job and nothing else. He gets a lot of fun out of it and 50 million people get a lot of fun out of him, watching him do something better than anyone else ever did it before." In other words, this is a sports star we can be proud to have our kids emulate.

The story is well known by most baseball fans, but it's Cooper's compelling performance that makes the film memorable. Even viewers who aren't baseball fans will be wiping away tears in the final scenes. And for baseball fans, there's plenty of action on the diamond, recreating famous plays. Babe Ruth himself cameos in the film, playing the perfect bombastic foil to Cooper's shy and dignified Gehrig. There's a reason these men are legends.