So, I just finished watching the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, which tells the story of the astronauts that were a part of the Apollo missions in America's attempts to reach the moon. In the Shadow of the Moon was originally released in 2007, and made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Audience Award. In the Shadow of the Moon was directed by David Sington and Christopher Riley, and features interviews with 10 of the 24 men that orbited, looped around, or landed on the moon, including two of the men that part of the first crew to land on the moon, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins. A few notes about this film, and there will more than likely be SPOILERS, so be careful.
- One of the things that struck me about the film was just how humble all of the astronauts were. To a man, each one of them were almost in awe and felt really blessed that they were the chosen ones to go to the moon. A few of the astronauts talk about the spiritual connection that they felt being up in space with the earth so far away that you could cover it up with your thumb, and most of the astronauts are not too proud to share their fears on the film. For one, astronaut Alan Bean of Apollo 12 mentioned that he considered himself to be the most afraid of the astronauts, as he correctly realized that he was about one inch from death looking out the window into space. In a world where showing any sort of vulnerability and humility is considered almost passe, it was refreshing to see these men who certainly had something to brag about be so, well, human, not putting up a front and being real, so to speak.
- One of the things I rather appreciate about the film is that the entire story is narrated by the astronauts themselves. Well, there's some old newsreel footage of important figures like President Kennedy, and a couple of news accounts are shown, but everything else in the film is entirely in the words of the men that were there. You don't get an account from someone like Larry King or Macho Man Randy Savage or some other famous person who the produces just attached to get the movie more recognition instead of the person actually having something to say. No, this story is entirely about the astronauts, and the director does them great justice by letting the men that were actually there tell the story in their own words.
- It's easy to look back now at those days and somewhat dismiss landing on the moon as a huge deal. After all, NASA did it seven times and haven't sent anyone back since 1972, as people just lost interest. But at the time, this was a very risky mission full of possible problems. After all, three astronauts had perished in a fire during a test mission on Apollo 1. During the Apollo 11 training missions, Neil Armstrong had to bail out on a test lunar module mere seconds before the craft exploded (and went on as if nothing happened, according to a bemused Alan Bean). During the actual landing of the lunar module, the computer controlling the spaceship was overloaded with information and malfunctioned, so Armstrong had to manually pilot the ship down to land. NASA and President Richard Nixon even prepared a speech in case Armstrong and Aldrin were not able to get the lunar module back into space to connect with the other ship controlled by Mike Collins. During the film, Collins read the speech out loud and seemed kind of bemused that he was basically reading the obituary of his crew mates.
- The film also uses scores and scores of NASA footage of each moon landing, and the Apollo 13 mission that was aborted due to mechanical failure (luckily, all three crew members survived and they later made a movie about it which you might have heard of). The footage isn't terribly clear and motion is a bit jerky at times, but it is still quite an incredible sight to see the moon that up close. It's just amazing stuff, really, from seeing the launch and flight of the shuttle to shots of Armstrong and Aldrin putting the American flag on the moon's surface to Gene Cernan driving around the moon on a rover (now that would be pretty awesome to drive around the moon's surface in a dune buggy, although I'd be afraid to go too fast and hit a bump that launches the buggy way in the air due to the moon's lower gravity level than earth, but I digress). Considering that most of the footage was from the 1960s and early 1970s, it's quite clear and amazing to watch, almost awe-inspiring, really.
- The one noticeable person missing from the film was the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Armstrong, described as a quiet private man by some of his peers, is talked about in glowing terms by the rest of the astronauts, as they pointed out his ability to keep cool under pressure (which he showed when landing the lunar module manually). While the film doesn't necessarily suffer from Armstrong's absence, it still would have been great to here the man himself speak about his experiences on Apollo 11 and the moon. However, while Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, it was Buzz Aldrin that was the first man to relieve himself on the moon, as he points out with little shame during the movie.
