The Legend of Bagger Vance and the Myth of the Pristine Golf Course

In The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), audiences can empathize with characters from the 1920s because the filmmakers take such great care to recreate the era, even on a budget—all but the grass, but it seems acceptable in Redford’s film, since the film highlights a mythical war hero and his guardian angel. Golf becomes metaphorical in Redford’s film, and grass and greens serve as a spiritual space where Junuh finds his authentic self with Bagger’s help.

The film uses Bagger’s wisdom as its theme: “Inside each and every one of us is our one true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that ours and ours alone. Something that can’t be learned…. Something that got to be remembered.” So golf becomes metaphorical rather than historicized in the film. In fact, Junuh’s relationship with Bagger takes on mythic dimensions. According to Redford, the film is “the classic journey of a hero who falls into darkness through some disconnect with his soul, and then of his coming into the light with the help of a spiritual guide. It also had a very strong love story, which is the best way to show a hero’s coming back to life. Lastly, it had a challenge, a great contest: In the mythological sense, there finally has to come a time that ‘slaying of the dragon’ scene, and in this case it’s an extraordinary golf match.”

Since Redford’s goal in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) is to use a story (a legend) to teach a universal lesson, the golf course takes on a dream-like quality, void of imperfection. It would seem, then, that historical accuracy would be unimportant to the filmmakers. Yet Redford and his team sought to recreate the Savannah of 1916-1931 as historically accurately as possible. The film’s cinematographer, Michael Ballhaus, “applied an evolving color palette to reflect visually the passage of time. The early years of 1916 are seen in a monochromatic tone that has the haze of memories. There is a brief glimpse of the ‘20s with its art deco, ‘anything goes’ motif that then gives way to the muted, washed out colors of the Great Depression.” (“Just a Moment Ago”). Yet here, too, golf courses are an exception, “where the primary color used was, naturally, green.”

Production designer Stuart Craig and costume designer Judianna Makovsky also sought to recreate the period as accurately as possible. Makovsky “had to design clothing that reflected the broad range of social and economic standings of the times” (“Just a Moment Ago”). According to Makovsky, “We made about half [young Hardy Greaves’s] wardrobe, but a lot were actual clothes of the period.” Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, two golfers of the period, did appear in the film, so Makovsky designed the costumes for the actors playing their roles by replicating clothing in photographs of the golf stars. She and her team also dressed extras on the golf course, “recreat[ing] dozens of vintage outfits, complete with knickers, golf caps, sweaters and even socks.” Junuh’s wardrobe was meant to reflect his lost spiritual state, so he dressed in fashions from the 1920s unless he was on the golf course, where he wore golf clothes from around 1916, prior to his stint in World War I. Stuart Craig had the same details in mind when designing sets for the film.

One set that caused some problems were the golf courses for the film. According to Craig, “Finding golf courses that evoked the architecture of the period proved more daunting than the filmmakers originally thought. ‘There are thousands of golf courses,’ Craig admits, ‘but few that are credible as a course in 1931. Today, everything is so controlled and manicured, completely unlike the ‘30s.’” Craig felt he combated this problem by turning to Peter Dye’s courses, golf courses “created with a respect for the indigenous nature of the region and would look much like the courses of the 30s” (“Just a Moment Ago”). Yet, the grasses and cutting technology reflect 2000 innovations rather than those of the 1920s.

Redford discusses differences between the courses and the golf game from the 1920s and 30s till today: “Golf was a different game in the ‘20s and ‘30s. People played in knickers and tweeds and ties and vests. Greens were the same length as fairways today, and the fairways were really rough. They used wooden clubs and the golf balls were not made with high velocity capacity, so a lot more had to be learned naturally” (production notes). But he chooses to address only costuming and golf clubs when providing historical accuracy for the film.

And even though the Craig, the production designer, constructed a new 18^th hole for the film, they built it using 2000 turf and cut as closely as possible now—not in the 1930s. Craig and his team constructed this hole “on the grounds of the Ocean Course, building it in its entirety, from tee to green, as a par five with a 220 yard carry off the tee. They also designed a fairway, which has a shape more like a bowl than a tabletop, so the fairway collects the ball and brings it down into play. The end of the green functions as an amphitheatre, with the crowd high and encircling the arena where the climax of the contest is played out” (“Just a Moment Ago”). This constructed 18^th hole serves as an aesthetic tool to move along the film’s narrative rather than a space where authentic grass and cutting techniques can be integrated into the film.