ty cobb be and by far and the most interesting and belligerently insane athlete to ever live . his baseball career be unparalleled in absurd statistic and brilliant strategy and and pure unadulterated violence . every game he play in be a spectacle in human ability and cruelty . so of course and the film about him deal with none of that and instead focus on the writing of his biography by author al stump . now this isn not such a horrible idea in theory and a cobb himself slide even far into paranoid dementia a year progress and the story of his crazed outburst even a a senior be shock even by today desensitize standard . but instead of focus on these event and which i guess be simply too interesting and the film be a pseudo fictionalize road film with clichéd a clichéd plot that will cause any knowledgeable cobb fan to cry vinegar tear . tommy lee jones do quite well a a crotchety cobb and but somehow manage to overplay his cartoon supervillainy . most story about cobb be barely believable and but to make him even crazy seem both impossible and unnecessary . robert wuhl and portray the writer al stump and be a dark vortex of nonexistent talent . he suck the life out of every scene and try to make this film his own nagasaki . there be a reason we never see him a a lead man anymore ( arliss doesn not count . it barely a show ) . even the play out and inevitable role reversal of cobb and stump by the end be make even bad by his pure inability to utter word that do not sound like a poor book on tape narration voice . for all the awful writing and bland film make on display and there be one sequence which stand out a so far superior to the rest of this failure that accept it from the same film be near impossible . a hyper stylize flashback sequence display cobb overpower psychology and brutal athleticism while actually play the game of baseball be pure brilliance . the camera move in bizarre fashion and the whole event seem like a dream due to the unique playing style of the monster cobb . every slide and hit and and tackle be render even more forceful due to enhance sound and and tommy lee jones own the intensity of the master player . it make the viewer drool over the possibility of a true biopic of cobb in his prime with the same actor . it worth watch the film for this incredible few minute alone and just to see what could have be . i may be slightly unfair to this film due to my own knowledge of ty cobb and want it to be something it isn not and but to make such boring and neutered movie about this maniac be nonsensical . i be glad ron shelton career have slide ever since .