As Robert Ratliff’s family story of faith, family and baseball ‘You Gotta Believe releases next week in theaters, the real-life inspiration hopes audiences will walk away inspired to believe in themselves and their relationships.
“If we can inspire people to believe in God and in themselves and in their team, their teachers, their coaches, their parents, the people that are involved in their life, I think that wins,” Ratliff said.
The film Luke Wilson as Ratliff’s father Bobby and Greg Kinnear as the coach of a talented and hopeful Little League team. “You Gotta Believe” tells the story of the team and their pursuit of the 1974 Little League World Series, set against the backdrop of Ratliff’s father’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Ratliff said of seeing his family’s story adapted for the big screen. “I think it’s a testament to God and His provision and just his perfect plan that he has.”
Ratliff said that when the events unfolded 21 years ago, he never imagined a movie would be made about their story. But he’s grateful for the opportunity to “kind of relive it a little bit” with his former teammates and see the actors bring the game of baseball to life on set.
While the film takes some creative liberties, Ratliff said the filmmakers did a good job of accurately representing the family’s faith and experiences.
“The reality is, it’s not that exciting of a story to be a totally true documentary, right? Like it needed some, it needed some creative art to kind of bring it to the big screen. And they did good,” Ratliff said. “There’s some things that aren’t totally accurate, but that’s part of it, right? That makes it the movie.”
Ratliff said the last summer he had with his father was a special one, filled with great memories but also some sad times. He said the filmmakers were patient in working with the family through the emotional process of bringing those memories to life on screen.
“We sat down as a family and discussed as a family, ‘Are we okay with this?’ And we decided yes,” he said. “The reason we’re okay with it is because we believe that we’re called to make disciples and lead people to Christ, and if this helps people believe in God and help strengthen marriages, or if this helps strengthen sons and fathers relationships, or if this helps make somebody believe in their self more than they did before they saw it then, then we did good work.”
More than anything, “I think our dad would be proud,” he said.
Now coaching his own 3-year-old son at the same Little League park where he played, Ratfliff he hopes the film will inspire people to slow down, be kind to one another, and have a “loving attitude” and a desire to serve others.
“Believe you’ll accomplish anything you want if you believe you can do it,” he said.
The film’s connection to the classic baseball movie “The Sandlot” also holds a special place for Ratfliff, who grew up loving that film. He even got to meet one of the stars, who appears in the film and sent Ratliff’s son a signed baseball from the “Sandlot” cast.
“It was an unbelievable moment to get to meet Patrick Renna. He was great. He was so kind,” Ratliff said.
“You Gotta Believe,” directed by Ty Roberts and written by Lane Garrison, stars Greg Kinnear, Luke Wilson, and Sarah Gadon, releases in theaters Friday, August 30 from Santa Rita Film Company and Well Go USA Entertainment.
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