Bank The Drum Slowly

There is an old small, intimate film called "Bang The Drum Slowly". It stars Michael Moriarity, Robert De Niro and Vincent Gardenia. It is likely that almost no one today other than De Niro and Moriarity has heard of or seen this little gem. It just sits on the shelves of some studio gathering dust and being ignored.

Let me tell you about being ignored. Being ignored can be the worst form of punishment in life. If you couple being ignored with constantly being made fun of, it becomes a human tragedy.

There are many ways we can be ignored. If we are fired from a job and it destroys your family, and no one cares to come and help a family in a time of need, this is one of the ways of being ignored. If you work at a company and the bosses have created an environment where everyone is told to ignore anything you ask for and no one helps you because everyone has been told you do not matter, this is another way of being ignored.

There are also many things that inspire people around us to make fun of us. If you are in service to everyone at a job and have no power, and everyone makes fun of you because you are in service to everyone and have no power, and they do not respect you, this is something that can inspire people to make fun of you. It happens alot.

In these situations, it really helps if you have a friend and advocate. Most of us never get this advocate and just suffer along in tragedy. In this particular movie, the person ignored and made fun of has an advocate.

"Bang The Drum Slowly" is about a baseball catcher with limited skills, who is friends with the best player on the NY baseball team, the pitcher. The pitcher is played by Michael Moriarity and the catcher is played by Robert De Niro. The coach of the team is played by Vincent Gardenia. Danny Aiello plays one of the ballplayers in a small part. It is DeNiro's best performance and Moriarity's best performance.

DeNiro is ridiculed by everyone including his best friend, the pitcher, because it's easy to make fun of him. He is very nice. He allows himself to be made fun of. He is not a great catcher. He is not highly intelligent. So everyone takes the opportunity to make fun of him, including Michael Moriarty. But the difference between Moriarity and the rest of the team is that Moriarity actually loves DeNiro. So when something exceedingly bad happens to De Niro, Moriority will be his advocate.

DeNiro is taken by Moriarity to the Mayo Clinic and finds out he has stage 4 cancer and not long to live. But this is not a cancer movie. It is a move about why it is important to respect everyone that we meet. It is important to give even the most simplistic, infirm, humble, giving, people the respect they deserve. Moriority keeps the secret for as long as he can, but eventually tells one guy and the rest of the team finds out.

Something strange happens when the team finds out. They start being nicer to DeNiro and each other. They start playing baseball like a real team, united in their sympathy for DeNiro. And DeNiro? He has his best year as a baseball player until he is too sick to continue. The team wins the world series. De Niro, the guy they made fun of, they guy the ignored, the guy they never respected, becomes the inspiration for their success.

When DeNiro dies, only the pitcher goes to his funeral, and in a voiceover, he promises he will never rag on anyone again. Here's what he says in voiceover:

"He was not a bad fellow, no worse than most and probably better than some, and not a bad ball player neither when they gave him a chance, when they laid off him long enough. From here on in, I rag nobody."

If we could just stop firing people, stop making fun of them, and stop ignoring them, things would be better for all of us.

The penultimate quote in the movie is:

"Probably everybody would be nice to you if they knew you were dying, he said. Everybody knows everybody is dying, I said. That is why people are nice. You all die soon enough, so why not be nice to each other?"

So if someone fires you because they claim you screwed up, it doesn't matter. If someone ignores you because they falsely believe someone is smarter, it doesn't matter. If someone favors everyone over you, it doesn't matter. If someone makes fun of you, it doesn't matter. If someone is richer than you and brags about it, it doesn't matter. If someone calls you obtuse, it doesn't matter. If someone that is your boss who is much younger and less experienced than you publicly humiliates you every chance they get, it doesn't matter.

Most of them are wrong most of the time, and as human beings, they are absolute failures and always will be.

Genuine friendship and loyalty provide strength in the face of adversity

Look beyond external (and often false) measures of success and love the moments and relationships that give meaning to your lives.

Find meaning beyond money, power, and external measures of success, and when things do not work out, do your best to have courage and acceptance in the face of disappointment. As long as you continue breathing, it's not so bad.

Who we love, who loves us, and the dignity with which we face adversity is what truly matters.

I have to do everything in my power not to cry whenever I see this movie. It's an unbelievably tiny, little, hidden, great film.

I love the acting of Moriority and De NIro, but in this film, their performances are off the charts--their greatness lingers 50 years after the film was released.