The Fan (DVD)

Synopsis *********** For Gil Renard life is slowly spiralling out of control, having lost his job as a salesman for hunting equipment and being served a restraining order by his ex-wife so that he can no longer see his young son, the only thing going for him is his love of baseball and in particular that of the giants and their new signing Bobby Rayburn. With nothing left to fill his life, his passion for baseball turns into an obsession, controlling his every move and thought, and when Rayburn is persecuted by the public and critics for having a bad season, Renard takes it upon himself to sort things out. Having intervened in a fatal manner, ...

Right from the opening credits this film looks promising: a scrapbook of film clippings flicker beneath the atonal recitation of a poem about baseball. The effect is truly eerie. After that, there's not an original moment in this film. Based on Peter Abrahams' book, The Fan chronicles the mental breakdown of a blue-collar chump obsessed with a baseball star. In this particular spin on the psycho fan theme, Robert DeNiro plays Gil Renard, a washed-up knife salesman with a failed marriage and an awkward relationship with his young son. Gil's one passion, outside of selling really good knives, is baseball. His team is the Giants and his hero ...

The Fan is one of these films that I feel never got the recognition it deserved. It stars Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. De Niro plays Gil Renard a struggling knife salesman who is an obsessive baseball fan. Snipes plays a baseball star called Bobby Raeburn. Renard has followed Raeburn all of his career and has always wanted him to come and play for his favourite team the San Francisco Giants. When this move is orchestrated Renard is on top of the world he can't believe that his two loves in life have finally been united, you get the sense that it is a spiritual moment for Renard. Things don't start too well for Raeburn when he fails to secure his ...