Mantle

Mantle (2005)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This HBO documentary quickly covers the life and career of New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. Through archival footage we see his rise through the ranks of one of the greatest baseball players in history and then his after career, which included several bad times due to his heavy drinking. At just 60-minutes this documentary is way too short to really dig into who Mantle was but I think for the most part it's a highly entertaining and touching look at the legend. If parents want to introduce their kids to who Mantle was then this here is going to work perfectly because it quickly gets to the highlights of his baseball career, the star he became but it also ends with a pretty strong message about the way Mantle abused his body. Some of the most interesting aspects were the baseball footage, which was great because one can see Mantle playing. The footage was in pretty good shape and we also got a lot of other footage including commercials that Mantle did as well as various other forms of advertisements. Mantle's wife, sons, friends and former teammates are all interviewed about the man and we also get sports writers like Skip Bayless and Bob Costas as well as fans like Ed Harris and Billy Crystal. MANTLE isn't what I'd call a definitive documentary but it contains plenty of great stuff and is certainly worth watching.

I can't give anything a 10 until there is no choice. I have to leave that option for that time. But this is one of the greatest documentaries about the greatest ballplayer of all time. I'm about to reach the 50th anniversary of the first time I saw Mickey Mantle play at Yankee Stadium. I celebrated every inning of every game he played. I suffered through those dark days that led up to his death. And this documentary told a story that I remember just as it happened. If you never knew who Mickey Mantle was, you might not like this or understand. If you did know him, you surely will find something special about this. Either way, anyone who loves baseball needs to see this documentary. It's a little more special for me because a friend of mine did all the HBO music in the background. I recommend it highly.

This is one of the better biographies I've seen on Mickey Mantle. Mantle is one of the most interesting baseball stars to watch a biography of. He was such a great hero to so many baby boomers, but also had his demons. There are a great group of guest analysts including the great Bob Costas. I'm not sure why Skip Bayless was on this program though, since he is a hater and in particular a Yankee hater. This show is worth a look for any Yankee fan or baseball fan. If you like biographies, this might even appeal to non sports fans. The controversy over Mantle's wait of a liver transplant was especially interesting. Rating 8 of 10 stars.

The editor and director of this not bad documentary had clearly watched Ken Burns' baseball series. Some of the same editing techniques are there, though sometimes misused. (There are too many very short clips from interviews where the person only says a very few unnecessary words.)

There are also a few talking heads that add absolutely nothing of interest, such as Ed Harris and Richard Lewis.

But, on the positive side, there is a lot of great interview footage from players and family who knew Mantle well, and have informative things to say about him. You will learn a lot of interest from this program.

The best parts of it, however, are the scenes with Mantle himself, especially the scenes near the end of his life where he tells the public that he has wasted his life, thrown away everything that was given to him, and should only be a model to young boys of how NOT to live. It's devastating.