The Fan Movie Review 424

The Fan is a 1996 thriller directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert De Niro,Wesley Snipes and Benicio del Toro.

Gil Renard(DeNiro) is a knife salesman who is divorced with a son. He is mentally unstable and aggressive. He is not getting on very well at work and he is frustrated. The only thing that makes him feel good is watching baseball. He follows the San Francisco Giants and his favourite player is a new one called Bobby Rayburn(Snipes). Unfortunately, Bobby gets injured and Gil gets very upset over it.
He doesn't tolerate any criticism of Bobby and he gets angry with those who criticise him. He gets fired as he is too aggressive to the customers. His ex wife,Ellen(Patti D'Arbanville) is not happy with his behaviour and stops him from seeing his son and gets a restraining order against him. This pushes him closer to the edge.

He becomes even more obsessed with Bobby and he ends up stabbing a teammate of Bobby's called Juan Primo(del Toro) to death in a sauna. Bobby gets accused of the murder as they had a fight before his death. Rayburn gets back to playing baseball and he does very well. Gil thinks that Bobby should thank the fans for sticking by him. When he doesn't, Gil becomes angry. He goes to Bobby's house and sees his son in trouble in the water. He rescues him and earns Bobby's thanks. He gets to talk to Bobby and they come around to the subject of the fans. Bobby doesn't have much time for his fans, thinking that they are not loyal. Gil gets angry and freaks him out. He realises that Gil has problems.

Gil kidnaps Bobby's son. He is lost in his own thoughts and he is losing his sanity. He brings the son with him to visit an old pal and when the friend realises what he is doing, Gil kills him with a baseball bat. He calls Bobby and tells him that he has to hit a home run and dedicate it to him or else he will kill his son. Bobby tries to hit a home run but gets into difficulty. He sees Gil on the field and he attacks him. Gil gets shot dead by the police. The movie ends with the police finding all of Gil's clippings and seeing his complete obsession with Bobby. They see a picture of Gil as a child playing baseball.

This movie was very good. De Niro revisits psycho territory with this movie. He is convincing as the aging, mentally ill man who is losing his grip on reality. He zones in on his favourite player and gets completely obsessed with him. Snipes is good as Bobby. This is De Niro's movie from start to finish.
I liked it and I found it interesting. It is well worth a watch if you enjoy a good thriller. I will give it a 7/10.