Customer Reviews

Reverse of the Curse of the Bambino

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some people may be bummed out at the first 3/4 of this doc. It deals with concepts like paranoia, deafeatism, karma, and agony. But to a lifetime Sox fan like myself, that was a daily routine for me from my first baseball game in 1983 to Aaron "F" Boone's walk-off home run in 2003.

No great story begins with "...and they lived happily ever after." You have to have heroes and villains. The villains walk all over the heroes for most of the novel because the hero hasn't learned how to defeat the bad guys.

This is a great story. It begins with happy times(the first great Red Sox dynasty of the early 1900's). Then there is a tragedy(Babe Ruth is sold off). There is strife and struggle(1946, 1975, 1978, 1986, 1997, 2003). There are fools and follies(Tom Yawkey's racist attitude, Dan Duquette guts the team). Then the heroes meet some fine allies(John Henry, Larry Luchino and Theo Epstein take the club in a totally new direction by signing Terry Francona, Keith Foulke, and Curt Schilling among others). The heroes charge the gates(the Sox defeat the Angels in four straight). They encounter the Royal Guard and suffer many casualties(they lose three straight to the Yanks). One small band of men charge the Royal Guard and defeat them(David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, and Dave Roberts play key factors in the Sox winning the next four games and going to the World Series). The heroes encounter the King, who tries to fight them off to no avail(the Cards go down quietly in four games) and the heroes claim the prize(the Sox win the trophy). The villagers rejoice and peace is restored to the land(the Sox ride duck boats through the streets of Beantown with hundreds of thousands of fans showing their love).

So you see, it makes the happy ending much sweeter when it is borne of an unhappy past. I LOVE THIS DVD! And I love Red Sox Nation and their fans.

The first 50 minutes of this documentary are sheer agony, as the Sox' historic failures are recapped in excruciating, repetitive detail. During the final, triumphant 10 minutes of the program the tears will stream from your face.

This documentary weaves history with the 2004 season and the ALCS win over the Yankees. It also shows highlights of the World Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. It is a tribute to the relationship the fans (past and present) have with their Red Sox team. Any Red Sox fan will enjoy this.

i am basically a new york yankees fan but i'm not one of those arrogant yankee fans who thumb their noses at the arch rival red sox and revels in their past unluck.
on the contrary i enjoy the rivalry and i feel for the long suffering bosox fans of new england.
and this dvd tells their story well.
i recommend this, along with the movie i saw last night "Fever Pitch" with jimmy fallon and drew barrymore.
this is an excellent documentary.
the editorial review and description above give you a very good overall view of what this doc consists of so i will just chime in with that i've watched it and can NOT recomment it enough!
'tis perfect.

A few DVD's came out on the Red Sox' championship season in 2004. This is the one you'll watch later on.

It's a remake of an HBO documentary shown early in 2004, going over the Red Sox list of heartbreaks from 1918 to 2003. A variety of people are interviewed on that show, including fans, entertainers (Steven Wright, Denis Leary) and media types.

A little editing took that portion down to 45 minutes or so for this new version. Then comes the revision, all about the 2004 playoffs.

The producers were smart enough to back to the same people for their comments. As you'd expect, they were thrilled. Speechless at times. There are plenty of great shots of the games, but even better are the pictures of the family connections involved here.

Particularly moving is a scene at a graveyard, in which a woman tells her parents about the Red Sox victory and places a balloon by the gravestone. A sign saying how someone's late parents and grandparents thank the team also draws emotions.

I've got a copy of this, but I always stop to watch it when I happen to see it on HBO. Yeah, it's nice to see Dave Roberts steal second again, and David Ortiz walk off a winner, but this captures the feelings that came out of the bottle after 86 years of shaking. If you are a long-time Red Sox fan, spend your money on this one.

I watched this HBO special before 2004 when it was called Curse of the Bambino. The new version has to be seen from the beginning to experience again the total joy of 2004. There are some early moments almost too painful to see again: Yaz' knees buckling as he sees Dent's wind driven pop up get over the wall, Shiraldi's deer in the headlights expression on the mound during the 86 Series, Spaceman's release of the slow curve to Perez in 75.

But this is all redeemed by the most improbable events in sports history. This DVD makes you feel again how unlikely the Sox comeback was. As one person says, if it was a movie nobody would believe it.

