| THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG |
 1998 - USADirector:
Aviva Kempner - Reviewed by Frankie  Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. These players
are thought of most often when people look at prominent baseball figures from the 1930s and 1940s.
However, another great slugger of the time often gets overlooked. Hank
Greenberg, the first Jewish baseball player to not change his name to a
Christian one usually gets forgotten.
Those who remember him are most likely baseball buffs, or former residents of the Detroit area. Director Aviva Kempner wanted to change that. After Greenberg's death in 1986, Kempner began a 12-year struggle to fund, film, and spread awareness of Greenberg by making this film. Her hard work is evident. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is a wonderful documentary. It's just long enough to keep it from getting boring, it has a good amount of humor, and the interviews and cross-references are mini-marvels. Hank Greenberg first stepped to the plate in 1934 when he got signed to the Detroit Tigers. Throughout the season, especially when the pennant race heated up, he was the constant target of anti-Semitic remarks from people in the crowd. Baseball was America's game, and some believed Jews shouldn't be allowed to play it. Greenberg gained popularity by often hitting one or two home runs a game, and leading his team to the pennant. For so many people though, he was much more than a baseball player. He was a Jewish icon, a symbol of hope, a voice speaking to all Jews in America that said they could be just as successful as the "true" Americans. In one interview a fan describes his school days when they used to listen to baseball games on the radio during class. Whenever Greenberg came up to the plate all the other kids would look at him, perhaps thinking he knew whether he would hit a home run or not. Indeed the player was a sense of pride for people he hadn't even met. While Hank Greenberg was a very tall (6'4'') and gawky man, he was not a very religious one. He rarely attended synagogue, and played on Rosh Hashanah (but decided not to play on Yom Kippur). Despite this, he was still considered a religious symbol of hope. The film also chronicles his experience in the military, as well as his final seasons with the Tigers, and his one year playing on the Pittsburgh Pirates. I really enjoyed The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, mostly because of its humor and subject matter. I personally have never had a large interest in baseball, but I found the movie entertaining. All the interviewed fans (mostly famous Jews including Walter Matthau, Carl Levin, and Alan M. Dershowitz) celebrate their experiences and memories of him with zeal. The film opens and closes with another treat, the Marx Brothers singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in Yiddish. While we don't get a heavy focus on racism and anti-Semitism, Kempner expects the audience to comprehend what this man had to go through without making the racism factor seem overwrought. In the last minutes of the movie, Hank Greenberg meets Jackie Robinson, who, as a black player, got taunted at the time much more than Greenberg when he first started. The two talked long after their game, and Jackie Robinson later described Greenberg as, "Nothing but class." It's a kind, simple, and somewhat sweet way to end the film. The movie is about a man and his fans with an undeniable passion for baseball, but the film paints a larger picture. It shows us an America on the verge of change. Well done Ms. Kempner, your twelve years of labor are well worth it. |
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