Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie

Ok, fine, if you're not a Red Sox fan there is little chance of you enjoying this movie. BUT I get the feeling that this movie isn't made for you non-Red Sox fans (we refer to you as "special" here in Boston) but is actually made for people like me, the faithful.

In terms of ground breaking documentaries, this is not among them, but is instead a fun way to spend some time in a movie theater. The film focuses on the 2003 baseball season, which was a wicked sweet one, up until that last game, which hurt like nothing has hurt before. Spending it's time split between the antics of the team and the relationship between the fans. Well made, as far as pop documentaries go, and HIGHLY recommended to anyone who loves baseball.

8/10

First, this movie is definitely for seasoned Red Sox fans, who will swear they've said the same lines used by fans in this film, or felt the same "code-blue" emotional highs and lows. If you hate the Sox, of course you won't bother with "Still We Believe"; but it might just spur on a newcomer to enter the madness with the rest of us, who feel weird when the Team appears on the very brink of finally entering Valhalla, only to have our worst, worst fears played out before the rest of baseball fandom.

The movie follows the entire 2003 Red Sox season in what I felt was a very interesting and engaging way. True, I think more highlights of the games would've helped, but we learn more about the "terminal" disorder of being a Sox fan from the expressions on the faces of the people chosen to "star" in this documentary than we would from images already etched in our collective memory. A great effort nonetheless, and worth watching. 7/10

First, let me say that I am a die-hard Yankee fan, season ticket holder, the whole deal. I hate the Red Sox as much as most of the people posting on this board hate my team. That being said, I really did enjoy this documentary. It reminds me of the good ol' days when the Red Sox fulfilled that role of the poor, sympathetic team that lost when it mattered yet the crazy passionate fans still supported them. And I have to say, Yankee fan or Red Sox fan, there were certain moments in the film where I could imagine a Yankee fan acting in a similarly fervent way. Because when you get down to it, no matter which of the two teams you root for, the real fans care the same amount: More than anything.

Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie (2004)

*** (out of 4)

Good documentary that covers the 2003 Red Sox season with their fans as well as some behind the scenes footage. Overall, it was a fun documentary but the filmmakers spend way too much time with the regular season stuff when more time should have been given to the playoffs since these playoffs were probably the greatest in the history of the sport with that classic (and legendary) game 7 between the Sox and Yanks. A lot of media attention goes to the Red Sox fans but even Angry Bill isn't nearly as bad as Kentucky Wildcats fans.

There is a moment in BACK TO THE FUTURE II (1989) when Charles Fleischer says to an incredulous, time traveling Michael J. Fox, who has recently arrived in 2015 and just read (on a holographic billboard) of a miraculous Chicago Cubs World Series victory, "I wish I could go back to the beginning of the season and put some money on the Cubbies." The fact that the Boston Red Sox have not won a World Series since 1918 might prove hands-down that time travel is not possible, otherwise, by now, someone would have prevented George Steinbrenner's parents from conceiving him or sited a garbage dump where Yankee Stadium stands. Still, close to a century of losing has not deterred the likes of the eight super-fans profiled in the engaging documentary, STILL, WE BELIEVE: THE BOSTON RED SOX MOVIE [PG].

Originally, director and Emmy winner Paul Doyle set out (with unprecedented access) to clinically dissect the 2003 season, unaware of the nail-biting championship run the season would be. He was also unaware from whence would come the *real* drama and the *real* struggle -- the fans. Once he realized this, he wisely set out to cast this ultimately colorful bunch of masochists.

Hilariously opinionated WEEI radio regular Paul "Angry Bill" Constine comes off as the most quotable (and funniest), and Fenway fixtures/Boston chicks extraordinaire Jessamy Finet and Erin Nanstad perfectly typify the all-weather hopeful. The inclusion of California transplant Jim Connors, who proudly operates Santa Monica's Boston sports bar Sonny McLean's, is a nice touch, but the most touching fan tale is that of Dan Cummings, the Hyde Park native who was paralyzed from the chest down in a boating accident. His brass ring quest to walk again is inspiring, though it would seem that New England sports fans used up their collective synchronicity credit by winning two Superbowls with a kick in the final seconds.

It seems best that Doyle shifted the focus onto the fans, because while the behind-the- scenes footage does provide context and counterbalance, it is fairly mundane stuff. Predictably, first baseman Kevin Millar is the chattiest and most colorful of the bunch, and, as we expect, elusive superstars Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra barely register. Despite being a celebrated wunderkind, GM Theo Epstein is criminally boring on camera, so perhaps it was out of necessity that Doyle shifted his focus toward the comparatively dynamic battalion of the faithful. They not only make for some innately entertaining comedy and tragedy, but they demonstrate -- and please forgive the waxing grandiose here -- the grand struggle that is this human life. Besides, as Angry Bill so aptly puts it, "If they won, I wouldn't know what to do." Score: 3.5/5