There is one perfect segment in the film where each of the people interviewed chokes up when talking about the Sox victory and is momentarily unable to continue. Dennis Leary, Steven Wright and regular fans are all effected the same way. 2004 was an emotionally overwhelming experience and this DVD brings it back again.

The last segment with Sox fans celebrating the win with departed relatives at gravesites captures the true depth of Red Sox Nation feeling but can be difficult to watch.

This is a great DVD to view with your kids. Mine slowly gravitated to the screen as I watched and were riveted. By the end, I think they understood their "crazy Red Sox fan father" a little better.

As a lifelong Brooklyn Dodger fan I have to admit that I cried when I watched this. I had never really followed the Red Sox before I saw this video, but I will now. Actually, because of the similar caps, we get mistaken for Sox fans ALL the time, but that's no shame. Brooklyn's Dodgers and Boston's Red Sox share long and storied complementary histories. Just watch this DVD and any of the many Brooklyn Dodger DVDs available. Consider this:

1. Fenway Park was built in 1912. Ebbets Field was built in 1913.

2. The Dodgers' first Ebbets game was against the Giants, our bloodsworn National League enemies. The Sox' first Fenway game was against the Yankees (then the Highlanders).

3. Boston had Frazee. We had O'Malley. Roz Wyman is our "No, No Nanette."

4. Babe Ruth played for Boston at the beginning of his career. He played for Brooklyn at the end.

5. We share The B.

6. It took Boston 86 years to win the Series. It took Brooklyn 68.

7. Fans of both teams HATE (and I mean HATE) the Yankees. The Yankees defeated Brooklyn 6 times in the Series (Boston beat Brooklyn once, in 1916, by the way, but that was A LONG TIME ago; it's a shame Brooklyn got kidnapped and never got to even the score).

8. The Dodgers were the first team to integrate. Boston was the last (what took you guys so long?)

9. A bizarre history has plagued both teams, who constantly blew Pennants and Series in nailbiter situations. The Sox had the Curse of the Bambino. The Bums had the Curse of Brooklyn.

10. Brooklyn fans and Boston fans share an almost spiritual attachment to their teams that spans generations. I guarantee NO CITY ever had a love for a team like Brooklyn, but I'll put Boston a VERY close second.

11. Many grieving Brooklyn Dodger fans are now active Red Sox fans.

12. Boston is the American League's Brooklyn. And vice-versa. (I don't know ANY Brooklyn-turned-LA Dodger fans. A different breed altogether.)

13. The Green Monster. The Rotunda. Gil Hodges. Yaz. Ted Williams. The Duke of Flatbush.

14. "WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR!" Need I say more?

***

Dear Boston,

Best wishes from The City Across The River.

Need I say more???

This summer my husband took my 12-year-old to Boston for Red Sox/Yankee games at Fenway. This video was a must. We all thoroughly enjoyed it - my husband, a lifelong baseball fan, my daughter, who is beginning to follow in her father's footsteps, and me, a more casual fan. It contains the entire program of the original "Curse of the Great Bambino" with additional interviews added in after Boston won the World Series and broke the curse. Although big Boston fans probably won't learn anything new, the interviews, the despair of the long-suffering Boston fans and the history of the team are well-worth the watch. The same fans are interviewed after the Series. The interviews include discussions of The Curse with die-hard fans and baseball historians giving varied opinions on its existence. The entire documentary is a real treat for baseball fans, nostalgists and those who love the history of the game as a whole.

My Hubby & I are avid MLB fans, especially the Bosox, White Sox/DBacks/Cards/Reds...Well, you get the idea! Anyway: When we 1st saw it on HBO, we were joyful/angry/laughing & crying. Denis Leary is a hoot!
Those die hard Red Sox fans waited so long & they deserve that! Our White Sox got their W.S., the Cards got theirs in '06 & the Dbacks in 2001.
We're waiting for HBO to release the (sorry) Cub Bums Documentary "Wait Till Next Year". We live near Chi. but love the South Siders. We're so tired of those "traditionalists" who have suffered. We'll see what they can do in 007. We won't hold our breath!

This is a great recap of that magical 2004 Red Sox season. The reflections of the fans in the video allows the viewer to relive the agony, and the ecstasy of Red Sox baseball over the last century. I was especially moved by the strong emotions that people still had as they recalled the moment the Red Sox won the Series. Even now, I get goosebumps. For all loyal Red Sox fans out there, buy this video! You will not be disappointed. Red Sox. Forever.