Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Year 15, Day 112 - 4/22/23 - Movie #4,413

BEFORE: I've got a beer festival to go to in Manhattan today, so let me get my initial framework done for this post, then head into the city and start drinking. I haven't been to a beer fest since last September, so I'm a bit out of practice, but I'm sure it will come back to me.  At one point I had a next-level tolerance, somehow I would always get home safely from the events, but occasionally with no knowledge of how.  I'll admit that seems a bit troubling, but I just kind of get myself on auto-pilot and I remember the way home, despite being intoxicated.  Probably should not make a habit out of this, but it's only two or three times a year. 

But this means I've got to get my cast list section written in the morning, and that means straightening things out with the IMDB.  In this case, I noticed there are TWO listings for this film on IMDB, one for the main documentary with NO ONE starring in it, and another for the film as an episode of "American Masters" on PBS, with a nearly-complete cast list.  This means that someone who works for the production company dropped the ball, and someone working over at PBS picked it up.  I still had to plug a few gaps of the famous people who appeared in archive footage, but more importantly, I officially suggested to IMDB that the two records should be merged, as they represent the same film.  We'll see what happens, the IMDB staff doesn't always listen to me.

But hey, maybe that's my dream job right there, getting paid to watch movies - sorry, I mean RESEARCH movies - and make alterations to the database that all film fans use.  And that would mean I could work from home - oh, if only... BUT the IMDB is owned by Amazon, so that would mean working for the evil empire.  It's too bad they don't have any competition.  Maybe I should go work for PBS and be that guy who enters information into the IMDB when the filmmakers and their staff didn't properly get their film listed there. 

Carlos Santana and Quincy Jones carry over from "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Miles Ahead" (Movie #2,738)

THE PLOT: Musicians, scholars, family and friends reflect on the life of jazzer Miles Davis to reveal the man behind the legend. 

AFTER: OK, I'm back after three hours at the Craft Brew Festival, a trip home and a four-hour nap. Already it feels like I watched this movie a month ago, but it was just last night.  And I had trouble staying awake, because jazz, like the blues and like tennis, just isn't my thing.  But I know Miles Davis' music is important to a lot of people, so I watched this trying to find the reason why.  Yeah, that didn't really work.  If you're not really into jazz, this documentary isn't likely to change that.  

They did that thing here where they hired a sound-alike actor to read the words of Miles Davis, as Davis was unavailable to comment on his own life stories, on account of being dead.  This is a tricky road to walk for documentary filmmakers, remember that the director who made that doc about Anthony Bourdain drew some criticism by faking just ONE LINE of Bourdain's speech, making it seem like he said something he never said.  The doc about Val Kilmer used Kilmer's son to record text that his father had written or said over the years, but they were very open about that, even showing Jack Kilmer speaking into a microphone.  It's better to get out ahead of this thing, that's all, rather than be found guilty of using an impressionist or taking audio clips out of context, or worse, using a computer program to mimic someone's speech. 

Like Val Kilmer, Miles Davis went to Juilliard in NYC, but he dropped out to join Charlie Parker's quintet in 1944 - for a while, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were playing as part of the same combo, and from what I understand of jazz, this would be akin to Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola all making a movie together, or Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso working on the same painting.  I suppose that analogy doesn't really work, but my point is that everybody has their own style when creating art, and Miles Davis seems to have gone through a few of them, from cool jazz to hard bop, then later worked in Spanish influences, African rhythms, funk, hard rock, all while bouncing around between five different record labels and supporting a heroin addiction.  

So, you've got to figure, that was an interesting life, by any definition of the term.  Married three times - though the documentary for some reason does not mention the third marriage, to Cicely Tyson, but instead focuses on his relationship with painter Jo Gelbard, which began while he was still married. I guess this just means Gelbard agreed to be in the doc and Cicely Tyson didn't? Still, the facts are the facts.  Like charges of domestic violence from his first wife, Frances Taylor, who was also close to being in the film "West Side Story", until Miles showed up and removed her from the set, because he needed to be the alpha male.  Sure, you can say that his aggression came from abusing alcohol and drugs, which he did to alleviate the joint pain caused by sickle cell anemia, but at that point, aren't you just making excuses for an abusive person?  Maybe he was just a garbage person and a bully of a husband. 

The critics don't seem to have been very kind to Miles Davis' legacy, with most preferring his early work, some even suggesting that if he had died in 1975, it wouldn't have mattered much.  One critic claimed that he was infamous for missing more notes than any other trumpet player and another called him an "adequate instrumentalist" - so what's the deal, was he an overhyped musician, or someone more famous for his lifestyle and flair than for his music?  Discuss amongst yourselves.  

I suppose maybe it's impossible to condense 65 years of anyone's life into a two-hour doc, but there just seems to be so much missing here, I'm learning more from Davis' Wikipedia page than I really did from the film.  Sure, I know who Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea are, but it's really tough for me to figure out what influence the collaborators had on Davis and vice versa, because I'm not a jazz musicologist.  It's interesting to learn that Davis once shared bills with both the Steve Miller Band and Neil Young, and wanted to collaborate with Jimi Hendrix, but he also divorced his second wife because he thought she was having an affair with Jimi.  During the periods of hiatus, Miles' lawyer worked out a deal where he got paid regularly by Columbia Records, even when he wasn't recording music - but this was probably not a good idea, it probably just enabled his addictions. This led to him suffering a stroke in 1982 after an alcohol binge, and his right hand was paralyzed for a while.  Cicely Tyson had to come back from working in Africa and get him acupuncture treatments for three months so he could play the trumpet again. 

See, this is the stuff I find interesting, I wish the documentary had included some of this stuff, instead of just footage of Miles playing the early jazz hits. 

