The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

I bought this DVD because of my life-long passion for baseball history, not as someone interested in seeing a story about a Jewish ballplayer. I am always interested in knowing more about these baseball greats of the past, and this documentary did include facts and stories that I did not know, and I enjoyed the interviews of other ballplayers of the same era. Some were greats of the game as well, some were not, but it is wonderful to put a face and a voice to the photos and stats I grew up memorizing as a kid. The documentary was trying so hard to be an exact copy of the Ken Burns style of film making, so much though that it does serve as a distraction, a feeling of unoriginality dimmishes what could have been a great documentary. With that complaint asside, I felt it succeeded in conveying the whole person behind the Stats, behind the Legend, and the WWII Veteran. 8/10

A sprightly, lovingly researched, rather misty eyed sports documentary that steeped in ethnic pride. At first the movie is inspiring in a conventional, hero-treads-a-national-icon way. Greenberg, the towering Jewish slugger from the Bronx, joins the Detroit Tigers as a first baseman in the early '30s and becomes a power-hitting warhorse, leading the team from one World Series to the next.

Greenberg defines the image of fearless, cleft-chinned American invincibility.

While skipping some details which would be interest to the devoted baseball-phile (like how he compared to his near contemporary Ted Williams), this is a wonderful and charming look at this baseball and American great. This movie appeals not only from a baseball and Jewish perspective, but touches upon what it means to be an American. Highly recommended.

As was the case with Walter Kephart of the August 12th review, I am a member of two of the three groups he said would enjoy this movie. "The Life and Times" falls into the trap of most biographies, as there was little suspense to the plot, but it was one of the more entertaining and enjoyable movies I've seen lately. It served as a reminder that, in an age of million dollar athletes and cynical fans, there have been superstars with character. Hank Greenberg could not have picked a more difficult time this century to evolve as a Jewish athlete than during the depression-era 1930's. At a time when Nazism rose in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, in the city of Henry Ford and Father Coughlin, Hank Greenberg persevered, overcoming anti-Semitic prejudice to lead his Detroit Tigers to four American League pennants and two World Championships, all the while putting together some of the better offensive statistics in baseball. He was also loyal to his religion and his country, as was demonstrated by not playing on Yom Kippur and sacrificing five years of his playing career to serve in the United States Army during the Second World War. The other forms of media used by Aviva Kempner, including movie clips such as "Gentleman's Agreement," Mandy Patinkin's Yiddish rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," and interviews with people ranging from Alan Dershowitz to Al Rosen to the late Walter Matthau all helped illustrate the Hank Greenberg story. A Toronto Star columnist considered "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" to be the one must-see movie for the summer of 2000. It is definitely worth the price of admission, certainly moreso than nine out of ten movies playing these days.

I'm not American, I'm not Jewish, and I don't like (or understand) baseball. But this film is perfect. For the first time, I can understand the connection between baseball and the American psyche. Every American kid (of any age) should see this. Thank you, Aviva.