Penny Marshall
Ragazze Vincenti

Among the countless and almost forgotten American blockbusters of the Nineties, there is A League of Their Own, dating back to 1992. Its cast boasts the young Tom Hanks, pre-Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, and Madonna in the midst of her sexual-erotic scandals.

The film tells the adventures of a group of enterprising and supportive Yankee girls dealing with the 1943 baseball championship, which, due to the departure of the flower of American youth to the European and Pacific fronts, was entrusted to the female component. Such a strategy, unusual for a society that, although already progressive, was still inclined to confine women to the gynaeceum of the hearth, was proposed by a wealthy magnate, whose products (snacks) were the main sponsor of the championship.

Hired by a rough and coarse talent scout, a large number of young women arrive in Chicago; there, the selections and team formations take place. The "Peaches" group, containing among others the rival sisters Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller and the fascinating Mae Mordabito (Madonna), is assigned to Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), a former crippled player grappling with alcohol and misogynistic skepticism. The aversion to the fair sex begins to wane when his team (which he initially does not intend to train) starts archiving successes and accolades in the championship; from then on, the wild coach motivates and galvanizes the winning girls, albeit with widespread verbal violence (to demonstrate that baseball is not a game for "sissies"). The talent of these semi-professionals, particularly the starlet Dottie, awakens public interest abruptly: besides the increasing influx of fans and supporters in the stadiums, authoritative newspapers like the Times start dedicating covers, interviews, and field reports to the rise of women's baseball.

Despite the exacerbation of the Dottie-Kit rivalry (the latter will be transferred to another team), the arrival of sad news from the front, and repeated attempts to interrupt the championship, the adventure of the girls goes on until the final. The defeat of the Peaches by the Racine Belles, carried out by the "redeemed" Kit (a member of this very team), will conclude the tournament, amidst departures (Dottie, once reunited with her soldier husband) and continuations. With a time jump of half a century, the team of former Peaches, now composed of elderly and sprightly ladies, reunites for the opening of an exhibition dedicated to them. Though older, with some absences due to death and many personal experiences post-championship, the "Winning Girls" of 1943 take the field and play, a sweet reminder of times gone by.

Needless to say, the theme of female empowerment is the main subject of the feature film: to remedy the loneliness felt by women during the world conflict comes baseball, the undisputed symbol of American sport, which also reunites mothers, illiterates, misfits, and spinsters under paternal authority. With extreme simplicity and incredible immediacy of the individual scenes, the film celebrates the premature "female liberation" made in the USA (despite the skepticism of some hyper-conservative bigots), overturning the archetype/stereotype of the woman all about home and church, an element at most ridiculed and downsized (see the violent reaction of the coach when he finds his girls praying in church rather than training, or the presence of the "femme fatale" - Mae/Madonna - embodying an unusual sexual and costume libertinism).

A simple, basic, immediate comedy, perhaps a bit naive, reductive, and good-natured, elements that are anyway the "ethical" heritage of American blockbusters. In conclusion, we are not in the presence of a masterpiece of world cinematography, but of a pleasant little film, hardly demanding yet quite effective in its aims, to be watched without too many pretensions.