Also starring Vincent Bessieres, Lee Annie Bonner, Ron Carter, Benjamin Cawthra, Jack Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Stanley Crouch, Cheryl Davis, Clive Davis (also carrying over from "DIonne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Erin Davis, Gerald Early (last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Mikel Elam, Gil Evans, Jo Gelbard, Juliette Greco, Farah Griffin, Herbie Hancock (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Jimmy Heath, Ashley Kahn, Tammy L. Kernodle, Cortez McCoy, Sandra McCoy, Marcus Miller, Dan Morganstern, James Mtume, Reginald Petty, Joshua Redman, Eugene Redmond, Wallace Roney, Mark Rothbaum, Archie Shepp, Wayne Shorter, Mike Stern, Greg Tate (last seen in "Summer of Soul"), Frances Taylor, Quincy Troupe, René Urtreger, George Wein, Lenny White, Vince Wilburn Jr., 

with archive footage of Miles Davis (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), John Coltrane (ditto), Steve Allen (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Bill Boggs (also last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), James Brown (last seen in "When We Were Kings"), Marguerite Cantu, John Carlos (last seen in "Citizen Ashe"), Tommie Smith (ditto), Bryant Gumbel (ditto), Fidel Castro (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Arsenio Hall (ditto), Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Betty Davis, Sammy Davis Jr. (also carrying over from "DIonne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Billy Eckstine, George Harrison (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), John Lennon (ditto), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Jimi Hendrix (last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), Thelonious Monk (ditto), Don Johnson (last seen in "When in Rome"), Burt Lancaster (last seen in "Frank Sinatra: One More for the Road"), David Letterman (last seen in "Sheryl"), Prince (ditto), Louis Malle (last seen in "Becoming Cousteau"), Johnny Mathis (last seen in "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan"), Jeanne Moreau, Richard Nixon (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays!"), Yoko Ono (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Charlie Parker, Charlie Rose, Sly Stone (last seen in "Summer of Soul"), Philip Michael Thomas and the voices of Josh Hamilton (last seen in "Tesla"), Carl Lumbly (last seen in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back")

RATING: 4 out of 10 French film soundtracks

Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over

Year 15, Day 111 - 4/21/23 - Movie #4,412

BEFORE: It's another film that played at the theater where I work, that's what brought it to my attention - maybe it played at DocNYC, I'm not sure.  Yes, a visit to that festival's web-site confirms that it DID play in the 2021 DocNYC Festival, the same year as "Dean Martin: King of Cool", "Mayor Pete", "Listening to Kenny G", "Jagged", "The Automat", "The Velvet Underground" and "Adrienne", all of which I watched in last year's DocBlock.  This film just took me a bit longer to link to, that's all.  (And Dionne Warwick was scheduled to appear, but she never showed, she had some kind of non-COVID illness.  Or am I thinking of a different screening?)

Actually, I think CNN sat on it for a while, or if I remember correctly, they were going to use this film to launch their streaming service, CNN Plus or whatever, and then the plans for that platform fell through, leaving this film without a home.  They finally ran it on CNN Regular this February, I think - and it's now on HBO Max, too, but I'll watch the CNN version on my DVR even though it has ads, because then I can watch it on the BIG downstairs TV screen instead of my upstairs computer or my phone. 

Carlos Santana carries over from "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away".

THE PLOT: The dramatic story of Dionne Warwick's meteoric rise from New Jersey gospel choirs to international cross-over super stardom. 

AFTER: I find myself in a weird place, simply because I've watched SO many documentaries about the music industry - if you go back to 2018, that was the BIG year for my docs, I started with 2 docs about the Beatles and went through all the big acts - the Stones, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Chicago, Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley, The Doors, The Eagles, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, The Beach Boys, The Who, David Bowie, and worked my way to the metal bands - Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Metallica, Black Sabbath and Rush.  I picked up that ball again in 2020 and built up another list of Rock Docs about Bob Dylan, The Band, David Crosby, Whitney Houston (again), John Lennon & Yoko Ono, and various Motown acts. By 2021 I was running a stripped-down version, with docs about Joan Jett, Frank Zappa, the Bee Gees, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Pavarotti, Tina Turner and the Go-Go's. With each successive year, I was watching fewer docs and I wasn't even really a FAN of the acts featured in the docs - I can give or take Joan Jett and the Bee Gees, honestly.

The 2022 Doc Block line-up was much the same - I'm not really a fan of the Velvet Underground or Rick James or the Sparks Brothers, but I'm into the routine now, and even if I don't care for somebody's music, I'm here to LEARN about them at the very least. I know enough about Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot's music to at least appreciate what they stand for and what they mean to people.  But by now I'm in my FIFTH Rock Doc Block, and who knows, maybe this one will be my last.  I mean, I like Buddy Guy, but Sheryl Crow, who cares?  After tomorrow's film I will have cleared the category once again, except for one last doc about John Lennon and another about Abbey Road Studios.  If I watched "Muscle Shoals" and "Sound City" I should at least consider watching "If These Walls Can Sing" - and I remind you once again that the three-part Disney docuseries about the Beatles has been deemed ineligible by the judges, because it's in three parts and too damn long.  OK, there's also "Moonage Daydream", another doc about Bowie, but I think after that one, I'm done with this topic.  

So, yeah, not really a big Dionne Warwick fan - of course, I know some of her songs, like "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?", "That's What Friends Are For", "Walk on By", "I Say a Little Prayer" and "I'll Never Love This Way Again", but these songs were ALL OVER radio in the 1970's and 1980's, that doesn't mean I'm a fan, it just means I was paying attention back then.  And Ms. Warwick hosted "Solid Gold" for a while, but I only really tuned in to watch the female Solid Gold dancers in their skimpy outfits. Sorry.  (Funny how the doc doesn't mention her TV hosting duties, except for the infomercials for the Psychic Network...)

But you can't argue with 100 million records sold over the years, six Grammys and being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the R&B Music Hall of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame. Not bad for a church singer from New Jersey with crooked teeth (you can see her career took off once she got them fixed, because people are so petty.). Like Sheryl Crow, Dionne started out doing backing vocals for other acts and then Burt Bacharach noticed her and paid her to record some demos of his songs, which he could then pitch to record labels. 

This doc does fit in nicely with the running theme, because Dionne came to fame during the early 1960's, and like last week's sports docs, it depicts someone fighting for equality while also being a rising star in their field - and all these docs manage to name-check Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, or both.  Dionne Warwick gave a stunning performance of Dr. King's favorite song, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" shortly after his assassination, and I don't know, I suppose that's appropriate but it also seems a little opportunistic at the same time. 

