Customer Reviews

Still, We Believe - The Boston Red Sox Movie

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Watching this DVD after October 27, 2004 is like watching "Three Kings" after the 2003 Iraq war. It documents or portrays a relevant moment in time, immortalizing it forever, yet subsequent events drastically affect the poignancy of the original artistic achievement.

All of a sudden the 2003 season seems like lifetimes ago, literally the product of another age where belief in curses and accepting the fact that the Boston Red Sox were doomed to eternal tragedy were routine protocol. Already the mindset of the "wicked hahd" Red Sox fan is evolving to appreciate the mind-bending reality of the accomplishments of the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox (I am sorely tempted to type that a second time just to see how it looks once more).

Having said that, as a baseball fan from Atlanta who has watched a once-young and energetic team with a moribund history evolve into soulless, staid, corporate New York Yankees wanna-be's (who lack the Yankees' finishing power in October) and has watched my hometown Braves' fanbase shrink year-by-year as the masses of local bandwagoneers lose interest, I cannot help but watch with considerable envy the pure (and even desperate) joy and love that the baseball fans of Boston have for their team. And the energy of the Red Sox themselves make me wish the Braves played with even half the heart evidenced by the Sox, in 2003 as well as 2004.

Red Sox Nation, this documentary is your masterpiece of a self-portrait...true, it begs for a revision following the team's astounding postseason run in 2004. This movie, like the faith of the fans themselves, deserves a happy ending. But if 2004 never happened, there could be no better testimony as to what being an American sports fan is all about.

Still, We Believe is a wonderful documentary that truly pries into the hearts of the most passionate fans in the country. Welcome to New England!
I loved every moment of this film, even though I had to turn away for the gut wrenching ending. This movie does a great job of following several different fans throughout the 2003 season, without ever losing your attention. I knew each one of the individuals without ever meeting any of them.
To an outsider, it may appear to be an extreme caricature of a fanatic, but let me tell you, this is what Red Sox Nation truly is. No other sports franchise can come close to the passion, knowledge, and support of all Boston fans that is very nicely captured in this movie.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why you do this to yourself every single year...
Mandatory for any true sports fan!

Warning: May not be suitable for Yankee fans, as the unfamiliar concepts such as passion, pride, faithfulness, hope, knowledge of the game (past and present), and determination are touched upon. Bandwagons can be found 150 miles SouthWest.

I had a lot of fun watching this fun, unpretentious little film. In it, we relive the 2003 Red Sox season through the eyes and experiences of about eight or ten particularly hardcore, diehard fans. We see the Red Sox from April through October of 2003, and really get to know the fans and their religion -- whoops, I meant to say "pastime."

Some other reviewers seem to come down pretty hard on "Angry Bill." He seems like a fairly regular fan to me, albeit a fiercely opinionated one. We see him begin the season as a bitter, disillusioned lifelong fan. As the season progresses favorably, he slowly morphs into a hopeful, dewey-eyed True Believer. At the end, of course, he digresses into a tragic figure, embracing total despair once again. Personally, my heart really went out to Angry Bill. I myself sometimes tend to be kind of a masochist, but even for me being a Red Sox fan is often just too much to ask. Every year, you know exactly what you're in for... So, I felt like Angry Bill hit a familiar chord in Boston. People shouldn't judge him so harshly.

Other fans we meet include the two twenty-something female roommates from East Boston, Jess and Erin. They are a lot of fun to see, and to hear, as they express their opinions. They have some especially cool scenes in the Bonus Features part of the DVD, so, don't miss that part. For example, apparently lots of their male friends accuse them of "stalking" the Red Sox, but they point out that no one accuses obsessive male fans of being stalkers, although, conceivably, that accusation could plausibly be made. This indignant sense of what is right is emblematic of Jess and Erin's spirit, and of their general feistiness. You gotta love it.

Some of my other favorite fans interviewed include Steve Craven, the thoughtful fireman who shares his experiences as a lifelong fan; Jermaine, who always seemed just on the verge of saying "wassuuuuup!!!" when he spoke on the phone with his friends; and Jim Connors, the dreamer who dared to open a Boston-themed sports bar in Santa Monica, California. I also enjoyed hearing from the young guy in the wheelchair, for whom the spirit of the Red Sox appeared to mean more than, perhaps, for some other fans. On a personal note, I was hit particularly hard by his description of the accident which put him in his wheelchair. Apparently this took place in a boating accident at Hale Reservation, which lies in the Dover/Westwood area right outside Boston. Our family used to go boating and swimming there all the time, when I was a kid. Bostonians can expect many familiar references along these lines from this film, as interviewees walk through local neighborhoods, restaurants, etc.

