earthinspace-1

"A League of their Own" for Rodeo I have no connection that I know, with anyone involved with this film.

Piercing and sad that I can't find another copy of this film to share with more friends. The makers did a great work! The speakers and narrators never dole out trivia or routine history. It's up close and personal Gorgeous on several levels -- sound bed, great athletes, authentic stories, beautiful athletic women . . . Historical interest, historical music, historical views.

If you are interested in well-made cinema of any kind, or American history, and of course Don't miss it, if you are interested in horses or the romance of the old American West. If you are, it would be crazy to miss this and other films of its kind.

This film in particular has pleasant pacing, no sharp edges, yet never dull. It's brisk like a rodeo, and fresh like the wild air in the old days out West.

A labor of love by real artists, real cowgirls too I'd bet.

Do you remember that old friend or relation who said just the right things and You didn't know it 'til years later? They never won an Oscar nor even appeared on screen, but their influence helped You. I suspect this Motion Picture was a gift of that type. It's the little keepsake, like a windup music box or whatever would be new and exotic today, and they've left it behind for you to keep. And some day, some of us would treasure it. The intricate design will catch your eye -- one day or night, after a lot more of the river has flowed by. The great sweep of time will echo in the piano-box of the heart . . . and will anyone remember to hear it? For some persons who love the music, this film would be a catalyst, a prompt, for that reverie.

The subtle feelings of life will now be more understandable. You'll know you were in the presence of God's love -- a true God who shines through time and fiction as well as through science and contracts. It's profound and it's pretty easy to watch, or vice versa. Is it historically? Sorry, I don't know. I could look it up. That doesn't change anything about this review. The formula for a big hit in the movies is elusive or is it? Maybe they were trying for a hit, and maybe they were trying for something else

These episodes are a good addition to the mental library of a serious history buff. For a big-picture treatment, this series does make quite a few boo-boos at the big-picture level.

Examples:

1) We hear several times a thesis that "Stalin always kept his word, so why didn't we make better friends with him?" Back at home, Stalin wasn't keeping his word very well. Should we have ignored what was occurring in the Soviet Union? Sure, there's occasional mention of Stalin's brutality. It seems thrown in, to avoid omitting it altogether.

2) We hear that Japan was ready to surrender and Truman wanted to use the bomb as leverage at Potsdam. That's a reasonable thesis. But that was only part of the picture. It cannot stand alone. If we examine everyone's motives at the time, as this film partly did, what emerges is not the simple feeling we get from the film: "America bad, Japan not as bad."

Still, it's fine to have these details offered up. They even mention the 45,000 Korean slaves who were in Hiroshima on that tragic day.

In hindsight, Oliver Stone's ideas are okay as learning opportunities. It's not fair to assume that Americans living in the mid-20th Century should have known then what we know now. But it's fair to second-guess them now as a meditation for future use. That will happen to our times too.

I've watched the first five episodes and plan to watch the rest.