Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns
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VHS Movie Reviews of Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns
Movie Review: aggressively stupid
Summary: 1 Stars
I started watching this after Fever Pitch, which made me love baseball. This "documentary" made me hate baseball. Basically the show plays out like a monologue by Garrison Keillor, set to still photographs. The history of baseball is not presented factually and dispassionately; instead the viewer gets it crammed down his brain that baseball is a great and noble game played by great and noble men. This would be like watching a history of World War I and finding that it is narrated by a syrupy-voiced, American-as-the-apple-pie-you're-just-about-to-vomit narrator who starts, in Prairie-Home-Companion-esque manner, drumming it into you that the American soldiers, they were real fine fellers, but Johnny Boche... he was a bad sort. Maybe Jimmy Stewart could be resuscitated just long enough to provide the American-till-you-puke aw shucks voice-overs and tell us that The American soldiers in the field were as right and true as the weather vane on top of the old barn back home in the yellow corn fields. The yellow corn fields near the old swimmin' holler, where MaryJane McKlusky took off her red dress with the small white polkadots and danced around naked awhile to the soft sound of the whistle from the faraway train out of Coop's Junction. Movie Review: Entertaining look at the national past time, Still brings out the baseball fan in me
Summary: 4 Stars
After his sucess with "the Civil War", Ken burns sought to make another masterpiece, another epic series, which was captured here in the film Baseball. This was a very long series, 18 hours total. What can I say, it doen't miss much. Starting at the beginning until 1992, just prior to the player's strike of 1994. An awesome look at old player, ballparks, and the development of the League in general. It was long to watch, and I know the Segregation issue was tough in baseball, but dang they spent a long time driving that point home stretching it over about 3 tapes. I wish one episode would have concentrated on it more, history, timeline,players and teams, but I guess that's difficult with the series being set up by decades. I would like to have seen it not skip over 1970-1993, it skipped over many of the scandals (pittsburg pirates 80's drug scandal, Pete rose was a blurp,) and unfortunately the series was before the whole strike fiasco and now some good years since. One big complaint, why is Shelby Foote in this series at all....he's the civil war buff that annoyed me the first time round. Anyhow, an entertaining series, just long, but a good job overall.Movie Review: Made me a Baseball fan
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't go into this liking baseball but I couldn't help but appreciate the game and its place in US history when finished. I have used lots of clips from the series in class and students have enjoyed it and asked for more. I had to study more baseball history details afterwards because it really sparked my interest. Great Film!!!! Ken burns at his best. Movie Review: A moving history of the National Pastime
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember watching this on television when it first aired in 1994. I've since purchased the collection on VHS and have watched it once almost every year since.
Ken Burns weaves a wonderful tapestry of nostalgia, emotion, photographs, newsreels and personal reflections into the history of 20th-Century America through the lens of baseball. The American Pastime mirrors the social changes of our country - good and bad - and Burns demonstrates this throughout.
Burns probably needs to be forgiven for his 'obsession' with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. While both figures are dominant in the broadcasts, the stories are indeed moving and I remember shedding several tears during the original telecast during these sequences. The New York and Boston teams are emphasized - which is fine; it would be impossible to encapsulate all of the rich history of baseball on just nine tapes or discs. Although a strong Cardinals fan, I didn't feel 'slighted.' Ken Burns is from the East Coast, anyway, so it's entirely understandable that his historical emphasis would reflect this.
To me, the highlights are the rare newsreel footage of both Ruth and Robinson, the priceless reflections from Buck O'Neil, the perspectives from Dan Okrent, the 'Black Sox' Scandal, and the simultaneous interweaving of the Negro Leagues with the Major Leagues. Burns has a tendency to make political points (at the expense of improving the production) in subtle and overt ways. The only color footage shown in the production prior to the 1960's is that of the Negro Leagues and Ladies' Professional Leagues. I can't believe that that wasn't deliberate - I'm sure that Burns had access to historic color footage of the Major Leagues, but chose not to incorporate it.
Overall, however, this set is a wonderful collection for the baseball fan of all ages - very intelligent and very moving.
Movie Review: America's Documentarian Tackles The National Pastime
Summary: 5 Stars
I see lots of reviews here curmudgeonly dissing Ken Burns "Baseball" for what it is NOT rather than what it is. For a baseball fan who doesn't mind the film's devotion to teams of New York it's a slice of heaven.
It's futile to condense 18 hours of screentime into a few paragraphs, but it's worthwhile to note a few things I feel are wonderful about the film.
The entire opening "inning" (the film is divided into 9 segments of 2 hours each) is devoted to the origins of the game - both as a game, then as a game played for money. The widely held misconception that Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball is taken apart immediately.
Burns spends a lot of time documenting the historical and social context of where America was as a country at the same time events were occurring on the diamond. In that way he presents the perspective that baseball's single greatest moment was the day Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbett's Field with "Dodgers" across his chest. It's useful for us as people to not only appreciate the baseball achievements of Jackie Robinson and, later, players such as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, but also to acknowledge the widespread racism and outright barriers they had to overcome that their white counterparts didn't even have to consider.
He similarly contrasts virtuous players with non-virtuous ones. In inning two the film triumphantly reports the victory of mild-mannered Honus Wagner's Pirates over hated Ty Cobb's Tigers.
It's a little disconcerting how little time is allocated to recent years - most "innings" cover a decade, but the most recent 24 years of baseball (1970-1994) are covered in a single disc. Since that is the time most of us are most familiar with it's easy to feel a little slighted.
If you think baseball is just "some game" this film is clearly not aimed at you. But if you love to talk about baseball and to hear stories of towering home runs and crafty pitchers - "Baseball" is like a long love poem to the game.