Eight Men Out (Film) Literary Elements

Eight Men Out (Film) Literary Elements

Director

John Sayles

Leading Actors/Actresses

John Cusack, John Mahoney, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, D.B. Sweeney, Michael Rooker, Don Harvey, John Sayles

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Michael Lerner, Clifton James, James Read, Richard Edson, Kevin Tighe, Christopher Lloyd, Studs Terkel, Michael Mantel

Genre

Drama, History, Sport

Language

English

Awards

n/a

Date of Release

1988

Producer

Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford

Setting and Context

Chicago, New York and Cincinnati, 1919 during the Word Series

Narrator and Point of View

We see this film from the point of view of Buck, the children of Chicago, and that of many of the players on the Sox team including Eddy.

Tone and Mood

Serious, Realistic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonists are Buck, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Gleason with Antagonists being Rothstein,

Major Conflict

Most of the players choose to go in on a fix to lose the World Series while others don't, and the money men determining that they aren't going to pay the players for losing anymore.

Climax

The Sox are brought before a grand-jury with charges of conspiracy that they are found not guilty of, but they are banned from Major League Baseball for life.

Foreshadowing

When Comiskey serves the team flat champagne as their bonus instead of paying them the cash we can foreshadow that these players will make a decision based on money, because they don't have any.

Understatement

Sayles understates the devastation this has on the kids of Chicago who idolize the White Sox. We don't see this until the near end when the kid says, "Say it ain't so, Joe." as he weeps.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

n/a

Allusions

Gleason before game 1 of the Series tells his team that they can't be beat, they can only beat themselves. This alludes to the fact that he knows they are planning to fix the series.

Paradox

The team is cleared of all charges in federal court, but banned from baseball for life by the league.

Parallelism

The way Rothstein seeks to gain power and wealth parallels the way Comiskey runs his ball club. It's just that one is seen as underhanded while the other is pure and the great American Pastime.

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