Product Description

Summer, 1961: Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle are on pace to break the most hallowed record in U.S. sports, Babe Ruth's single-season 60 home runs. It's a big story, and the intense, plain-spoken Maris is the bad guy: sports writers bait him and minimize hi

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5444 in DVD
• Brand: Team Marketing
• Released on: 2001-09-11
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 129 minutes

Amazon.com
61* is an endearing ode to the baseball days of yore when the press was the enemy, salaries were in check, and breaking records with bat and glove took on Ruthian proportions. In 1961 baseball expanded its season from 154 games to 162, allowing weaker pitching into the major leagues and two New York Yankees teammates--the colorless Roger Maris and golden boy Mickey Mantle--to make an assault on the sport's ultimate record: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs. To add to the stew, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced any record set in the last eight games of the season wouldn't count toward the official record; records had to be achieved in 154 games.

Director Billy Crystal guarantees success for his movie in the perfect casting of the leads. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan's religious sniper) is deft as Maris, and Thomas Jane is a perfect Mantle, a superman in a Yankee uniform. Despite the differences between family man Maris and hard-living Mantle, they form a rewarding friendship amid the media and fan frenzy. The shy Maris took the brunt of the storm, even facing boo-birds in his home stadium. Crystal and first-time writer Hank Steinberg keep the pace moving quickly between the field, the locker room, the press box, and the home front. The film never tries to dazzle with more than the facts (and it softens Mantle up a bit), yet it belongs on the short list of grand baseball movies. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

61-The best insiders view of the life and times of two of the NY Yankees Best
When I first saw this autobiography of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris stars, it was like being there with them.
Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, and Joe Pepitone (another Yankee local scouted and signed with the Yankees, his brothers Billy and Jimmy were our neighbors. I lived that era and thought I knew everything about every Yankee. This film, I have sought for years and now that I immediately purchased it through Amazon.com, I can tell any fan of baseball that is has all the fun, drama, trials and problems of any normal person that brought tears to my eyes of what went on during and after their professional careers. The class and charachter that more then describes those great players were my idols. But meeting them in person, in the dugout, never, ever gave me anything else but goosebumps.
This film I would highly recommend to any father not knowing these greats to sit with their children for a heart warming and insite not only how to behave and present themselves but a learning lesson of how a sport brought out the finest in them that will last forever.

Maris!!!!
The greatest Baseball film ever made. Maris should be in the Hall of Fame!!!!

Baseball as I remember it
I don't usually write reviews about movies, but I was overwhelmed by this movie. As a kid, I loved baseball, but now I couldn't tell you 10 players in the major leagues. The game is no longer the game that I remember. But this movie brought back everything to me. This is why I loved the game and why I went to bed every night listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Billy Crystal did a fantastic job recreating that magical season in 1961. The acting was terrific. The pressure must have been so intense, that we can only imagine it. 61* brought all of that to the screen. I wasn't expecting very much - I had not read any reviews, but I didn't remember seeing the critics talking about it much.

Just don't let the kids watch until they can handle the cussing. But other than that, what a movie.