Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) is a divorced knife salesman for a hunting supply company his father had originally helped to create. However, he’s been struggling to bring in new accounts, and has been given until the end of the month to turn things around, or else he’s fired. Gil is an avid baseball fan, especially of the San Francisco Giants, and used to play some ball himself. He regularly calls into the local sports talk radio show to give wisecracking host Jewel (Ellen Barkin) his thoughts on the team and the players. With Opening Day at Candlestick Park coming up, the topic at hand is the Giants’ new $40M team member Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), who has returned to San Francisco to take over as center fielder from current star Juan Primo (Benicio Del Toro). Gil is a die-hard and devoted fan who wants to see the Giants go all the way this year, so he often puts the team ahead of his job and his family. He has this odd, and often warped sense of duty to the team, and so when he see that Bobby’s mojo isn’t working, he takes it upon himself to fix things, by any means necessary. He starts to insert himself into the team and the lives of the players in order to “eliminate” any obstructions in Bobby’s way. But when Gil doesn’t get the thanks and acknowledgement he expects for his contributions to the team, that’s when things really start to escalate.
The premise of the film is quite unique and interesting. When we first meet Gil, it’s clear that he’s having some issues both in his personal and professional lives, and that talking about his favorite team on his commute is his joy and escape. Initially he seems like a pretty stable guy and just a big fan of the team. He tells random strangers stories of playing ball and going to parties with Mick Jagger, but it’s not really clear if this is true, or if he’s just embellishing, or making things up for attention. The film slowly builds to reveal just how obsessive and unhinged Gil actually is. This is the kind of role that De Niro shines in as he is able to play both the seemingly average everyman as well as the more sinister, crazy villain. Snipes is also well cast as the slightly pompous, full of himself ballplayer Bobby, who’s enjoying the attention and glory of being back in San Francisco. Though, with that attention and money comes the demands to perform, which he’s having trouble with. Keeping him grounded is his young son—and in this manner, Gil feels connected to Bobby, as he has a similar family situation. But Gil takes that connection to Single White Female levels.
The film also has a talented supporting cast, with John Leguizamo as Bobby’s best friend/manager Manny, and Ellen Barkin as the shock jock radio host. There are also some fun cameos in the booth, including Kurt Fuller as co-host Bernie, and Jack Black playing a technician.
While the general idea of the film is great, and there are many tense and exciting scenes, I found the film to be way longer than it needed to be, clocking in at almost 2 hours, and getting a bit repetitive after a while. It also seemed a bit too easy the way that Gil is able to gain access to the team and talk to the players. Maybe there was less security concerns or surveillance systems 27 years ago with the internet still in its infancy.
Mill Creek had previously released The Fan on Blu-ray as part of a 2-film Wesley Snipes set along with The Contractor. I don’t have that set, so I can’t compare the presentation to see if they are different, but I was quite pleased with this standalone release. I found the picture to be generally clean and clear throughout, even in darker sequences, with some scenes reaching an excellent level of detail, especially in close-ups of faces. The audio track is only stereo, so it didn’t have a fully-immersive feel, but dialogue was clear throughout, and was more than sufficient for the action and score.
The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, with a Retro VHS slipcover that makes the release look like a classic VHS rental tape. The details on these slipcovers are really fun, and the design even extends to the spine as well, allowing these discs to displayed like a collection of VHS tapes on your shelf. There is no digital copy included. The previous DVD/Blu-ray releases did not include any bonus material, and this Blu-ray doesn’t either—it is barebones with just Subtitle On/Off and Play options on the main menu.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:56:14)
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:11
- Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Subtitles: English SDH
Extras:
-
There is no bonus material included.
Final Thoughts:
While I enjoyed the overall concept and theme of The Fan, and the main performances are well cast/acted, I found the film to be a bit too long overall. I don’t think it is one that I will revisit that often. Fans of Snipes and De Niro may want to pick this up, but unless you are collecting these fun Retro VHS slipcovers, Mill Creek’s previous 2-film Wesley Snipes release offers a better value for your money.
FAN – RETRO VHS/BD
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