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A sincere, old-fashioned sports biopic that trades complexity for warmth and emotional payoff. It’s most effective as a tribute to Lou Gehrig’s decency and resilience, with a strong central performance and a famously moving final stretch, even if the pacing is leisurely and the mythmaking is heavy-handed.
Where to watch: Buy
Tue · 2h 8m
Director: Sam Wood
Starring: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth
The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.
Sam Wood
Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth
A sincere, old-fashioned sports biopic that trades complexity for warmth and emotional payoff. It’s most effective as a tribute to Lou Gehrig’s decency and resilience, with a strong central performance and a famously moving final stretch, even if the pacing is leisurely and the mythmaking is heavy-handed.
The Pride of the Yankees is less interested in the mechanics of baseball than in building a monument to Lou Gehrig’s character. That approach can make the middle stretch feel overly polished and dramatically thin, but it also gives the film a clear emotional purpose: to turn a sports figure into a national symbol of grace under pressure.
Gary Cooper’s performance is a major reason the film still works. He brings a gentle, boyish sincerity that helps sell the movie’s idealized view of Gehrig, and Teresa Wright gives the romance a warmth that keeps the story from becoming pure hagiography. The baseball scenes are sturdy rather than electrifying, but the production’s period detail and sense of reverence remain effective.
What lingers most is the final act, which earns its reputation as one of the great heartbreakers of classic American cinema. If you can accept the film’s simplifications and its broad, inspirational tone, it delivers exactly what it promises: a moving tribute to endurance, humility, and the mythology of the game.
Patrick Willems (3★) · 680 likes
Babe Ruth plays himself in this and he's actually pretty good, which makes me realize we were deprived of a Babe Ruth Space Jam made in the 1940s
theriverjordan (3.5★) · 138 likes
“Pride of the Yankees” is a film less enamored with baseball than it is in adoration of its own American myth making. Released just 17 months after the death of Lou Gehrig, from a disease that would come to be named after him, “Pride” is emblematic less of its subject’s sport’s team, than it is of Gehrig’s relentless dedication to optimism, despite all odds being against it. While “Pride” is a heraldic ode to a national baseball legend, it… more
Herb Gallow (2.5★) · 86 likes
Groucho may have had a point with his observation that one can't make a director out of Wood. The Pride of the Yankees commonly shows up on lists of the most inspirational films, the most important baseball films, etc. It ought to be remembered instead as one of the most notable wastes of film talent and resources of the 40s. Anyone with an appreciation for the history of baseball is also ill-served by this huge missed opportunity to immortalize one
Will Sloan · 53 likes
This biopic of Lou Gehrig is the story of a simple man who was good at baseball, loved his gal, was good to his ma, and was adored by all. A small amount of tension is introduced early on when he chooses a career in baseball over his mother's objections, but she quickly comes around (he is Lou Gehrig, after all). There is at least an hour in the middle of this movie where virtually nothing happens, including one scene
Gregor Kreyca (3.5★) · 48 likes
I don’t really care and don’t know jack about Baseball. (Even though there are quite a few great Baseball movies I like.) I also never heard of Lou Gehrig. But his story told here moved me. Also, I love Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright (who was nominated for this film but won the Oscar for another movie, Mrs. Miniver) and Walter Brennan all of which are giving strong and heartfelt performances. So yeah, pretty good movie and a thumbs up from me. If you are a Baseball and/or Lou Gehrig fan, might as well add another half-star.
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sports biopic, baseball, illness and mortality, American mythmaking, romance, classic Hollywood sentiment, heroism, family values
baseball, biopic, classic Hollywood, sentimental, inspirational, illness, wartime era, American myth, sports drama, tearjerker