She moved to Warner Bros. Records in 1972, shortly before the songwriting team of Bacharach and David split up, leaving her without her usual team of songwriters to write great tracks for her, so her career stalled a bit and she was ready to hang it up until Clive Davis wooed her over to Arista in 1979.  Barry Manilow and Barry Gibb were brought in to produce songs for her - "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and "Heartbreaker", and once again she was on top of the charts. 

Her biggest song ever, in terms of sales, however, was "That's What Friends Are For", which she performed with Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, as a benefit single to raise money for AIDS research in 1985.  (President Reagan, as a conservative, didn't commit any government funds to research or fight the disease until it was far too late...). All of the money from the sales of the single went to AIDS research, and of course that's a great thing to do - but a more cynical person might point out that if Dionne hadn't signed away her royalties, she might not have had to file for personal bankruptcy a few years later.  (The single raised millions for AMFAR, but apparently the Warwick Foundation was investigated by ABC News, who reported that their administrative costs ate up 90% of the money coming in, and only 3% went to AIDS groups.  Meanwhile, Ms. Warwick was flying first-class and staying at four-star hotels, just saying.)

After that, you can kind of chart the normal arc of a superstar who's on the older side - record a "Duets" album, go on "Celebrity Apprentice", appear at a few benefit concerts, write your autobiography, go on "Masked Singer", and appear in the documentary about you.  

But the BEST story told here is about when Dionne accidentally heard some "gangsta" rap while driving in her car one day, and did not approve of the language being used by rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Suge Knight and others, calling women "bitches" and other misogynistic terms - so apparently she called a meeting and demanded that these rappers show up at her house one particular morning at 7 am, and then she invited them in and gave them a stern talking to.  Dionne dared the rappers to call HER a bitch, then reminded them that one day they might grow up and become fathers, and have to explain their old lyrics to their daughters, and how was THAT going to go?  Snoop Dogg, for one, changed his ways and toned down his lyrics somewhat, and then, sure enough, he had some kids, three sons and one daughter.  That confrontation with Dionne Warwick was enough to inspire him to make records that set out to spread joy and not objectify women.  I'm not sure I fully believe it, but I do love this story.  

Also starring Dionne Warwick (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Clive Davis (ditto), Burt Bacharach (last seen in "Whitney: Can I Be Me"), Jerry Blavat (last seen in "Dean Martin: King of Cool"), Dr. Lonnie Bunch III, Bill Clinton (last seen in "Sheryl"), Kenneth Cole, Damon Elliott, David Elliott (last seen in "Ali"), Gloria Estefan (last seen in "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It"), Barry Gibb (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Olivia Newton-John (ditto), Berry Gordy (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Cissy Houston (last seen in "Whitney"), Chuck Jackson, Jesse Jackson (last seen in "Summer of Soul"), Gladys Knight (ditto), Elton John (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), Quincy Jones (last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Alicia Keys (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Melissa Manchester, Billy Mitchell, Charles Rangel, Smokey Robinson (last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), Snoop Dogg (last heard in "The Addams Family 2"), Valerie Simpson (last seen in "Hitsville: The Making of Motown")

with archive footage of Glen Campbell (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Dean Martin (ditto), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Perry Como, Sean Connery (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), Sam Cooke (also last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Sammy Davis Jr. (ditto), Ronald Reagan (ditto), Hal David, Marlene Dietrich (last seen in "Val"), Marty Feldman (last seen in "Mel Brooks: Unwrapped"), Ella Fitzgerald (last seen in "Frank Sinatra: One More for the Road"), Maurice Gibb (also last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Robin Gibb (ditto), Lesley Gore, Billie Holiday (last seen in "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"), Whitney Houston (also last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Chuck Mangione (ditto), Danny Kaye (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Martin Luther King (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays!"), Ed Sullivan (ditto), Peter Lawford (also last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Barry Manilow (last seen in "Sound City"), Freddie Mercury (last seen in "Count Me In"), Dinah Shore (last seen in "Citizen Ashe"), Frank Sinatra (last seen in "Domino"), Sarah Vaughan (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Paul Williams (last seen in "The Rules of Attraction"),Stevie Wonder (last seen in "Summer of Soul") and the voice of Tom Brokaw (also last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists")

RATING: 5 out of 10 appearances on "American Bandstand"

Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away

Year 15, Day 110 - 4/20/23 - Movie #4,411

BEFORE: See, I told you I'd get back to Black History topics - for the next four films, you can find me at the intersection of Black History, documentaries, and music legends. Keith Richards carries over again from "Sheryl", and this film aired on PBS, it was on their "American Masters" series a year or so back - either that or on "Great Performances". I've learned to keep an eye on both series, because PBS shows dub to DVD very well.  The "P" stands for "Public" so the film belongs to all of us, really. 

THE PLOT: In 1957 Buddy Guy left Louisiana and set out for Chicago and its vibrant blues scene, where he played his way into the clubs, cut records, gigged with other greats, influenced new generations of musicians and collected nine Grammys along the way. Guy (now 84) looks back at his life, providing valuable insight into his music while leaving room for some memorable anecdotes. 

AFTER: The first time I heard anything played by Buddy Guy was on a PBS Special called "The Beatles Songbook" - this would have been back in 1993, and I was totally into covers of Beatles songs.  I was planning on researching all of them - ALL OF THEM - and maybe writing a book about them, listing them, rating them, I spent a lot of money on various CDs with instrumental versions of Beatles songs and most of them are still unopened and in a pile in my basement. But I caught the TV special because my favorite a capella group, The Bobs, performed "Strawberry Fields Forever".  The rumor was that they wanted to sing "Come Together", but Dr. John was performing and wanted to cover the same song, so they worked up an arrangement of "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the spot - that takes talent.  Anyway, Dr. John did "Come Together" and "Get Back", Nils Lofgren covered "Anytime at All" and "Don't Let Me Down", Los Lobos sang "Tomorrow Never Knows", and Buddy Guy, of course, covered "Yer Blues". Check it out on YouTube if you get a chance.  

Time went by, and that was all I knew about Buddy Guy for years, until I started collecting more CDs of covers and he popped up on tribute albums to Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Then once I started watching 300 movies a year and he popped up in various documentaries about rock and soul music. I am not surprised and also relieved to find out that Buddy is still around, and is literally the LAST guy left from that generation of blues guitar musicians.  So parts of this doc tended to get a little bit repetitive - and THEN Muddy Waters died....and THEN Stevie Ray Vaughan died... and THEN B.B. King died... but hey, that's the history of blues music, essentially.

