The Ambiguous Future

In our last viewing of Sugar, Miguel "Sugar" continued to struggle playing baseball in Iowa and desperately attempted to regain his momentum. Out of desperation, Sugar took Speed pills to improve his focus and skill. Sugar turning to drugs to enhance his performance is another testament of the cut-throat, competitive nature of professional baseball and the dangerous lengths individuals will go to stay at the top of the game. Looking at Sugar from a visual or cinematographic perspective, the scene where Sugar is playing in the baseball game under the influence of Speed skillfully uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound. At the beginning, you can hear the faint noises of the crowd and the the game carrying on. All of the visuals are very blurry and distorted. The audience is hearing the sounds that Sugar is hearing as he is under the influence of Speed. After Sugar hits the batter and a fight erupts between the two teams, non-diegetic music is played as Sugar walks off the field solemnly.

Fed up with continuing to perform poorly and being overshadowed by his once good friend, Salvatore, Sugar decided to hop on a bus and travel to New York City in the hopes of finding friend who had been released from the team in Iowa. Upon his arrival, Sugar was quickly overwhelmed by the bustling, fast-paced New York culture. Initially, when Sugar decided to leave the team, I was disappointed. Like Sugar's mother who told him, "I didn't teach you to quit," I believed that Sugar gave up way too easily and should have stuck it out a little longer. But then, as Sugar started to slowly find his way in New York, my perspective began to change. The film made great use of montage to highlights Sugar's personal growth. The montage showed Sugar working hard as a bus boy in a fast food restaurant and making a table for his mother back in the Dominic Republic.

I thought it was powerful in the scene where he was talking to the owner of the wood-shop/carpentry place and he quoted Roberto Clemente. Sugar said something along the lines of, "If you have an opportunity to help someone, take it." This was a very powerful moment because it showed that Sugar was beginning to really understand the importance of being involved in something that is bigger than his baseball career; something even bigger than himself.

Although Sugar quit the team and isn't on the path to becoming a major league baseball player at this point, the movie conveys a sense of hope and anticipation that something amazing is going to happen. Is the New York Yankees in Sugar's future, perhaps? Who knows what is going to happen? I am excited to find out!