Overall, this is quite a fascinating documentary that is also very inspiring. In the Shadow of the Moon is deserving of all the praise it has gotten from various critics over the past few years, as it is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. My only real qualm with the film is that it didn't focus a lot of time on the other Apollo missions besides Apollo 11, but that's understandable since it was the first flight to the moon that everybody remembers. Overall, I'd give it an 8.75 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let us know them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Canon Movie Review: A Player to be Named Later
Today's review comes from a suggestion from reader Ben W. Recently, Ben W. had seen the 2005 documentary A Player to be Named Later, and felt that this movie would be something worth viewing and reviewing. So I decided, sure, what the hey, and watched the documentary myself. Directed by Bart Stephens and produced by Maternity Films, A Player to be Named Later follows the 2001 season of the Milwaukee Brewers' Triple-A affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians. The story of A Player to be Named Later is centered around four players, outfielder Brad Tyler, outfielder Micah Franklin, infielder Marco Scutaro, and pitcher Kyle Peterson. Each player is at a different stage of their career, but they all share the same goal in common, to get the call to the big leagues. The film also features a variety of other characters, from Brewers' director of minor league personnel Greg Riddoch to the Indianapolis Indians' number one fan, Miss Jackie. A few notes about the film:
- The only one of the four players featured in the movie to have a successful career in the majors is Scutaro, who is currently on the Boston Red Sox. At the time, Scutaro was a 25 year-old middle infield prospect who was not yet on the forty man roster, and was still struggling to make the big leagues. Both Scutaro and his wife are interviewed in the film, and while Scutaro is focused on nothing other than making the big leagues, and remote control cars, his wife still seems to be coming to terms with the drastic changes that have taken place in her life, as both of them are originally from Venezuela and have only been in America for a few years. One of the more interesting things said in the movie is that Scutaro's wife wishes that her kids wouldn't grow up to be ballplayers, as life in the minor leagues can be hard on both the player and their family. I wonder if she thinks differently now that Scutaro has a multi million dollar contract and would seem to be set for life.
- One of, if not the most interesting aspects of this movie is now just the story of the players, but also the story of their wives. Particularly the life of Brad and Kimberly Tyler, who at this point had an infant daughter and were in the process of getting a house built when early on in the season, Brad got cut by the Brewers organization. To continue his career and make ends meet, Brad goes to Mexico to play for a team called the Oaxaca Guerreros. While in Mexico, Brad and Kimberly live in a one bedroom apartment with no oven and very little amenities. Yet Brad remains hopeful, and Kimberly is never wavering in her undying support of Brad's dreams. Fortunately for Brad, a team in America does sign him to a contract later on in the season, although he gets sent to double-A and because of that, has to miss his daughter's one year birthday party. Tyler never made it to big leagues, as he was 32 at the time of this film and only played one more year of baseball afterwards. Looking at his numbers, I don't see why he didn't get a shot, to be honest, as Tyler was a left-handed hitting outfielder with good speed (175 career steals), decent power (141 homeruns) and excelled at getting on base (a career .371 OBP). Originally a second baseman, Brad Tyler struggled some with the glove at second, according to his minor league stats, but he was skilled enough to at least earn a look in the majors at one point in his career. But, as is the case with so many others, Tyler just never got the call.
- Of the four players featured, Micah Franklin is the one that seems to be the most realistic about his chances of being called up by the Brewers. A veteran of the minor leagues who had a cup of coffee with the Cardinals and spent two years in Japan, Franklin spends the majority of the movie in a bit of a funk, as he has come to the realization that age 29, the best case scenario for him is a spot on the bench for the Brewers. To his credit, Franklin takes everything in stride, even as he gets off to a slow start and finds himself on the Indianapolis bench more often than he would like. Towards the end of the season, Franklin finds his stroke, and at one point hits an incredible six home runs in seven at-bats. The year was also memorable for Franklin because his second daughter was born during the season, and the producers are able to be with Franklin and his family as they bring his daughter back home from the hospital.