Theo Epstein has some pretty engaging scenes in this film, memorably the moment in which he must grapple with being called a "nerd" in a gigantic headline with an accompanying, unflattering photo, on the front page of the Boston Herald. Don't you just hate when that happens?!?

Viewers from outside New England may want to prepare themselves for the Boston accent, and Boston phraseology, which is pretty hardcore here at times. FYI, "wicked" means "very." Trust me, this is really helpful information... You might want to bone up by watching a few reruns of Cliff Clavin on "Cheers," or by listening to some of the hockey players from Boston in the recent hockey film "Miracle." I think that some of those actors must have been local boys, because I don't think I've ever heard the Boston accent nailed so dead-on perfectly onscreen.

When the film gets into the actual clubhouse, bullpen and dugout, we get to see how hilarious Pedro Martinez can be in person. David Ortiz is a real card as well... I would have liked to see more footage of the awesome Kevin Millar, who, in my personal opinion, sometimes starts to sound disturbingly like Boomhauer from "King of the Hill," when they interview him immediately after a game, and he's so exhausted that he can't even speak clearly. Another funny thing, that I would have liked to have seen covered more, is the way that local TV stations always cue quasi-subliminal Evil Empire music from Star Wars, when covering the Yankees. That always cracks me up.

A few interviewees compare being a lifelong Red Sox fan with being chronically mistreated, in a dysfunctional relationship with a neglectful, or otherwise recalcitrant, significant other. This made me chuckle knowingly... It is also interesting to hear how the traditional desire of the Red Sox for a World Series championship so often gets intermingled with the enmity towad the Yankees. If you think about it, the two topics don't necessarily need to be connected, but of course they always are. In interviews, discussion of the one topic seems perennially to lead ineluctably, if not logically, to discussion of the other.

Some of the players are curiously difficult to recognize, considering that this is only from last year (as of the time that I'm writing). It's like three quarters of the team went for Extreme Makeovers. I'm not sure why this might be, but many of the players now have very different haircuts, beards, etc from 2003.

As I'm writing this, October 11, 2004, the Red Sox eternal quest to win a World Series looks a heck of a lot less quixotic than it generally does. Could this be The Year??? They swept the Angels in three games just a few days ago, and the Yankees, it appears, are next. They just don't come across as "underdogs" these days, but, dare I say it, more as a battalion of unstoppable baseball Terminators! I hereby join the fans interviewed, my newfound friends from this fine, fun film, in fervently praying oh please... oh please... let this be The Year!

This film is great if you are a die-hard Red Sox fan, but see this even if you only have a passing curiosity such as knowing a loved one that is a fan and you've always wondered why they are so into baseball? or even if you just enjoy seeing a very well made documentary. From the opening credits (which features one of my favorite songs) to the last bittersweet moments, this documentary is nicely crafted and expertly put together. You may come away thinking, how amazing that the cameras were rolling to capture many of these key moments of last season.
For me it brought back all of the excitement: the player's reactions, the highs, the sad ending to an amazing season, and best of all, fan profiles and interviews that are incredible. One fan, Angry Bill steals the film, and I think the Red Sox should hire him as a consultant. Two fans are almost like deadhead groupies in their obsession of going to games and following around the "band" when they are on tour. There's some wonderful behind the scenes segments that for me were really fun and revealing. Pedro comes off as a truly funny goofball and John Henry is uniquely special.
Many many moments made me and my girlfriend laugh - If you look closely you'll get to see loads of candy and seeds lined up in the clubhouse for the players to dip into (we just thought this was the best, as many of the players often seem so much like big kids) not to mention the still uncomfortable chuckle you get from the Pedro / Zimmer scuffle.
All in all you will probably leave this film wanting to see another game and just hoping that once again, this may be the year! If not for anyone other than Angry Bill.
Warning: This film is NOT recommended to Yankee fans...

This review refers to the DVD edition.

"Still We Believe" will have obvious appeal for Boston Red Sox fans, and following the Championship of 2004, the somewhat downbeat ending to the film will no longer be a source of pain to the faithful. The filmmakers were given full access to the Red Sox during the 2003 season to make a documentary, from eavesdropping in the locker room to a full-season time-lapse camera angle of the field mounted on the roof behind home plate. (Paul Doyle is given credit as the director, but as he says on the DVD audio commentary, it was largely a group effort). With the original intent of providing a team documentary, they started to follow the season through the eyes of a selected group of fans as a sort of video sidebar.

It's a sign of excellent documentary filmmaking that they then decided, once the season was over and the project had developed, that the focus of this film became the journey of those hardcore fans over the course of the season. The team is obviously the centerpiece, but it's almost a MacGuffin (Hitchcock's term for something in a film that seems to be the center of attention but which is just there to get the action moving along -- like the Maltese falcon in "The Maltese Falcon" or Private Ryan in "Saving Private Ryan", etc.)