Of course, there's the history of Rock artists (mostly white guys) stealing stuff from blues artists (mostly black guys, and one black Guy).  When Jimi Hendrix wanted to pick the guitar with his teeth and play the guitar over his head, he got that from Buddy Guy.  When the Stones wanted to get really into the blues, they went to see Buddy Guy play (and Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters...) and when Led Zeppelin wanted to make a hit record, they just stole from everybody (EXCEPT Buddy Guy) and didn't credit any of the songwriters.  "Whole Lotta Love" is just Willie Dixon's song "You Need Love", "The Lemon Song" is just Howlin' Wolf's song "Killin' Floor", "Bring It on Home" is Willie Dixon again, and so on.  Just Google "Led Zeppelin stealing black music" and follow the links. 

Look, blues music really isn't my thing, but then tennis isn't really my sport, either. But Buddy and this title of the film explain it - the blues is a form of therapy for a whole class of people. If you sing the blues, then you feel better, in the same way that talking to a mental health professional can help you come to terms with your problems. And if you can make a little money at the same time, all the better. I prefer rock to blues, but so much of rock CAME from the blues that I have to at least acknowledge that, unlike Page and Plant. So long live the last of the Chicago bluesmen, I'm glad he finally got some Grammy Awards, and got to perform at the White House for Obama. I hope I don't see Buddy Guy trending on Twitter any time soon, because I know what that will probably mean - and if that happens next week, I'll feel like I jinxed him, and then I'll have to dedicate my next Movie Year to him. 

Also starring Buddy Guy (last seen in "Shine a Light"), Eric Clapton (also carrying over from "Sheryl"), Gary Clark Jr., Tom Hambridge, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, John Mayer, Carlos Santana (last seen in "McEnroe")

with archive footage of David Bowie (last seen in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"), Phil Collins (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia (last seen in "Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind"), John Lee Hooker, Lightnin Hopkins (last seen in "Count Me In"), Howlin' Wolf (ditto), Muddy Waters (ditto), Mick Jagger (also carrying over from "Sheryl"), Charlie Watts (ditto), Ronnie Wood (ditto), Brian Jones (last seen in "The Velvet Underground"), Janis Joplin (last seen in "Z.Z. Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"), B.B. King (last seen in "When We Were Kings"), Barack Obama (last seen in "Citizen Ashe"), Michelle Obama (last seen in "Space Jam: A New Legacy"), Big Mama Thornton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Junior Wells.

RATING: 6 out of 10 salami sandwiches made by Muddy Waters

Sheryl

Year 15, Day 109 - 4/19/23 - Movie #4,410

BEFORE: Keith Richards carries over from "McEnroe", and I've kind of moved over from the HBO-funded docs in the block to the Showtime funded ones, but these will then be replaced by the PBS and CNN-aired ones.  It's complicated.  But McEnroe's partying with rock stars made for a great transition out of tennis movies, and now I can focus on musicians for a bit.  

Muhammad Ali turned up more often than I thought he would, five times in total - he's a bit like the Keith Richards of sports docs, it turns out to be pretty hard to make a documentary about ANY sport in the 1970's without dropping him in there somewhere.  And his buddy Howard Cosell moved up in the rankings, also.  But just wait, we haven't even heard from Walter Cronkite yet.  

THE PLOT: From humble beginnings to sold-out world tours, Sheryll Crow's life has been extraordinary, creating a legacy that continues to inspire. 

AFTER: Keith Richards says in this film that's there's no real secret to having a long career or a long life, there's only just sticking around (or words to that effect).  In other words, it's the luck of the draw (who lives, who dies, who films your documentary?) but I don't know if I'm willing to believe such sage advice when it comes from somebody who will probably outlive us all, just because at this point Keith's blood is probably half alcohol and half formaldehyde.  This guy did so many drugs and partied so hard that he's no longer human, he's a chemical zombie of sorts, or perhaps he died in the 1970's and just never succumbed, or transcended mortality somehow. (I once heard Penn Gillette jokingly quip that if you want to get to know someone, look at how they make their money, and since most of the Rolling Stones' income comes from merchandising, history would one day regard the Stones primarily as successful t-shirt salesmen.). 

Sheryl Crow's been around for a while, now - though it feels like only yesterday when she was the "new kid" on the music block - but her first single, "All I Wanna Do", came out in 1994, so she's got about 30 years of industry experience and touring under her belt.  She claimed that "Threads" was going to be her last album, but just like Keith, I expect her to still be around for a while - can a comeback album or a Vegas residency be far off?  

Born in Missouri, the Heartland, she came from a normal Midwest family, and her great-grandfather invented Jim Crow laws. (I'm kidding!). Track club, pep club, National Honor Society, senior beauty queen, it seemed she was destined for success, too bad she got mixed up with all these no-good rock and rollers, she really could have been somebody.  She got her degree in music education, and taught elementary school music before singing with bands and appearing in a McDonald's commercial.  But she felt compelled to head out to L.A., work in a diner and pass her demo tape around to everyone who wanted it, and also everyone who didn't. 

She first got noticed as a backing vocalist for Michael Jackson on the "Bad" tour, but unfortunately it was Jackson's manager who noticed her and wouldn't leave her alone, in the worst possible way.  (Yeah, she saw that MJ traveled around with little boys, somehow that wasn't enough of a red flag for her to say something about it...). Then she made an appearance on the doomed TV show "Cop Rock" and somehow, her career continued beyond that. More background vocals for Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Buffett, Don Henley, and a duet with Kenny Loggins paid the bills while she worked on that debut album.  

Working with a group of musician friends led to her first big single, "Leaving Las Vegas", but a nervous response to David Letterman when he asked if the song was autobiographical led her to answer "sort of", when in fact the inspiration was a 1990 novel by John O'Brien, a friend of one of the songwriters. Soon after this the author committed suicide, and Sheryl took it hard, but his family insisted it wasn't because she forgot to credit him on TV.  It feels like if that would drive someone to suicide (it didn't...) that person was probably pretty close to the edge to begin with.

