Post by mikef6 on Mar 3, 2017 19:27:13 GMT
Please comment on my reviews and add titles and reviews of your own.
The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg / Aviva Kempner (1998)
Greenberg was the first openly Jewish baseball star. He was a hitting sensation for the Detroit Tigers for most of his major league career which lasted from 1930 to 1947. Greenberg was not personally religious, but Jews throughout America came to look up to him as an idol, a taboo breaker and a stereotype debunker. Eventually, Greenberg came to accept that role. The film presents him as basically a nice guy who didn’t allow anti-Semitic jibes get to him, but let his bat speak for him.
Murderball / Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro (2005)
This sport, known officially as Quadriplegic Rugby, is played on a basketball court. There are very few rules. The players must have some kind of impairment in all four limbs. This documentary starts at the Quad Rugby world championships in 2002. On the American team, we follow, mainly, Mark Zupan, an intense, take-no-prisoners kind of guy. Zupan has been quadriplegic for a couple of decades since the night in high school when he was thrown from the back of a pickup, over a tall hedge, and into a river where he held onto a branch for 13 hours until he was rescued. We also see Zupan doing outreach and the team demonstrating the sport for Iraq War vets who have lost limbs. I gotta say, I loved this film.
The First Saturday In May / Brad and John Hennegan (2007)
Documentary following six trainers and their horses as they vie for a place in the Kentucky Derby in 2006. Interesting, but not really as informative as I would have liked. But it does work up some suspense and the ending is quite moving.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*: : A Side Effect Of Being American / Christopher Bell (2008)
Eye opening documentary about steroid use in sports. The most educational aspect is the revelation that there is virtually no evidence that even long-term users of anabolic steroids or human growth hormones suffer any kind of physical or mental harm. This film makes a convincing case that the whole congressional hearings-media horror stories-federal law prohibition thing is just another “reefer madness” opportunity for politicians to express moral outrage and step in to (appear to) save our children. Bell also explores the question of just what is – and is not – unfair performance enhancement. Why is Gatorade not illegal? What about that new competitive swimming suit that was in the news during the Olympics? What about that male porn star Bell interviews who injects liquid Viagra directly into his, well, you know? BUT…this movie is NOT pro-steroid use. Bell, himself a bodybuilder who once used performance enhancing drugs, has two brothers who still strive for wealth and fame in professional lifting and wrestling. They still use steroids frequently. But it is their competitiveness – the willingness to risk their livelihood, their marriages, everything they have – that damages them. It is their need to win, no matter what the cost. This is where the film’s subtitle comes in and what gives it the depth to make it more than just a slickly made entertainment.
The Wildest Dream / Antony Geffen (2010)
Engrossing documentary about Edward Mallory’s life and death on Mount Everest in 1924 when he was attempting to be the first person to summit the mountain. It is also the story of American climber Conrad Anker, the man who, in 1999, found Mallory’s body on Everest and came back 8 years later to try to replicate as much as possible the 1924 conditions, climbing part of the way in clothing and boots like Mallory and his partner Sandy Irvine wore and taking the same route along the more difficult north face to determine if Mallory and Irvine could have reached the summit before falling to their deaths.
Fastball / Jonathan Hock (2016)
Until the late 20th century and the invention of the radar gun, there was no way to accurately measure how fast a pitcher was throwing – although that didn’t stop people from trying. The film goes back and forth in time between a chronological history of pitching and profiles of some of today’s modern phenoms. Higher mathematics comes into play at the very end when it is used to equalize all of the historical speed tests with modern radar gun data to come to a definitive answer to the burning question, “Who Is The Fastest Pitcher In Baseball Ever?” That moment is worth waiting for.
…And then there is Ken Burns’ 9-episode, 19 hour documentary mini-series titled simply “Baseball” (1994).
The Life And Times Of Hank Greenberg / Aviva Kempner (1998)
Greenberg was the first openly Jewish baseball star. He was a hitting sensation for the Detroit Tigers for most of his major league career which lasted from 1930 to 1947. Greenberg was not personally religious, but Jews throughout America came to look up to him as an idol, a taboo breaker and a stereotype debunker. Eventually, Greenberg came to accept that role. The film presents him as basically a nice guy who didn’t allow anti-Semitic jibes get to him, but let his bat speak for him.
Murderball / Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro (2005)
This sport, known officially as Quadriplegic Rugby, is played on a basketball court. There are very few rules. The players must have some kind of impairment in all four limbs. This documentary starts at the Quad Rugby world championships in 2002. On the American team, we follow, mainly, Mark Zupan, an intense, take-no-prisoners kind of guy. Zupan has been quadriplegic for a couple of decades since the night in high school when he was thrown from the back of a pickup, over a tall hedge, and into a river where he held onto a branch for 13 hours until he was rescued. We also see Zupan doing outreach and the team demonstrating the sport for Iraq War vets who have lost limbs. I gotta say, I loved this film.
The First Saturday In May / Brad and John Hennegan (2007)
Documentary following six trainers and their horses as they vie for a place in the Kentucky Derby in 2006. Interesting, but not really as informative as I would have liked. But it does work up some suspense and the ending is quite moving.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*: : A Side Effect Of Being American / Christopher Bell (2008)
Eye opening documentary about steroid use in sports. The most educational aspect is the revelation that there is virtually no evidence that even long-term users of anabolic steroids or human growth hormones suffer any kind of physical or mental harm. This film makes a convincing case that the whole congressional hearings-media horror stories-federal law prohibition thing is just another “reefer madness” opportunity for politicians to express moral outrage and step in to (appear to) save our children. Bell also explores the question of just what is – and is not – unfair performance enhancement. Why is Gatorade not illegal? What about that new competitive swimming suit that was in the news during the Olympics? What about that male porn star Bell interviews who injects liquid Viagra directly into his, well, you know? BUT…this movie is NOT pro-steroid use. Bell, himself a bodybuilder who once used performance enhancing drugs, has two brothers who still strive for wealth and fame in professional lifting and wrestling. They still use steroids frequently. But it is their competitiveness – the willingness to risk their livelihood, their marriages, everything they have – that damages them. It is their need to win, no matter what the cost. This is where the film’s subtitle comes in and what gives it the depth to make it more than just a slickly made entertainment.
The Wildest Dream / Antony Geffen (2010)
Engrossing documentary about Edward Mallory’s life and death on Mount Everest in 1924 when he was attempting to be the first person to summit the mountain. It is also the story of American climber Conrad Anker, the man who, in 1999, found Mallory’s body on Everest and came back 8 years later to try to replicate as much as possible the 1924 conditions, climbing part of the way in clothing and boots like Mallory and his partner Sandy Irvine wore and taking the same route along the more difficult north face to determine if Mallory and Irvine could have reached the summit before falling to their deaths.
Fastball / Jonathan Hock (2016)
Until the late 20th century and the invention of the radar gun, there was no way to accurately measure how fast a pitcher was throwing – although that didn’t stop people from trying. The film goes back and forth in time between a chronological history of pitching and profiles of some of today’s modern phenoms. Higher mathematics comes into play at the very end when it is used to equalize all of the historical speed tests with modern radar gun data to come to a definitive answer to the burning question, “Who Is The Fastest Pitcher In Baseball Ever?” That moment is worth waiting for.
…And then there is Ken Burns’ 9-episode, 19 hour documentary mini-series titled simply “Baseball” (1994).
