User reviews

This is a wonderful piece of work from director and executive producer Billy Crystal. A powerful and personal story of the little known amiable relationship between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle during that dramatic home run race of 1961. The two sluggers were always pictured as being bitter rivals. This is a whole different tale.

Mantle(Thomas Jane)being the Yankees 'golden boy' and Maris(Barry Pepper)the ridiculed interloper learned to coexist and become the M & M Boys. Mantle being jaded by the press offered his best advice to the often stoic and sullen Maris on matters of surviving publicity. Most of the home run chase was like a masterpiece on canvas. Maris never seemed to get the respect he deserved, but his fortitude garnered him a place in baseball history. 61* would of course become 61 and then later shattered and surpassed by another home run chase.

This movie deserves being ranked among the elite of sports movies and one of the best baseball flicks ever. Pepper is outstanding as Maris. Jane takes a little warming up to as the Mick. A very talented supporting cast includes: Richard Masur, Bruce McGill & Christopher Bauer. Plus most impressive is Billy Crystal's daughter, Jennifer, playing Pat Maris.

This is a must see for every sports fan!

Even for the only occasional baseball fan in Europe (i.e. myself) this film gives you excitement about the game the game of baseball, feeling for some of its greatest stars and hits home just how big the sport is across the pond. And it really brings home how much director/producer Billy Crystal loves the game.

The strength, however, really rest in the performance of Billy Pepper and Thomas Jane who portray the friendship, rivalry and respect between two great players.

I was glued to the screen from moment one would suggest that this is one of the strongest sports films ever made.

An exceptional story. Brilliantly acted (excellent casting), perfect direction... Why can't films at the box office be scripted like this? Baseball films are usually well done and 61* is no exception. The story of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle coming to odds with breaking a legend's record has never been told better. They even look like the players! Great job by Billy Crystal, Thomas Jane and Barry Pepper for a great film. 61* does a good job trying to explain its very tagline: Why did America have room in its heart for only one hero? Did Yankees fans really feel that Maris was not one of the team? Did the media truly want to make his life miserable for chasing the Babe's record? The subplot is as good as the main story itself. Thumbs up.

There is not one A actor or actress in this film; and yet it is a masterpiece of baseball legend. It is the game, and not the actors that matter in this film. It is the story of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and that magical summer of 1961 that Yankee fans who lived through it will never forget. The sentimental favorite to break the Babe's record was obviously Mickey Mantle, one of my boyhood heroes. However, as the film, beautifully directed by Billy Crystal shows, Roger Maris was a man of great integrity and determination. He was an honest, clean-living family man; unlike the PED cheaters who temporarily stole his record years later. Only Aaron Judge can honestly say he broke Maris' record. And how fitting is that?

This film is based on the historic 1961 season of the New York Yankees where in addition to the team's all-around success, individual players like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris have historic runs themselves as they both race to break Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record of 60 home runs. This record is so respected and revered that even a popular player like Mickey Mantle faces some obstruction. This leaves the less affable but good natured player Roger Maris to face an extreme amount of bitterness and pushback from just about everyone except for his family.

While this film is a baseball film covering this historic season, it does more than just demonstrate how the game is played. It gives the viewer a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes lives of players and the inner turmoil the two stars face throughout the season. This film will let you see Mantle and Maris as you've never seen them before.

This film will make you sympathize with the players in a way you'd never expect. Highly recommend!

there, as in, at the Stadium, 1 Oct. 1961? well, I watched it on TV, listening to Yankee announcers Red Barber and Mel Allen, "call the shot".

to be 10 years old and watch your "old" hero, Mantle and "new" hero, Maris, in the most humble way, hit home runs more often and further than the greatest power hitters in history.

Mantle, the hero in denial but who enjoyed the spotlight; and Maris, the guy just glad to be playing baseball and making over 25k, not in denial but eschewing the silver microphone.

a made for TV movie and one of the best. a touch here & there and you got a real movie house classic. Billy Crystal did a great job, even demonstrating batting stances of the guys who were there in 1961....behind the scenes! "no, that's NOT how ya did it!" (well, sorta...watch the bonus material!).

a real golden opportunity to make this a strong drama with the actual story somehow got past Billy. too often we are stuck with a light soap opera with a few laughs. coulda knocked it out! but it's an EIGHT!

i just saw this movie. and first comment is barry pepper was great. he's such an underrated actor, he really knows how to express his feelings without looking like a sissy. i have a crush on him after this movie. this movie was so great because it seemed real. its not something that tries to make the bb stars look perfect. they seemed like real people with real problems. but most of all this film actually took you there, the emotions, the atmosphere, everything. i really felt that i was part of that time.

roger maris was portrayed real well here, it offered insights on how he was the way he was and that we should RESPECT him for being him. i think this movie really wanted people to have tolerance for other kinds of people and not force them to conform to what is typical star. He wasn't the star that everyone wanted him to be, because he couldn't. to him the game was just something he could gain an achievement for but surely it isn't a measure of a man. when he said in the end of the movie that respect can't be earned in the field. in some ways he was right. but by saying that, you can tell that he was a man who believed that there was something outside the game.

one complaint would be that at the end it didn't offer any additional information to what happened to the players in the movie.

This is simply the best baseball movie based on actual events -- alongside, and slightly above, Eight Men Out.