Then came "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", "If It Makes You Happy", and "Everyday Is a Winding Road", from several albums over the course of just three or four years, and the theme song to the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies".  Jeez, you just know you've made it when they let you do a James Bond theme.  Maybe the songwriting ebbed a bit there, because it was a couple years before 2002's "Soak Up the Sun" became a summer anthem, but she kept busy by collaborating on other people's singles and albums, and then had a string of private and public relationships with Eric Clapton, Owen Wilson, Lance Armstrong... and then any time she did a duet on stage, people speculated about whether she was also sleeping with Mick Jagger, Prince, didn't this sort of thing start when she did a duet with Michael Jackson?  The gossip media sure got THAT one wrong...

She moved to Nashville, got into country music, battled breast cancer and depression, sang at a bunch of benefit concerts and on charity-compilation albums. Appeared in a couple movies, wrote some stuff for Broadway, and put together a "Duets" album called "Threads" - adopted sons in 2007 and 2010, so she's been busy.  Me, I wonder what being an over-achiever even feels like, I've been spinning my wheels in the same animation studio for 30 years, I just don't have the balls to pull the trigger and go off and do something else.  Anything else, at this point, would be a welcome change.  Hell, another pandemic shut-down would be a welcome change.

This is all kind of JUST on the verge of being way too self-centered, but I get it, you want to make the documentary when you have some time between gigs and feel a bit self-reflexive, or you want to remember how and why you did what you did to get to where you are, maybe that helps you figure out where to go next. 

Also starring Sheryl Crow (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Bill Bottrell, Brandi Carlile, Laura Dern (last seen in "The Fault in Our Stars"), Emmylou Harris (last seen in "Neil Young: Heart of Gold"), Jimmy Iovine, Jason Isbell, Steve Jordan, Greg Philllinganes, Trina Shoemaker, Jeff Trott, Joe Walsh, Scooter Weintraub, Lindsay Young

with archive footage of Lance Armstrong (last seen in "You, Me and Dupree"), Clint Black, Eric Clapton (last seen in "An Accidental Studio"), Bill Clinton (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Hillary Clinton (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Carson Daly, Robert De Niro (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists", Bob Dylan (last seen in "Val"), Jay Leno (ditto), David Letterman (ditto), Sean Penn (ditto), Kevin Gilbert, Michael Jackson (last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"), Kennedy, Chaka Khan (last heard in "The One and Only Ivan"), Steve Kroft (last seen in "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop"), Jon Stewart (ditto), Ray Liotta (last seen in "No Sudden Move"), Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan (last seen in "Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind"), Alanis Morisette (last seen in "Jagged"), Willie Nelson (last seen in "Running With Beto"), Stevie Nicks (also last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Luciano Pavarotti (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Joe Pesci (last seen in "Once Upon a Time in America"), Brad Pitt (last seen in "The Lost City"), Prince (last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Adam Sandler (last seen in "Bulletproof"), Paul Shaffer (last seen in "The Amazing Johnathan Documentary"), Charlie Watts (last seen in "Count Me In"), Ann Wilson, Owen Wilson (last seen in "The French Dispatch"), Ronnie Wood (last seen in "Under the Volcano")

RATING: 5 out of 10 guitars on the wall in the barn.

McEnroe

Year 15, Day 108 - 4/18/23 - Movie #4,409

BEFORE: John McEnroe carries over from "Citizen Ashe" to be the focal point of my next film in the JockDocBlock.  My Black History Fortnight will continue after a short break for a couple of docs about white people, one who was very good at tennis, the other one with a great music career.  Yep, my JockDocBlock is about to transition into a more familiar RockDocBlock.  Well, OK, it won't be all rock, there's some soul and jazz and pop too. 

THE PLOT: This documentary follows John McEnroe as he finally tells his side of his storied career and performances on the court. 

AFTER: Some advice for any famous people who might be reading this - agree to appear in the documentary about your life while you are still alive.  This way, you may get some control over the narrative - if John McEnroe had waited too long, the doc about him would have focused solely on his bad-boy behavior, the partying, the drugs, hanging out with rock stars, going out to the clubs, and then of course dropping f-bombs on TV when yelling at line judges during tournaments.  He's the reason that live sports events had to switch over to an 8-second delay.  

Ah, but if you are still alive and you agree to appear on camera in the doc, you can point out that your father/manager was never very affectionate to you when you were young, and you stressed out over your grades in school and that led you to seek nothing less than perfection on the court, and you got married to try to "fix" your life, and then you had kids to try to "fix" your marriage, and well, then, I guess nothing is really your fault in the end, then, is it?  

It might have been better to just rely on the tennis stats here, because that way when McEnroe claims to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, male tennis star of all time, we'd have something to back that up, instead of just his say-so.  Or am I just too cynical for my own good?  Sure, he had a few good years as the 1970's turned into the 1980's, but come on, let's see some numbers.  OK, an 86% winning record is better than Arthur Ashe's 76%, but Mac had 77 singles titles, which is only 6th in the Open Era.  He was ranked #1 in 1980, but was that the only year?  And how come he only made it to #1, was that really the BEST he could do?  (JK.)

OK, there was 1984, when he had an 82-3 match record, that's the highest single-season win rate of the modern era - but aren't the 1980's really the problem, here?  That was the "Me" Decade, when everybody wanted more, more, more for themselves and consumerism was at its peak and nobody gave a crap about the ozone layer or the dying sea turtles, Reagan was on the side of big oil, big business and big banks, and didn't we all pay the price for that in the decades that came later?  The icecaps are still melting because of all the CFCs in the hairspray that was used in the 80's.  Everyone was so self-centered, and that included the athletes - McEnroe wasn't the only "bad boy" in tennis, there was Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors and Vitus Gerulaitis.  Jonny Mac followed in their footsteps and became the baddest of them all.  People were watching tennis JUST to see if he would lose his temper and swear.  

