A Natural wonder for Buffalo

   When "The Natural" hit Western New York in 1983, it was the kind of thing the region had never seen before ... and hasn't seen since.

   Some of the people involved in the shooting were at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival's retrospective screening Monday night, but the film involved hundreds, possibly even thousands, of Western New Yorkers.

   The  question remains to this day: Do we love the "The Natural" because it was a great film, a great baseball flick ... or because we  were in the third row behind the fireworks dropping on the field after the big home run?

   What do you recall about the making of "The Natural?"

Comments

[Rocky]

my good friend howie green was there, and had a cut out made of him that hung at several buffalo restaurants...what a great memory! glad to see movies are still being filmed there (like bruce almighty)

[Amy Zozas]

I remember those cutouts. The one of Howie hung on the wall in Gabel's on Hertel ave for years. He was SO HOT!!!

[Realist]

Bruce Almighty, and specifically its star Jim Carrey, never sat foot in Buffalo to film. Some shots of the skyline from afar was about as close as they got. And it showed in the movie. It looked like no Buffalo I've ever lived in.

[Amy Zozas]

Yeah. In Bruce Almighty they actually made Buffalo look like a great place to live.

[rocky]

i do remember that howie picture at gabels. i wish it was still there!

[John Vaccaro]

What I remember most about the making of the Natural is the fact that it was the same year I starting working for The Psychiatric Center at the time I can still remember the film crews at the Old Richardson Towers malingering and the excitement in the air. I can rewind my thoughts to a time when Buffalo was really a player in the Theater and the Arts as a whole. Along with the focus of Buffalo’s Hope and Recovery as I do for the patients I am lucky to serve.

[Elmer Ploetz]

OK, so are there any films that give you a sense of what Buffalo is/was really like? ... "Buffalo 66"?