As such, this is most assuredly not a document of the 2003 season, and not a conventional sports documentary. As a Red Sox fan, I surely enjoyed the perspective of seeing the oh-too-familiar vicissitudes of the season through seven fans eyes. The fans they ended up selecting are a sort of spectrum of types, from the radio talk show call-in regulars Angry Bill and Jermaine to a pair of working class sisters to a high school coach and a fire fighter, with the California transplant owner of Sonny McLean's as a stand-in for the diaspora of Red Sox fans across the country.

There are, to be sure, a few candid sequences from the team and its management to spice things up, but in the context of the whole film, it's a way of showing how the team matters so much more in some ways to its fans than to the players or owners. The players and owners do care, but they have their bottom lines and a sense of other professional opportunities. For the fans, their loyalty is supreme and it is they who seem, in the end, to actually make up the entity known as the Boston Red Sox more than the guys who actually put it on at the ballpark.

What I found particularly interesting in watching this film on DVD (especially after this past election and its discussion of values and loyalty) is how well the center of this movie does seem to be the sense of faith beyond reason, of shared community, of resilience in the face of disappointment that characterizes Red Sox fans and New England.

It should not be a surprise that many of the people involved in this movie are students of the Ken Burns school of documentary film; Burns himself focusses on 'The American Experience' as a recurring theme in his own work, from 'The Civil War' and 'Baseball' to 'Brooklyn Bridge' and 'Jazz'. There are traces of the Burns style here, but there are no sonorous voiceovers or talking heads. The technique is to follow the fans as they watch the games and mull the aftermath, interspersing this with occasional tidbits from the players and management. One gets the best of both worlds: the narrative of the structure of the season is clear as a backdrop, but the temptation of the conventional sports film does not intrude upon the main text of really showing how the fans are turned inside out by their odd relationship with their team.

The subtle, and almost quiet musical tracks used are an indicator this is not your traditional sports documentary. The editing and selectivity of the filmmakers in making the final film is even more apparent in looking at the DVD edition, which contains many out-takes and extra scenes. These out-takes nearly all have interest -- the very, very long featurette on "Angry Bill" in isolation is nearly a documentary in itself -- but if you view them in sequence after watching the movie, you'll understand exactly how disciplined the filmmakers were in making the decisions they did about what to leave out.

One of the nice DVD extras is interviews with the participants in the film at the movie's premiere. It's a sort of "they're OK" coda that may take some of the sting out of the sad ending to the 2003 season (where the main film stops).

Note: there's one easter egg available from the main screen -- featuring Kevin Millar on proper foot care. It's not the infamous "dancing Kevin" video, alas, but is amusing.

I wrote earlier that "Still We Believe" has obvious interest to Red Sox fans, but I believe the success of this will make this interesting viewing above and beyond that core audience. The theatrical release was largely limited to New England, and I think that's a pity, as it would've been interesting to see how it would run to audiences that didn't have a strong rooting interest in the team or perhaps even in baseball. The great theme of how following a sports team is one of the essential emotional -- almost spiritual -- aspects of American life is subtly and expertly stitched together and I think beyond being one of the best sports documentaries of all-time, this movie has a qualification as one of the best documenatries, period, of 2004.

I would definitely recommend this for Red Sox fans and for all baseball fans, and would cautiously recommend this to those who just dig good documentaries that end up being about something a little bit more than the apparent subject matter. If you saw the film in the theater when it came out and enjoyed it, I would definitely recommend the DVD for its extensive bonus material.

If you are seeking a film that either (a) chronicles the history of the Red Sox, (b) details previous Red Sox-Yankees match-ups, (c) delves into managerial strategy and batting averages, (d) shows how other teams are playing, or (e) profiles many of the players involved, you'll be disappointed.

Instead, this film captures the essence of the Boston Red Sox 2003 season (doing so without narration but simply with date/time graphics, as well as radio/TV descriptions of actual games) from spring training to the 7th game loss in the American League Championship series. The camerawork is quite good, and one does not miss the lack of a narrator.

Moreover, it seems to have two major focuses: 1) the (relatively) new management of the Red Sox, plus player Kevin Millar - and 2) the attention that several Red Sox fans pay to the team, throughout the year. They are the real stars of this film, not the owners or players.

One appears to be a high-school girls track coach, another a fire chief in Roxbury, two women in East Boston who steal one scene after another, and a few other fans. The camera is focused on them either at home, or if they venture to Fenway Park. (Or beyond, the two women travel to Wrigley Field to take in a Cubs- Yankees match). You know very little of them at first - and the film does not tell you much of their work or family life - but you do get a sense of what makes them tick.