McEnroe was portrayed yesterday as the antithesis to the polite, non-radical Arthur Ashe, but he was also the foil character to Bjorn Borg, who never lost his temper, even when he played against McEnroe.  But then McEnroe's extreme highs in 1984 were followed by the lows of 1985, when he couldn't seem to get past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon or the Masters, and to help relieve the pressure, he took six months off AND got married. Yeah, that'll fix it - hey, maybe it did for a while because he won 3 tournaments in 1986, but then none in 1987. Tying your personal life so closely to your game probably isn't the best idea in the long run, I guess. 

After retiring in 1992, McEnroe pursued a different goal, becoming a musician - but just playing guitar and having famous friends doesn't make you a rock star.  Notice that he didn't stick with the band, and found a whole new career as a tennis commentator.  And in making fun of himself, he's been in numerous TV shows and commercials where he plays fictionalized versions of himself, or pretends to lose his temper, or utter his catch-phrase "You can NOT be serious!"  And based on what's seen in this documentary, he apparently spends a great deal of time walking around NYC at night, comtemplating his career and the many mistakes he's made.  Hey, if that wasn't accurate, they couldn't put it in the documentary, right? 

Also starring Bjorn Borg, Peter Fleming, Chrissie Hynde (last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Billie Jean King (also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe"), Phil Knight, James Malhane, Patrick McEnroe (last seen in "Venus and Serena"), Keith Richards (last seen in "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain"), Patty Smyth.    

with archive footage of Muhammad Ali (also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe"), Arthur Ashe (ditto), Jimmy Connors (ditto), Dick Clark (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Meat Loaf (ditto), Tina Turner (ditto), Mark J. Goodman (last seen in "Under the Volcano"), Vitus Gerulaitis, Ivan Lendl, John Patrick McEnroe Sr., Ilie Nastase, Tatum O'Neal (last seen in "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), Carlos Santana (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Margaret Thatcher, and the voice of Howard Cosell (yep, also carrying over from "Citizen Ashe"). 

RATING: 5 out of 10 broken rackets

Citizen Ashe

Year 15, Day 107 - 4/17/23 - Movie #4,408

BEFORE: Arthur Ashe and several other sports stars carry over from "Say Hey, Willie Mays!". I see this ALL the freakin' time, whether it's the directors of documentaries or somebody who works for the directors, I don't know, but there are filmmakers out there who only consider the "cast" of a documentary to be the people who were interviewed for it.  I say, Nay Nay, the people in the archive footage are also important, the IMDB just lists them differently.  So for this one, going in I thought that maybe they hired an actor to play the young Arthur Ashe, because he wasn't listed in the credits. AT ALL. For the documentary where he is the central figure - that's crazy, how can Arthur Ashe NOT be in the doc that's all about Arthur Ashe?  The simplest answer is that because he's deceased, the production company didn't consider him as part of the "cast", just the people who were interviewed. 

Well, that's where I step in, because I sit there with a little notepad or a piece of scrap paper or I use the Notes app on my phone, and then before I write my review, I submit and update to IMDB with all the famous (and not-so-famous) people I recognized in the archive footage - like, say, Arthur Ashe, and also in this case LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Venus and Serena Williams, and about thirty others.  Now, my linking of films might have been a lot easier if I had known about these other people in the archive footage, but I get no sympathy because, as far as I know, I'm the only person who watches movies like this.  (If there is someone else, I'd like to meet him or her, we'd probably be friends.  Or maybe not, I don't need any competition.)

I'm going to try very hard, however, to not think about how at the same time as I'm correcting all these appearances, I'm also padding the resumes of people like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.  Sorry, but it can't be helped, I've got to be MORE RIGHT about these things than anyone else, and if I see an incomplete cast list, that just won't do.  Also there's some poor person who works for IMDB who reviews these submissions, and my documentary block probably constitutes their least favorite time of year. Again, sorry, but it can't be helped. 

THE PLOT: Explores the tennis career of Arthur Ashe and his impact on tennis and HIV activism. 

AFTER: Another day, another blactivist profiled - it's just my way of atoning for missing Black History Month every year, I've got to assuage my white guilt.  Arthur Ashe was way on the other side of the activist spectrum than, say, Muhammad Ali.  He was the quiet one, and though he basically broke the color barrier in men's tennis by himself, he was preceded by Althea Gibson in women's tennis (where's HER documentary?) he kind of changed the system from within, rather than standing on the outside and calling for change.  Together they were like the Jackie Robinsons of tennis, and I guess maybe every sport other than boxing has its Jackie Robinson, but by the time you get down to the Jackie Robinson of curling or the Jackie Robinson of pickleball, at some point it becomes rather petty.  Yes, of course, there should be people of all colors in all sports, I just mean that we should stop focusing on our differences. 

Me keeping track of all the archive footage and the appearances of certain sports stars who keep popping up is rapidly affecting my cumulative stats - Robert De Niro is still out in front for 2023 with 7 appearances, but after a week of documentaries, certain sports stars and politicians are catching up with him - Ali, MLK, Jackie Robinson, Richard Nixon, and Spike Lee all have 4 appearances in the last 8 films, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Arhtur Ashe, Bill Clinton, Hitler, RFK, Obama, Bill Russell, Serena Williams and Malcolm X all have 3. (Serena and Kareem made cameos in "Glass Onion", that gave them a head start.). Oddly, Robert Kennedy is leading JFK 3-0, and Michael B. Jordan is beating Michael Jordan 3-1. 

Anyway, Arthur Ashe grew up in Richmond, VA, which seems like it's in the center of the East Coast but is really part of the Deep South, if you know what I mean. His mother died when he was 6 so he was raised by a single father, who didn't let Arthur play football because he was too skinny.  But the family lived on a black playground where Ashe Sr. was a caretaker, and there were tennis courts there, just yards from their house. He was spotted by a tennis instructor who was the best black tennis player in Richmond at the time, and things just kind of fell into place. Althea Gibson's coach, the founder of the Junior Development Program of the ATA also took notice of him, and Ashe became the first African-American to play in the Maryland boys' championships, and learned from his coach to never argue with an umpire, or react to racial comments from others, because it was unsportsmanlike, and counter-productive toward the integration of the sport. 

