Prime Video documentary review

Directed by Alexandria Stapleton, the documentary that traces the career of baseball champion, Reggie Jackson, is available on Prime Video.

Before the champion the player, before the player the man; with the Prime Video documentary Reggiedirected by Alexandria Stapletonwe discover a Reggie Jackson in the round, from the field to the home run, in an intersecting path that unites cinema with sport and follows the usual and parabolic trajectory of the blows inflicted by “Mr. October” with his most powerful weapon: the baseball bat. The film traces the career of the champion capable of winning 5 editions of the World Series and to sign more than 500 home runscontextualizing the rise and the constant battles and leaving Jackson himself the possibility of defining a general framework on the numerous controversies that have seen him protagonist and to tell himself as a man, even before as a sports professional.

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Reggie: his story according to his point of view

“This in particular is my story, second my point of view“; thus begins Reginald Martinez Jackson on the first bars of the documentary. The young champion is now a man who bears the marks of theexperience: the sporting experience of a baseball player who collided with the whole world for one determination without filterperceived as arrogance and conceit, and the life experience of an African American battling against a denigratory and racist system. The words of Reggie they dialogue with those of some friends and former comrades, from Julius Erving a Hank Aaronwhile the archival images flow dislocating us in time: from the inhospitable Birmingham making his MLB debut with the Oakland Athleticsthe first three titles and the next step, first a Baltimore and then to New York where, with the Yankeesconquers another two championships and is definitively consecrated as an absolute phenomenon.

The hits of the hitter continue and in parallel, between the 60s and 70s, the story continues, the clashes in the name of civil rights and with them they increase influence and media attention reserved for athletes belonging to minorities. The story progresses and while Jackson’s childhoodseen through the eyes of a son deeply marked by his father’s teaching, is only mentioned in a few moments, the most mature phase of his journey is promptly returned; himself, with extraordinary honesty of heartcontinues to show itself to the public without veils, recounting its recent past and its present, highlighting the same historical relevance.

From player to manager: an ongoing struggle

The monkfish continues that segmented its realization, made Reggie Jackson’s career similar to that of a boxer rather than that of a baseball ace and it was precisely the increasingly bombastic exposure of Muhammad Ali in defense of civil rightscombined with the disappearance of Martin Luther Kingto make him understand how much champions like them could actually do against the discrimination. He, a silent sportsman who preferred “to let the club speak about him”, he, an athlete who from Birmingham to Oakland had known both repression and reactionbegins to associate his name with that of Bill Russell, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown; yes it fights against the inequalities of “a sport that has always been backward” and, at the end of its journey on the field, it does not stop, it becomes first manager of the Yankees and then the Astrosa Houstonwhere it finally finds the space to operate a leveling of opportunities also at a corporate and managerial level.

Despite his many years of service both as a hitter and as an executive, Reggie, on the streets of New York, found several obstacles aimed at arresting the rise of a young African American well aware of his talent and that he didn’t have no fear to express his thoughts. After the dispute regarding the signing with the owner of the Oakland Athletics, Charlie Finleywhich cost him the sale, there was no shortage of heated disputes even in the big apple, with the new owner George Steinbrennerwith the coach Billy Martin and with your teammate Thurman Muson, who coined the nickname “Mr. October” with a clear derogatory meaning. But it was probably this instability and this internal tension that spurred the team and Jackson himself and pushed them to a much sought after and unexpected victory.

Reggie: evaluation and conclusion

Alexandria Stapleton directs carefully, in an attempt to return that oozing strength resulting from every blow inflicted by Reggie on and off the field; there directorial shrewdness resides in the game that contrasts these two moments: the sporting act and everything around it, connected only by a gesturea gesture which, daringly, could have been represented with different shooting choices but which, instead, is painted while remaining adherent to the documentary tradition. Likewise the sound e to the photo accompany neutral and grateful, without overdoing it but following with precision, opposing the sharpness of the present with the opaque image of a cumbersome past. A film that doesn’t overwhelm but hits as hard as a home run and that touches many strings with the sincerity of a champion, a man even before a player.

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