- Of the four players featured, the one with seemingly the brightest future would have been Peterson, a first round pick by the Brewers in 1997 who had pitched some in the bigs in 1999 before shoulder surgery. Even though the surgery has changed the way Peterson throws, the Brewers still though highly of him and after a strong start, called him up for a brief stint in the majors. However, after being sent down (to make room for the immortal Lou Collier), Peterson goes into a tailspin, struggling to get hitters out and to make matters worse, his shoulder is starting to hurt again. As the season progresses, things just get worse for Peterson, as he's put on the DL and eventually dropped from the Brewers' 40-man roster. As the film goes on, you start to feel bad for Peterson, a bright guy who later would graduate from Stanford University, as his once promising future becomes more and more of a question mark. Unfortunately, 2001 proved to be Peterson's final season in baseball, as he later had to have a second operation on his shoulder and never came back from it.
- The film's emotional peak comes at the end of the season, a disappointing one for the Indianapolis Indians, as the Brewers expand their rosters and add more players from the minors. A player who surely would merit a callup is Scuturo, who won the team's MVP award and whom everybody in the organization thinks is a future big leaguer for sure. Remarkably, Scutaro does not get the call, and you can see his frustration come through as all he can do is quietly ask the manager 'what more can I do?' I can't see why he wasn't called up either, my only guess is that the Brewers just hadn't seen enough of James Mouton and Angel Echevarria. Then again, the 2001 Brewers won't be remembered for their shrewd personnel decisions, and letting Scutaro go the next year is just one of the many mistakes made during this time period.
Overall, A Player to be Named Later is a rather interesting look at life on the outside of the major leagues, where players must ride the bus and aren't paid nearly as much as in the bigs. My only real complaint is that we really didn't get a whole lot of interaction between the players and their teammates, as most of the movie is just shot interview style with the subject while game clips are mixed in. It would have been interesting to see more of the interactions between a player and the manager or coach, or how the locker room is before and after a game. But nevertheless, A Player to be Named Later is a documentary worthy of viewing for any baseball fan. Overall, I'd give it a 7.45 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let us know them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
- The only one of the four players featured in the movie to have a successful career in the majors is Scutaro, who is currently on the Boston Red Sox. At the time, Scutaro was a 25 year-old middle infield prospect who was not yet on the forty man roster, and was still struggling to make the big leagues. Both Scutaro and his wife are interviewed in the film, and while Scutaro is focused on nothing other than making the big leagues, and remote control cars, his wife still seems to be coming to terms with the drastic changes that have taken place in her life, as both of them are originally from Venezuela and have only been in America for a few years. One of the more interesting things said in the movie is that Scutaro's wife wishes that her kids wouldn't grow up to be ballplayers, as life in the minor leagues can be hard on both the player and their family. I wonder if she thinks differently now that Scutaro has a multi million dollar contract and would seem to be set for life.
- One of, if not the most interesting aspects of this movie is now just the story of the players, but also the story of their wives. Particularly the life of Brad and Kimberly Tyler, who at this point had an infant daughter and were in the process of getting a house built when early on in the season, Brad got cut by the Brewers organization. To continue his career and make ends meet, Brad goes to Mexico to play for a team called the Oaxaca Guerreros. While in Mexico, Brad and Kimberly live in a one bedroom apartment with no oven and very little amenities. Yet Brad remains hopeful, and Kimberly is never wavering in her undying support of Brad's dreams. Fortunately for Brad, a team in America does sign him to a contract later on in the season, although he gets sent to double-A and because of that, has to miss his daughter's one year birthday party. Tyler never made it to big leagues, as he was 32 at the time of this film and only played one more year of baseball afterwards. Looking at his numbers, I don't see why he didn't get a shot, to be honest, as Tyler was a left-handed hitting outfielder with good speed (175 career steals), decent power (141 homeruns) and excelled at getting on base (a career .371 OBP). Originally a second baseman, Brad Tyler struggled some with the glove at second, according to his minor league stats, but he was skilled enough to at least earn a look in the majors at one point in his career. But, as is the case with so many others, Tyler just never got the call.
