Movies for a lifetime - 3

The Sandlot (1993)

All of us have memories of the summers from our growing up years - from that carefree age of about 7 to 8 through mid-teens. It does not matter what city or country you are from: we all have done utterly stupid, ridiculous things in these years, have had friendships that you thought would last forever and days and nights that you thought would never end. If you have forgotten those years, go watch "The Sandlot"....those years will come back to you in vivid details.

It's a simple movie about a summer in the life of the narrator Scotty Smalls. It's about the friendships he forms playing baseball with the neighborhood kids and a particular incident about a much dreaded dog. The script is the standard protagonist narrating his past life to the audience and thus it is always his perspective that we get to see and is a bit exagerrated where required (just like a 10 year old would remember it). The rest of kids of the sandlot are a motley bunch with character traits that will remind you of the bunch you hung out with at the soccer field, cricket field or just spending late nights talking about absolutely nothing in particular.

The movie's success lies in the way it evokes just the right nostalgic feelings of what it was like being a child. If I come across this movie while channel surfing, this is where my search ends and the 101 minutes of this movie transport me right into the hot summer days spent on the cricket field and the warm nights spent with friends on each other's terraces. I sleep with a smile on my face and wake up having lived through those magical summers yet another time.