The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

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

Genre

Documentary

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Cast

Director

Aviva Kempner

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The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg Audience Reviews

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Metaldude61 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
profshel This film is deserving of at least as much publicity as other films receive. I saw no publicity at all on it in Westchester County (NY) and only stumbled upon it out of curiosity when I saw the two words, "HANK GREENBERG", on the theater marquee on my way home from work. I learned that it was the last night that it would be shown anywhere in Westchester and that the movie had already started. I decided to go in and catch the last 2/3 of the picture, which I found to be excellent. It was very well done with sentimental and stirring musical background. I learned a great deal about Hank Greenberg from it, but I also found it to be a nostalgic period-piece, of great historical and cultural value. You do not have to know anything about baseball to truly appreciate and enjoy this film. It is inspirational, sentimental, and exciting, especially for Jewish people or anyone interested in 20th century American Jewish culture. I think that this film will serve as a classic documentary and is truly exceptional. I hope that my family and friends may have a chance to see it sometime in the future, and I highly recommend this film to anyone, especially as a family film. It is rated "G", but I would rate it "A".
fleagles Interesting documentary about Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers slugger who was the first major Jewish baseball star. Greenberg braved bigotry in one of the most anti-Semitic cities, and became one of baseball's great stars of the period. The film is good, but presents too much detail of Greenberg's life; every single statistical detail of his playing days is simply unnecessary. Mainly because of this, the film drags a little and is slow at times. A better idea might have been for a film about early Jewish baseball players, with a focus on Greenberg. Still, a good documentary about an important and interesting subject.
Bill-382 It probably helps if you're a Jewish man over 60, but you won't need any help to be just blown away by this documentary. It's may be worth going just for the clips of the Marx Brothers, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" sung in Yiddish, and the Spencer Tracy/Kate Hepburn clips. It's really a documentary of America in the mid-thirties through the mid forties, and a commentary on how one extraordinary man represented his heritage in difficult times. The interviews, the footage, Bronx in the Depression, all of this works so well together that at the end the audience cannot help but applaud (it happened both times I saw it). Do not miss this jewel.