- Of the four players featured, Micah Franklin is the one that seems to be the most realistic about his chances of being called up by the Brewers. A veteran of the minor leagues who had a cup of coffee with the Cardinals and spent two years in Japan, Franklin spends the majority of the movie in a bit of a funk, as he has come to the realization that age 29, the best case scenario for him is a spot on the bench for the Brewers. To his credit, Franklin takes everything in stride, even as he gets off to a slow start and finds himself on the Indianapolis bench more often than he would like. Towards the end of the season, Franklin finds his stroke, and at one point hits an incredible six home runs in seven at-bats. The year was also memorable for Franklin because his second daughter was born during the season, and the producers are able to be with Franklin and his family as they bring his daughter back home from the hospital.
- Of the four players featured, the one with seemingly the brightest future would have been Peterson, a first round pick by the Brewers in 1997 who had pitched some in the bigs in 1999 before shoulder surgery. Even though the surgery has changed the way Peterson throws, the Brewers still though highly of him and after a strong start, called him up for a brief stint in the majors. However, after being sent down (to make room for the immortal Lou Collier), Peterson goes into a tailspin, struggling to get hitters out and to make matters worse, his shoulder is starting to hurt again. As the season progresses, things just get worse for Peterson, as he's put on the DL and eventually dropped from the Brewers' 40-man roster. As the film goes on, you start to feel bad for Peterson, a bright guy who later would graduate from Stanford University, as his once promising future becomes more and more of a question mark. Unfortunately, 2001 proved to be Peterson's final season in baseball, as he later had to have a second operation on his shoulder and never came back from it.
- The film's emotional peak comes at the end of the season, a disappointing one for the Indianapolis Indians, as the Brewers expand their rosters and add more players from the minors. A player who surely would merit a callup is Scuturo, who won the team's MVP award and whom everybody in the organization thinks is a future big leaguer for sure. Remarkably, Scutaro does not get the call, and you can see his frustration come through as all he can do is quietly ask the manager 'what more can I do?' I can't see why he wasn't called up either, my only guess is that the Brewers just hadn't seen enough of James Mouton and Angel Echevarria. Then again, the 2001 Brewers won't be remembered for their shrewd personnel decisions, and letting Scutaro go the next year is just one of the many mistakes made during this time period.
Overall, A Player to be Named Later is a rather interesting look at life on the outside of the major leagues, where players must ride the bus and aren't paid nearly as much as in the bigs. My only real complaint is that we really didn't get a whole lot of interaction between the players and their teammates, as most of the movie is just shot interview style with the subject while game clips are mixed in. It would have been interesting to see more of the interactions between a player and the manager or coach, or how the locker room is before and after a game. But nevertheless, A Player to be Named Later is a documentary worthy of viewing for any baseball fan. Overall, I'd give it a 7.45 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let us know them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Canon Movie Review: Gentleman's Choice
I recently, and by recently I mean ten minutes ago, got the chance to watch the documentary Gentleman's Choice. Gentleman's Choice is about the life and death of wrestler "Gentleman" Chris Adams. At his peak, Adams was one of the top stars for World Class Championship Wrestling, wrestling in front of over 40,000 people and feuding with Texas' biggest wrestling starts, the Von Erich Brothers. Adams started out as a judo master, even competing in the 1976 Olympic Games. From there, Adams moved on to pro wrestling, where he had great success in both his native Great Britian and in the United States. Adams was the one that made the superkick popular in pro wrestling, and held many titles in World Class and other territories during the 1980s. However, Adams' life would eventually crumble, and most of this documentary deals with just how low Adams got, up until his death in 2001. A few notes about the film:
- The film was produced by Mickey Grant. Grant's no longer in the wrestling buisness, but he was the main producer for World Class Championship Wrestling in the 1980s, back when the company had the hottest television show in the industry. A large part of that has been credited to the production skills of Mr. Grant. Because of his experience in wrestling, Grant was able to not only use clips of Adams in WCCW, but also scored interviews with such WCCW mainstays as Gary Hart, Killer Brooks, Bill Mercer, and Kevin Von Erich.