Ashe moved to St. Louis in his senior year to avoid the segregated courts in Richmond - this was 1960, so that probably tells you something about Virginia in 1960, they still acted like it was 1860. Ashe got a tennis scholarship to UCLA, joined the ROTC and then became the first black player selected for the U.S. Davis Cup team.  He won the NCAA singles title in 1965, but then there was that whole Vietnam thing, and he had gone through officer training with ROTC.  So he joined the U.S. Army in 1966, but got assigned to the Military Academy at West Point, where he worked as a data processor, and also headed the academy's tennis program.  Hands down, the best story here comes from Arthur's brother, Johnnie, who served in Vietnam and signed up for a second tour, because he knew that by staying in active service, he was preventing Arthur from being sent overseas.  (The military was apparently keeping track, and didn't allow brothers to serve in Vietnam at the same time, after what happened in World War II to some families that lost all of their sons.)

The second best story here concerns how Ashe tried repeatedly to play in the South African Open, to champion integration at the time of apartheid - but the South African government kept denying his visa.  He certainly qualified, having won the U.S. Open and the Australian Open, and then with the help of diplomat Andrew Young, he was able to compete in South Africa in 1973, after promising to not speak about politics while there.  But just appearing there and competing there sent a quiet message, as an attempt to bring about further change.  Ashe lost in South Africa to Jimmy Connors that year and the next, and then three years later, Ashe had to basically apologize for playing in South Africa, as some people saw that as a tacit acceptance of their racial politics. 

We all know the rest of his story, how he retired in 1980 after having heart surgery in 1979.  There aren't many athletes more fit than tennis players, but this shows you that cardiovascular disease is largely hereditary, as his mother died from it, and his father had two heart attacks. Later he was diagnosed with AIDS, and it was believed that he contracted HIV during blood transfusions received during his heart surgery.  He got this diagnoses in 1988, and it was revealed to the public in a newspaper article in 1992 - obviously it was a different time, and the rules for revealing the health status of public figures were still being worked out.  But after that Ashe worked to raise awareness of AIDS and call for more funding.  So yeah, there's a lot here that's bittersweet, or it proves you have to take the bad with the good, or something.  

I've got to run, I have to get up very early tomorrow morning and open up the theater - so I can't even start on tomorrow's movie tonight, I'll have to catch up tomorrow afternoon.  Thankfully most of these documentaries are short so if I fall behind, I can double up and fix it. 

Also starring Johnnie Ashe, John Carlos (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays!"), Harry Edwards (ditto), Art Carrington, Karlton Davis, Donald Dell, Billie Jean King (last seen in "Venus and Serena"), John McEnroe (ditto), Ej McGorda, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Charlie Pasarell, Lenny Simpson, Andrew Young (last seen in "MLK/FBI")

with archive footage of Muhammad Ali (last seen in "Say Hey, Willie Mays"), Barack Obama (ditto), Jackie Robinson (ditto), Bill Russell (ditto), Tommie Smith (ditto), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Dick Cavett (ditto), Howard Cosell (ditto), Robert F. Kennedy (ditto), Nelson Mandela (ditto), Dinah Shore (ditto), Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Connors (last seen in "Venus and Serena"), Serena Williams (ditto), Venus Williams (ditto), Ellen DeGeneres (last seen in "Running With Beto"), David Dinkins, Coco Gauff, Althea Gibson, Bryant Gumbel (last seen in "Wolfgang"), Charlton Heston (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Adolf Hitler (last seen in "The Book Thief"), Jesse Owens (ditto), LeBron James (last seen in "Space Jam: A New Legacy"), Naomi Osaka (ditto), Colin Kaeperneck (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Rod Laver, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Tom Okker, Dan Rather (last seen in "Driven"), Morley Safer (last seen in "Fyre Fraud"), Mike Wallace (last seen in "One Night in Miami...")

RATING: 6 out of 10 red, white and blue wristbands

Say Hey, Willie Mays!

Year 15, Day 106 - 4/16/23 - Movie #4,407

BEFORE: Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson carry over from "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali" as the Jock Doc Block continues.  I'd like to extend my thanks to HBO and HBO Max for keeping these documentaries available and not just deleting them after a few months.  I hate when I program a Doc Block a few months in advance and then by the time I get there, some films are no longer available on Netflix or Hulu or wherever and I have to pay for them on YouTube or iTunes.  I think I'll have to rent tomorrow's film, but at least HBO Max is helping to minimize the financial damage.  I can pay $1.99 or $2.99 to rent a film once in a while, but as long as the vast majority of my chain is still covered by my monthly cable bill, I should be OK. 

Working a double-feature at the theater tonight, by myself - "Renfield" and "The Pope's Exorcist", so that should leave me plenty of time to write this review.  Really, what I should be doing is looking for another job, because the theater's probably going to be closed for two months during the summer, and my other boss is deep in debt and running out of money.  Unless something changes, I may need a full-time gig really soon - but I don't feel right doing any job-hunting while working at the theater, I'm on a shared computer there and I'm always afraid the management will check the browser's history.  I'm not sure if Chrome displays that to only my profile when I'm signed in, or if the admin can discover what sites all the employees visit.  Better to do my job-hunting at home, I'm thinking. 

Anyway, they had a screening of "Say Hey, Willie Mays" last October at the theater where I work. I didn't recognize any of the stars who attended, except for Bob Costas and producer Colin Hanks. Still have the photos on my phone.  So that's what put this particular documentary on my radar, and it took me about 6 months to program it. 

THE PLOT: Archival footage, contemporary interviews and reflection on Willie Mays and his trailblazing influence in and outside baseball too. 

AFTER: I used to pay more attention to historical events, and here's a case where I really should have been looking at Wikipedia for key anniversaries in April - this documentary is all about Willie Mays and other baseball players who started out in the Negro Leagues.  The first, of course, to cross over to the MLB was Jackie Robinson, and he started for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.  So, accidentally, I missed that by ONE DAY - yesterday was the 76th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball.  

So there, I've worked in more Black History to my Jock Doc Block - tonight's film points out that once Robinson crossed over, the MLB teams started the process of recruiting the top black players, and ultimately that decimated the ranks while also removing the need for the Negro Leagues, so that's kind of a double-edged sword.  Integration meant that the best players could earn major-league salaries and of course, removing the race restrictions was a positive move for civil rights, but the teams in the Negro League were black-owned minority businesses, and were no longer viable once all the best players were gone. Willie Mays was still in high-school when Jackie Robinson got hired by the Dodgers, so he played for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos and then the Birmingham Barons, because he couldn't get signed by a major-league team until he graduated. 

