Reggie

Reggie Jackson is one of the most iconic athletes in the 20th Century. He was self anointed as the "straw that stirs the drink." Well the fizz is nowhere to be found in this flat and monotonous monolog on race and how Reggie was done wrong.

The early sequences of him in Birmingham were quite eye opening and shed some light on the times and even his future team as he came up with guys like Rudi and Fingers in Birmingham, both of whom are in the doc.

But it didn't stop there. For a guy that made hundreds of millions and sported one of the greatest, private car collections, you'd think Jackson was a victim of indentured servitude.

I'm sure Reggie has some great stories but for someone baring it all, they're conspicuously absent.

For someone so dynamic and exciting, Reggie comes across bitter and dare I say, a bit of a bore.

A cool documentary of the professional life and career of Reggie Jackson through his words and eyes. This is an interesting look at the evolution of Jackson's career in respect to role and life of blacks in baseball and the civil rights moment in the United States. Jackson was a controversial player and still a controversial figure, but a colorful one, no doubt. If you were a lover of the Oakland A's of the early 1970's, or the New York Yankees of the 2nd half of that decade, then this is an extra special look at the man. The filmmaking is not great but the subject matter makes it worth watching.

Didn't expect much at first, so I was pleasantly surprised at the tone and style. As an older man, his reflections and self awareness are really poignant at times. Told in first person.

Through all of his famous ego, it was all about searching for dignity, acceptance and respect - his insecurity he reveals conversationally is pretty moving. Especially as he vasciallated from being hated and shut out to being loved.

Also great to see other famous players in the conversations.

Wish there had been more teammate stories and some more laughs to break up the hard parts, but otherwise it's an unusually moving sports documentary.

Understand something, Reggie was all about team and making sure he was on the same playing level as every other person. I loved the story as a Yankee fan but more importantly I loved the story about his humanity and culture. Great insight into his opinions, heart and mind. I would recommend this documentary to anyone, not just Yankee fans and baseball fans. Everyone needs to hear another person's story and struggles to shed light on the bigger picture that happens beyond self. The fact that people can't hear and listen to someone who brings something different to the table is just plain wrong.

At the start of this documentary a calm, conversational Reggie Jackson says he's nervous about the film because he has no control over it. He needn't have worried. It's more a story about his career-long pursuit of diversity in baseball, all the way to the ownership level, than about his good guy/ bad guy reputation as a player. He's surrounded in this effort by friends, including Henry Aaron, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers and Julius Erving. No contemporaries from his Bronx Zoo Yankee years are interviewed, so we don't get differing points of view about Reggie's clashes with Thurman Munson, Billy Martin, Mickey Rivers and others.

Reggie credits several players on the Oakland Athletics for helping him withstand mid-70s racism, but fails to mention coaches, veteran players or mentors who improved his game other than Joe DiMaggio. The facts about slow acceptance of Black players, managers, coaches and executives are true. It's also fair to say that Reggie confessed to being too aggressive at times in the media. Still, the lack of critics in this two-hour project unfortunately make it more boring than it should be.