A documentary where everyone knows the ending has a difficult task of entertaining everyone. Still, there are some rather noteworthy (and poignant) moments. (a) Manager Grady Little driving through downtown Boston, explaining his idea of baseball, (b)the fellow in the wheelchair talking about his physical therapy, and how he has exceeded all expectations of what he was capable of, (c) the two women in shock at the outfield collision between Johnny Damon and Damion Jackson in the playoffs vs. Oakland, and their relief/joy in seeing him raise his arm while being taken off the field on a stretcher, and (d) after the dramatic loss in Yankee Stadium in game #7, seeing the Red Sox players comfort losing pitcher Tim Wakefield and seeing Rudy Giuliani comfort Grady Little in the Red Sox clubhouse, which I was not aware of.

If what I've described sounds like something you'd be interested in (and are not expecting a scholarly work) then you will enjoy this film. Others might still like it, also - they will simply have to look elsewhere for some more comprehensive films. This film had modest aspirations - and succeeded. Maybe even exceeded them.

You defenitely get to feel the excitement all over again but you also have to expierience the agony of Game 7. It was a lot of fun to watch it in the theatre with Red Sox fans. We cheered, we laughed, we cried. It hurt to watch but, I loved it. It's easy to be a Yankee's fan but it takes guts to be a Red Sox fan.

In an earlier review, I said that the "Curse of the Bambino" DVD would be a first part of a trilogy that includes this and the 2004 DVD. Now after seeing this film, the HBO documentary can't even compare. From the start of the season, to hearing the radio commentary of getting Schilling and Folke over the credits, this is the film to see if you want to know why being a Red Sox fan was, and still is, such a big deal.

I have to say that Angry Bill gets a bad rap from most of the reviewers here. He always hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, which wasn't a bad idea for any Sox fan pre-04. It was cool to see him all the sudden get excited during the playoffs. During the bonus segment that shows the premeire, he's chillin' with all the other "stars" of the movie and saying "Go Red Sox", so its not like he WANTED them to lose.

The most poignant scene is after Aaron nails the homer in Game 7, and you see all the stunned reactions in the bar.

Looking back, "Bambino" is more of a prequel, something to get you up to speed before you see this movie. I heard that they're gonna come out with a seperate DVD other than the WS one, which will be more focused on the whole season. I haven't seen the WS DVD yet, so I wouldn't know if it's good enough by itself. We'll see.

I was excited to get my hands on everything Red Sox-related after they finally won the World Series. I couldn't get enough, especially all the DVD's available. I was very pleased with all my purchases except this one. I didn't like it because most of the film is based on a handful of fans' perspectives of the team, and covers very little of the team itself. I don't care about John Q. Fan. I care about Trot, Tek, D-Lowe, Petey, Wake, Man-Ram, JD and Big Papi. If you're a diehard fan, you know people like these fans and you don't need to pony up the cash to see them celebrate Sox wins and moan after Sox defeats. I think the concept of this film was to show outsiders, non-Red Sox fans, the passion and intensity that we have for our team. It definitely gets that point across and serves its purpose. But, in reality, only a Red Sox fan would buy this film. Why buy something to get these other people's reactions to the bigger events of the 2003 season? Why not just remember your reactions and those of fellow Red Sox fans that you know? I was disappointed with this purchase and this DVD will gather dust on my shelf. Will I ever use it as a vehicle to show a non-Red Sox fan the level of passion and intensity? No. It won't work. I tried. It results in boredom. They don't get it. There's only one way to do that -- take them to Cask'N Flagon and Fenway Park. A DVD about a handful of Sox fans does our passion and intensity no justice. I prefer remembering 2003 and 2004 for the players on the field. If I want to REALLY connect with a film, I want to see a throng of faceless fans erupt when Trot hits the bomb in Game 3 of the ALDS and recall that memory. I don't want to watch Angry Bill sit in his chair and comment on it. Snore. Do yourself a favor and go buy 1). Faith Rewarded, 2)The 2004 World Series and 3) Cowboy Up.

This movie is 100% Red Sox, which all their characters except Jim Connors lives right outside of Boston. Living two states away from New England and being a die -hard Red Sox fan stinks. The fans in the movie make me feel right at home and I forget I'm not in New England.


This movie is also good because it portrays Nomar Garciaparra as the player he is. This past season has made everyone forget how good, talented, and nice the man is. One of the charcters, Jessemy Finet talks about Nomar and then Nomar talks about how wonderful, Boston and the Red Sox are. It signify's him the the fan favorite: not Pedro, Manny, Tek, Damon, or Lowe;just Nomar.

While the movie just isn't the same now that they won, it's still my favorite. Can't wait for the sequel this year!