When Willie joined the NY Giants in 1951, they were playing at the Polo Grounds, in upper Manhattan - actually it was the FOURTH building called the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees played from 1913-1922 and the Mets played from 1962-1963.  After Shea Stadium opened they demolished the Polo Grounds and built public housing on that site. 

Sorry, I'm getting off the track here...

Willie joined the NY Giants in 1951, then got drafted in 1952 to serve in the Korean War.  Unlike Muhammad Ali, he served in the Army, but he didn't go to Korea, most of his time was spent playing on military baseball teams - see, this proves the point I made yesterday about Ali, if he had served, the U.S. military would never have let him die in Vietnam, they probably just wanted him to box for the Army in promotional matches.  Whoops, getting off the track again.... Anyway, Willie Mays learned his famous "basket catch" while playing ball at Fort Eustis, and came back to the Giants' spring training camp in 1954.  

In 1954, the Giants won the National League pennant and then beat the Indians in the World Series, sweeping them in four games.  The over-the-shoulder running-while-not-looking play known as "The Catch" is still talked about today as one of the best defensive plays of all time, Mays ran at full speed toward the center field wall and somehow caught the impossible long drive and relayed it immediately to the infield, preventing two runners from scoring and preserving a tie game, then Mays scored the winning run off a Dusty Rhodes homer, two innings later. 

The Giants moved out to San Francisco in 1958, and Mays was the highest-paid player in baseball by 1959, but then when the team moved from Seals Stadium to Candlestick Park in 1960, it was literally a whole new ball-game, because of the tricky winds at the new stadium.  They expected the new field to be home-run friendly, but Mays had to learn to hit homers all over again to outsmart the Bay Area wind currents. Mays also had to learn how to win over the crowds in San Francisco, who all seemed to prefer their home-town idol center-fielder, Joe Dimaggio.  But Mays eventually hit enough homers, including a four-homer game in 1961, to become the Frisco fans' new favorite.  

Mays' game-winning homer in the Giants' last game of the 1962 season forced a tie with the L.A. Dodgers (the OTHER team that moved from NYC to Cali) and in the three-game playoff series, the Giants took the lead in Game 3 and Mays caught the final out to allow the Giants to advance to the World Series against the Yankees.  That series went to seven games, and the Yankees ended up winning (spoiler alert) but the S.F. fans knew that it was Willie's playing that had got the team that far.  Mays never made it back to the World Series, but he did get named "Player of the Decade" for the 1960's. 

Willie stayed with the Giants through 1972, then got traded to the NY Mets for 2 years, but spent a lot of that time on the disabled list and decided to retire after the 1973 season.  (Apologies if I've screwed up any details of Mays' career, I'm sure there are much more obsessive baseball fans out there who will spot my mistakes...). He ended up with career stats of 660 home runs, 3,283 hits and 1,903 RBI.  338 stolen bases kind of sounds like a lot, too.  Willie was apparently well-known for how fast he could get from first to third.  When he retired, he held the National League records for career runs scored (2,062) and was second in league history in games played (2,992).  He made the Hall of Fame in 1979, the first year he was eligible, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.  

Here's what DIDN'T get mentioned in the film - Willie Mays stayed with the Mets after 1973, working as a hitting instructor.  But in 1979 he also took a job as a greeter and special assistant at the Bally's Park Place casino in Atlantic City.  But he broke baseball's rules by working at a casino (being even close to sports betting was still taboo for players back then) so he quit the Mets job and also got banned from baseball.  But, the new commissioner allowed him to return in 1985 - so I guess it wasn't worth mentioning, except by me. So he went back to the Giants and took a new job as special assistant to the general manager. 

Though he didn't openly discuss racial issues, Willie did his part to advance race relations by appearing on TV shows like "Bewitched" and "The Donna Reed Show", as if being a black man interacting with white people on TV comedies was the most normal thing to do.  That's how it BECOMES a normal thing, it takes people doing it when it's not normal. 

The film also shows Mays championing the cause of Barry Bonds to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, but conveniently doesn't mention WHY Mays had to take this up as a personal cause.  Obviously Mays was close friends with Bobby Bonds and became something like a second father to Barry, but you may recall that Barry Bonds was accused many times of taking steroids, and then faced charges of perjury and obstruction during the government's investigation into BALCO, the steroid manufacturer.  Bonds' conviction got overturned, but he never got enough votes to become elected to Cooperstown, and this film just kind of glosses over all of that.  I guess that all belongs in a separate documentary...

Also starring Willie Mays (last seen in "Malcolm X"), Larry Baer, Dusty Baker, Barry Bonds, Willie Brown, Todd Boyd (last seen in "Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me"), Orlando Cepeda, Bob Costas (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Faye Davis, Harry Edwards, Tito Fuentes, Willliam Greason, Reggie Jackson (last seen in "Summer of Sam"), Jordan Keith, Juan Marichal, Michael Mays, Jon Miller, Vin Scully (last heard in "Secret in Their Eyes"), John Shea, Roger Smith, Ozzie Virgil, Gerald Watkins, and the voice of Jeffrey Wright (last seen in "No Time to Die")

with archive footage of Felipe Alou, Matty Alou, Arthur Ashe (last seen in "Venus and Serena"), Yogi Berra (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Bobby Bonds, Jim Brown (last seen in "What's My Name: Muhammad Ali"), Martin Luther King (ditto), Richard Nixon (ditto), Bill Russell (ditto), John Carlos, Joe Dimaggio, Leo Durocher, Herman Franks, Michael Jordan (last seen in "Malcolm X"), Paul Lynde (last seen in "How Sweet It Is!"), Elizabeth Montgomery (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - The Don Rickles Project"), Agnes Moorehead (ditto), Barack Obama (last seen in "Space Jam: A New Legacy"), Donna Reed (last seen in "Lucy and Desi"), Branch Rickey, Babe Ruth, Tommie Smith, Warren Spahn, Horace Stoneham, Ed Sullivan (last seen in "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street"), Bobby Thomson, Dick York.

RATING: 6 out of 10 Gold Glove Awards