- This film is somewhat raw in that some of the interviews take place in strange locales. One guy was interviewed at a Dairy Queen, Adams's friend, an ex-stripper named Laurie Wright, was interviewed in a loud bar during operating hours. My favorite interview locale was with Kevin Von Erich, who did his interviews from what looked like his hot tub. Von Erich wore a mic on a towel and draped it across his shoulders, sitting in the water with a mic wired to him. To his credit, Von Erich was rather informative and seemed clear-headed, but I found it odd that he did his interview chilling in his hot tub.
- The film isn't a wrestling film, per se. Sure, it deals with a wrestler, but it seems to be more of a tale of how his life fell apart and how drugs and other forces brought Chris Adams down. The film does show clips of Adams wrestling, and shows a little about Adams' wrestling school, which produced Steve Austin, but other than that, it's mainly more of a cautionary tale than it is wrestling documentary.
- Adams actually was an architect working for the government before he started his pro wrestling career. As his parents told it, Chris just came by one day and told them he'd be wrestling, so be sure to turn on the television. Things sure would have been different if Adams had stuck to architecture.
- Some of the people in Adams' life weren't the type of people you would want to hang out with, to put it nicely. Adams seemed to have a lot of hangers on who were just using him due to his celebrity. One of which was a guy that called himself John "Raven" Wyner, who was accused by another interview subject of supplying Adams with drugs. A couple of the interview subjects seemed to be on something while being interviewed, such as Laurie, who was speaking a mile a minute most of the time and was acting very jumpy the whole time she was on camera.
- Although everyone talks about how nice of a person Adams was and how he was this and that, Chris Adams had some serious problems. On more than one occasion he was arrested due to his explosive temper, including an incident where he choked a co-captain on a plane in 1986. Adams became an alcoholic and addicted to the drug GHB, which according to the expert Grant interviewed, can really mess you up. It's likely that on the night he died, Adams was high on GHB.
- Adams' life quickly fell apart in 2000, after his girlfriend at the time (Linda Kaphengst) overdosed on GHB and eventually died due to the overdose. A woman named Miss Lacy, whom Adams had fired from his promotion due to a big mess that involved the movie "Beyond the Mat", took it upon herself to try and get the police involved in the investigation. When Adams threatened another woman to do to her what he "did to Linda", the woman called Lacy, who informed the police. Eventually, Adams was charged with one count of manslaughter, and was awaiting trail for that charge at the time of his death. Things got so heated that according to one source, Adams tried to hire a hitman to kill Lacy.
- One of the more interesting things about the film is that they interview Brent "Booray" Parnell, the man that actually killed Chris Adams. According to Parnell, the two were watching a movie in Parnell's room when Adams just went beserek. Things escalated, and according to Parnell's testimony, it seemed as if Adams was trying to choke him to death. Finally, Parnell grabbed a pistol and after unsuccessfully trying to get Adams off of him by hitting him with the butt of the gun, he fired the pistol, killing Adams. Parnell actually gave a rough reenactment of what happened on that fateful night, although he seemed so blasted during his interviews that it kind of hurts his credibility. Nevertheless, it's a sad ending for a man that once wrestled in front of such large crowds and stayed in the finest hotels, that he died in a one-story house of a friend who lived with his mother at the time.
This is not a happy story by any stretch of the imagination. A man who once was at the top of his profession, making all sorts of money, lost it all and died tragically, leaving behind three kids and a boatload of questions. Grant does a skillful job of telling this tragic tale, crafting hours and hours of interview footage into a story that really makes you think. It's not pretty, and you will come away with some questions at the end, but overall it's a film worth seeing. I'll give it a 7.19 out of 10.
Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts on this post, or any ideas for future posts, than share them either by leaving a comment or by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
- The film was produced by Mickey Grant. Grant's no longer in the wrestling buisness, but he was the main producer for World Class Championship Wrestling in the 1980s, back when the company had the hottest television show in the industry. A large part of that has been credited to the production skills of Mr. Grant. Because of his experience in wrestling, Grant was able to not only use clips of Adams in WCCW, but also scored interviews with such WCCW mainstays as Gary Hart, Killer Brooks, Bill Mercer, and Kevin Von Erich.
