The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

1998 "When America Needed Heroes, A Jewish Slugger Stepped To The Plate."
7.6| 1h30m| en| More Info
Released: 12 January 2000 Released
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Official Website: http://hankgreenbergfilm.org/
Synopsis

The story of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, the first major Jewish baseball star in the Major Leagues, is told through archival film footage and interviews with fans, former teammates, friends, and family. As a great first baseman with the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg endured antisemitism and became a hero and source of inspiration throughout the Jewish community, not incidentally leading the Tigers to Major League dominance in the 1930s.

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Reviews

Protraph Lack of good storyline.
PlatinumRead Just so...so bad
SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
pacholeknbnj Admittedly, this movie is not for everyone. It is for baseball nuts, people with an interest in Jewish life in America (even if they aren't Jewish themselves), people interested in 20th Century American history, and Tigers fans. I fit the first three categories (I'm a Yankee fan but with a lot of respect for the Tiger franchise), and I thought this movie was terrific. Greenberg was not the first Jewish baseball player, but he was the first to become a star and a hero to non-Jews, paving the way for Sandy Koufax and current Dodger star Shawn Green (as well as Rod Carew, who married a Jewish woman and, as Adam Sandler has pointed out in song, converted). The often terrible anti-Semitism that was often faced in pre-World War II America has been obscured -- it's almost as if the Nazi Holocaust was the only indignity that Jews have suffered. Ms. Kempner did a fantastic job bringing this era of baseball, Jewish life and Detroit life to someone not part of that place, time and faith. And I didn't think this film it was much like the Ken Burns miniseries at all. For one thing, the music was better than in the Burns film, at least until you got to the 1950s songs in "Seventh Inning"! And except for covering Ty Cobb thoroughly, Burns paid little attention to the Tigers. He covered Greenberg's 58-homer season (1938) and mentioned that Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968, but that's it. He didn't even mention Al Kaline except in a story that Bill "Spaceman" Lee told. He didn't cover post-Black Sox Chicago baseball very well either, or California except to discuss Koufax. But what can you do with over 100 years of baseball in 19 hours? Kempner did very well with 75 years of life, and what amounted to 10 full seasons of baseball, in an hour and a half. Greenberg may not have lasted as long in the game as some of its other stars, but his seasons, in baseball and out, were full indeed, and the movie shows this excellently.
MisterWhiplash This film that profiles Hank Greenberg's life (the first ever Jewish ballplayer) is quite interesting. Mainly because I didn't know much about Greenberg before the movie. Except he was a Jewish ballplayer. But what I didn't know was that he was the first Jewish one, which meant that anti-semitism came to him like homeruns. For old people who probably know already about Hank, it is quite a memory flashback that will have some even laughing (especially with the very end showing a Marx bros. clip). For everyone else, it is interesting and of course (and like how most documentaries should be) it is for people who might not even care for the game or the man. One of the best sports documentaries to come around in a while. A-
amarshal-2 This is not just an excellent film about Hank Greenberg, it is an excellent film about discrimination, and how one man took the high road to overcome it. This is a film that should be shown to young people in civics or history classes as the basis for discussion of anti-semitism in North America.
JStraw-3 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.

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