Analysis: Narrative Breakdown – Moneyball (2011)

In this analysis, we break down the narrative structure of Moneyball, the Oscar-nominated story of how a baseball manager used economics to build a winning team.

Director: Bennett Miller

Screenwriters: Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian (Story: Stan Chervin)

Based on: The non-fiction book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis.

Screenplay: https://www.scriptdelivery.net/source/resources/screenplays/moneyball-screenplay.pdf

Spoilers throughout

FIRST ACT

The film is effectively and efficiently set up, as we see the Oakland As losing in the elimination game of the 2001 American League Division Series to the New York Yankees under General Manager Billy Beane.

We quickly learn that the As have a budget of $39m, while the Yankees have $114m. The As are clearly up against it. This is the world of professional baseball, in which the richest teams can buy the best players and field the strongest teams, leaving poorer teams at a competitive disadvantage.

We also get to know a few things about Billy – namely that he hates to lose and that he never attends the games. We are introduced to a protagonist who needs to achieve success on his own terms to combat his insecurities about his own time as a player, which is drip fed in via flashback throughout the film. During this act, we also get a sense of his solitary home life.

The conflict and obstacles are ramped up when it’s revealed the As’ best players have been poached by wealthier teams and the team’s owner won’t give Billy any more money to buy in quality players. He also faces a hostile scouting team, which is reluctant to change the system of buying players. This will be amplified as the story progresses.

So, the question crystalises:

Can Billy assemble a winning Oakland As team without a big budget?

During a trip to Cleveland, in which Billy fails in his attempt to negotiate for players with his lowly budget, he encounters Peter Brand.

We quickly learn that Peter is an economics whizz who uses his knowledge to help the Indians choose players. This piques Billy’s interest. Back in Oakland, Billy calls him. Peter tells Billy he would have drafted him as a young player in the ninth round; not the first – suggesting young Billy wasn’t the superstar he was tipped to become. Billy says:

“Pack your bags, Pete; I’ve just bought you from the Cleveland Indians.”

So, now we know he is going to go against the establishment in order to achieve the success he wants within the establishment.

The end of the the first act marks the start of the partnership between Billy and Peter that sets up the second act in which the ‘moneyball’ team is assembled and takes to the field amid pushback from the team’s management and wider baseball community.

A second question is then introduced:

Will Billy’s willingness to think outside the box and go against the establishment to build his team pay off?

Things to watch for:

Use of actual footage from the real-life game against the Yankees.
A title card that tells us in simple terms what the As are up against, budget-wise.
Flashbacks in which we see a young Billy as a promising all-rounder tipped as a potential superstar, but who had to choose between a career in baseball or a scholarship to Stanford.
Over the radio, we learn the main players on which the As rely have been poached by teams with deeper pockets.
The first image of Billy alone in an empty stadium: this image is repeated later in the story (in fact, he’s alone during key moments in the story).

SECOND ACT – FIRST HALF

Billy and Peter set about building the team based on the moneyball theory, selecting ‘undervalued’ players that are past their prime or have been rejected by other teams, but whose combined stats suggest they can outplay the opposition .

Billy faces continued resistance from the scouts. This is personified by head scout Grady, whom Billy fires after a fiery confrontation.

We also meet Art, the team’s manager, who resents being on a one-year contract and who wholly rejects Billy’s approach. This rejection is heightened when he refuses to play the team in the way Billy wants.

We see how Billy failed in his own playing career. This heightens his character in terms of his insecurities and his desire to achieve success as GM. It also sets up more fully his love-hate relationship with baseball and the establishment.

We also see Billy’s broken family life – an ex-wife and teenage daughter, with whom he has a good relationship. Billy feels pushed out as a parent and inferior to his ex-wife’s new husband who clearly has money – heightening his insecurity.

A further subplot is introduced when we meet Scott Hatteberg – a team-less player with a young family. Billy picks him to be first baseman against the advice of his scouts. Throughout the rest of Act Two, we follow Hatteberg’s progress through team training and the playing season as he battles his own insecurities.

By midpoint, the As are on a losing streak and the fired Grady makes a comment about Billy buying “a ticket on the Titanic”.

It looks like the moneyball experiment has failed.

Things to watch for:

Peter arriving at the As stadium – a small independent fish in a big establishment pond.
Billy teaches timid Peter how to tell a player he’s been cut (quick and emotionless) – there is a reversal later when Peter and Billy have to do it for real.
Billy tells Art: “If you lose the last game of the season, no one gives a sh**” – this foreshadows what comes later when the As lose the last game following a record-breaking streak.
The reference to Bill James – the man who invented the moneyball system.

SECOND ACT – SECOND HALF

During this part of the story, the conflict with Art ramps up, with the manager refusing to play the team in accordance with Billy’s directions. In fact, Art tells him:

“You’re killing the team.”

As the As continue to lose, Billy is blamed for the losses and his future in the sport is under threat. Billy starts to doubt himself and his daughter gets worried that he will lose his job.

Billy makes the decision to fully commit to the moneyball strategy. He even takes things further by replacing some of the players – to Art’s dismay and against Peter’s advice.

Billy communicates his strategy to the team, which responds positively and things start to turn around.

With renewed focus, the As start winning and get on what could be a record-breaking run of victories. The credit goes to Art. Billy also scores a win by signing a key player ahead of the trading deadline.

In what would be the record-breaking game, the As nearly squander a 11-0 lead, leading Billy to flashback to his own failings as a player.

The As secure the win that breaks the record, with Hatteberg hitting the run that gives the As the record for the longest winning streak.

However, Billy is not happy. It means nothing to him unless the team wins the last game of the season and he changes the baseball establishment.

The As then lose the elimination game, leading to scepticism over whether Billy and Peter have actually changed the game.

Things to watch for:

The ticking clock of the baseball season – there is a limited number of games available for the As to improve.
Billy exhibits growth by showing belief in himself and by reducing the distance between himself and the players – he gives a weak but well-meaning team talk and feels bad for cutting one of the players.

THIRD ACT

In the short final act, Billy is offered a job as GM for the Boston Red Sox with the highest GM salary in history. A shot at the big time (actually, a second shot after his earlier failure as a player).

The Sox want Billy to implement the moneyball strategy. He’s been vindicated and has changed the sport. But the question is:

Does Billy need the job with the Sox to feel like a success?

The move would mean leaving the As (and his daughter) to go to Boston. Billy struggles with his decision.

Peter shows him a video of a game in which an out-of-shape player hits the ball and runs to first base, not realising he’s hit a home run.

The success/failure metaphor works on Billy, who decides to stay with the As and to keep trying for that final game win.

He has overcome his feelings of failure and goes forward feeling like a success, even without a Championship-winning team.

The takeaway:

Overall, this is a story about the little guy vs the big guy. Billy takes on the establishment and, in the style of Rocky Balboa in Rocky (1976), he loses, but really wins, disrupting the sport and putting to bed his past failures in the process.

*Spoilers throughout*

FIRST ACT

SECOND ACT – FIRST HALF

SECOND ACT – SECOND HALF

THIRD ACT

Spoilers throughout