Robert Redford isn’t playing a 1930s baseball hero in The Natural. He’s playing an instrument of God. Director Barry Levinson infuses The Natural with a celestial air, so that every scene unfolds as an act of predestination (lightning literally intervenes at one point). As such, there isn’t much suspense (even with Kim Basinger scheming in the background) or characterization (Redford simply glows). Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, though, is given free reign to put on a lighting clinic, and the results are often astonishing. For one scene, he manages to somehow put a heavenly spotlight on Glenn Close while she’s standing in the middle of the crowded stands, outside, in the daylight. Narratively, the moment is overkill, but technically it’s a jaw-dropper.