- This film is somewhat raw in that some of the interviews take place in strange locales. One guy was interviewed at a Dairy Queen, Adams's friend, an ex-stripper named Laurie Wright, was interviewed in a loud bar during operating hours. My favorite interview locale was with Kevin Von Erich, who did his interviews from what looked like his hot tub. Von Erich wore a mic on a towel and draped it across his shoulders, sitting in the water with a mic wired to him. To his credit, Von Erich was rather informative and seemed clear-headed, but I found it odd that he did his interview chilling in his hot tub.
- The film isn't a wrestling film, per se. Sure, it deals with a wrestler, but it seems to be more of a tale of how his life fell apart and how drugs and other forces brought Chris Adams down. The film does show clips of Adams wrestling, and shows a little about Adams' wrestling school, which produced Steve Austin, but other than that, it's mainly more of a cautionary tale than it is wrestling documentary.
- Adams actually was an architect working for the government before he started his pro wrestling career. As his parents told it, Chris just came by one day and told them he'd be wrestling, so be sure to turn on the television. Things sure would have been different if Adams had stuck to architecture.
- Some of the people in Adams' life weren't the type of people you would want to hang out with, to put it nicely. Adams seemed to have a lot of hangers on who were just using him due to his celebrity. One of which was a guy that called himself John "Raven" Wyner, who was accused by another interview subject of supplying Adams with drugs. A couple of the interview subjects seemed to be on something while being interviewed, such as Laurie, who was speaking a mile a minute most of the time and was acting very jumpy the whole time she was on camera.
- Although everyone talks about how nice of a person Adams was and how he was this and that, Chris Adams had some serious problems. On more than one occasion he was arrested due to his explosive temper, including an incident where he choked a co-captain on a plane in 1986. Adams became an alcoholic and addicted to the drug GHB, which according to the expert Grant interviewed, can really mess you up. It's likely that on the night he died, Adams was high on GHB.
- Adams' life quickly fell apart in 2000, after his girlfriend at the time (Linda Kaphengst) overdosed on GHB and eventually died due to the overdose. A woman named Miss Lacy, whom Adams had fired from his promotion due to a big mess that involved the movie "Beyond the Mat", took it upon herself to try and get the police involved in the investigation. When Adams threatened another woman to do to her what he "did to Linda", the woman called Lacy, who informed the police. Eventually, Adams was charged with one count of manslaughter, and was awaiting trail for that charge at the time of his death. Things got so heated that according to one source, Adams tried to hire a hitman to kill Lacy.
- One of the more interesting things about the film is that they interview Brent "Booray" Parnell, the man that actually killed Chris Adams. According to Parnell, the two were watching a movie in Parnell's room when Adams just went beserek. Things escalated, and according to Parnell's testimony, it seemed as if Adams was trying to choke him to death. Finally, Parnell grabbed a pistol and after unsuccessfully trying to get Adams off of him by hitting him with the butt of the gun, he fired the pistol, killing Adams. Parnell actually gave a rough reenactment of what happened on that fateful night, although he seemed so blasted during his interviews that it kind of hurts his credibility. Nevertheless, it's a sad ending for a man that once wrestled in front of such large crowds and stayed in the finest hotels, that he died in a one-story house of a friend who lived with his mother at the time.
This is not a happy story by any stretch of the imagination. A man who once was at the top of his profession, making all sorts of money, lost it all and died tragically, leaving behind three kids and a boatload of questions. Grant does a skillful job of telling this tragic tale, crafting hours and hours of interview footage into a story that really makes you think. It's not pretty, and you will come away with some questions at the end, but overall it's a film worth seeing. I'll give it a 7.19 out of 10.
Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts on this post, or any ideas for future posts, than share them either by leaving a comment or by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)