Billy Crystal's direction is wonderful -- his passion for the subject is obvious, and infectious. His commentary on the DVD is both funny and enlightening,

Highly recommended, especially during this year's pennant race!

Excellent, excellent work of Billy Crystal as the director of this TV film, which brought me back to the 50-60s when I was still a child. NY Yankees have always been one of the best and most persistent team in any sport during the 20th Century and the present 21st one. This film gave you the story of the feat done by the outfielder Roger Maris when in 1961 he broke the former record of 60 homers done by Babe Ruth in 1927. It is true that when Ruth played each team played 154 games while in 1961 there were already 162, but the fact is that in any league or championship it is a real feat to bat 61 homers, and this is what Maris did. The film was able to draw well the figures of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. The first one was the most beloved Yankee player at that time while Maris came to the team just in 1960, so he was not so admired as Mickey. It certainly gave an idea of modesty by Rogers and chaotic life by Mickey at night, the friendship between them, and the way they played. The story is nearly exact, still in Baltimore, Maris had to face powerful pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, whom he could not bat properly, so he failed to tie the Ruth's record in his 154th game. The pressure during the last games was against his will to break the record, something that he achieved in his last game against the Red Sox. Fans in New York look to be as fans from Rome in soccer, nearly always senseless, without given the appropriate recognition to whom deserves it.

I was not sure what type of baseball movie to expect from an actor "Billy Crystal" but I was greatly surprised at the depth of the story told of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. The movie starts off with the breaking of the Maris record of 61 homers and gladly travels back to 1961 and that magical year in baseball. Being an Angel fan since their beginnings I was very aware of many of the stories involving Maris and the difficulties he faced as the season wore on. Near the beginning a very interesting exchange between Yogi Berra and Elston Howard showed each of us just what depth this film was going to take. Yogi had his "Yogi-isms" whenever he spoke on any subject according to the lore of this catcher, and it was depicted in the film. The homerun record and the ghosts of Babe Ruth greatly began to affect Maris's personality and this was displayed. One very humorous scene was when the fun-loving and playboy personality of Mickey Mantle had to endure the TV show "Andy Griffith Show" which was enjoyed by the very home, family oriented Maris and Bob Cerv persons. The casting of Barry Pepper as Roger Maris and Thomas Jane as Mickey Mantle was perfect as each really looked like the originals. If you are a baseball fan as I am, you will really enjoy this travel back to the glory years in baseball's history.

This movie may very well challenge "Field of Dreams" as the best baseball movie of all time. The story took me back to that magnificent summer of '61 when boys raced to get the morning paper to see who hit a home run. As the cold war heated up and nuclear war seemed inevitable, our only focus was on numbers 7 and 9 and how many each had. It was my senior year in high school, and, as a ballplayer, I couldn't have number 7 or 9 because both were taken. I chose number 16 (9+7) and with each at bat I imagined standing at the plate in Yankee Stadium and everyone cheering and I would pretend to hit the coresponding number of home runs hit by Maris or Mantle. It was a magical time and my heart went out to Roger for the abuse he had to endure and the pressure that befell him.

You don't need to know baseball to appreciate this movie, but it sure helps. Overall, this is a wonderful story, and very well directed. The pacing is good, the rivalry and friendship between the two characters very believable, and the cautionary story of how the press can blow things out of proportion something we should all remember. Watch this movie on days off between world series games, or in the middle of the winter when you're looking for some of that old fashioned baseball feel.

As a rule, I am not a baseball fan. I don't loathe the sport, I just don't seek it out. I was interested enough to watch 61* based on the promos that HBO has been running.

I'm glad I did.

The story of the great M&M boys touches a nerve, whether you are a baseball fan or not. It's about the underdog, the little guy, the one that's easy to forget when blinded by the limelight. Mickey Mantle was the hero. Roger Maris was humanity. And that's exactly what this film displays. Rooting for the little guy, and that common thread that links humanity together.

Suddenly, Mark Mcguire's record breaking season took on a whole new meaning to me, and I understood the poignancy of the Maris children giving Mr. McGuire the bat.

Watch 61*. It might surprise you just as it did me.

It's a trip back in time; thanks to Billy Crystal's fanaticism about Mickey Mantle,Roger Maris, & the New York Yankees. The actor's he found were the spitting image of the real thing, who were played by Barry Pepper (Roger Maris) Thomas Jane (Mickey Mantle) Anthony Michael Hall (Whitey Ford) The story begins in 1998 with Mark M.cGwire about to break Roger Maris record of 61 home runs in one season. Decades earlier in 1961, Maris is presented with the Most Valuable Player award for the 1960 baseball season, but Mickey Mantle remains the New York Yankees' superstar. Mantle starts off hot while Maris struggles. Maris suspects he may be traded, but new manager Ralph Houk has Mantle and Maris switch places in the Yankees' batting order to see if it helps. It does, and Maris begins to hit home runs at a record pace. Mantle keeps pace and it becomes clear that both "M&M Boys" will make a run at Babe Ruth's record of 60 homers in one season. A great tribute to the unbeliveable Baseball season of 1961. This is a must see for any baseball fan!

Somebody please confirm.

The actor in Detroit, "Programs Here..." its a w second frame of MATT DAMON, yes?