World Famous Comics: Jeff Herr (III) American Pastime
Jeff Herr (III) American Pastime
Starring: Jon Gries, Sami Roe, Jeff Olson, Big Budah, Jeff Herr (III) Directed By: Desmond Nakano Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 22, 2007 Running Time: 106 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 14, 2007
Description: Powerful story about the dramatic impact WWII had in the home-front as Japanese American families were uprooted from their every day lives and placed into internment camps in Western US in the early 1940's. Faced with a country that now doubted their loyalty and struggling with their new situation, they turn to baseball as a way to handle their plight and find the strength to stand up for themselves becoming a true symbol of honor and pride.
Amazon.com: American Pastime views a dark slice of American history--the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II--affectingly through the prism of the all-American game of baseball. The film shines the light of hope through some of the bleakest moments in the lives of the relocated families, as baseball becomes a way to cope with the unmanageable. The stars, especially Masatoshi Nakamura, Judy Ongg, and Leonardo Nam, give hushed, affecting performances, allowing the story almost to unfold around them. Gary Cole (The West Wing) plays a minor-league player and guard at the internment camp Topaz, and pursues his own hopes of a major-league career against the near-nightmarish backdrop. Baseball has often been used as a metaphor in American film, but almost never as affectingly as in American Pastime. The DVD's making-of featurette, "Go for Broke: Behind American Pastime," is in some ways even more moving than the film, since it features interviews with real survivors of the internment camps, including Topaz and Manzanar. Also interviewed are several Japanese American soldiers from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who courageously fought for America in World War II even as their family members and friends were detained in the camps. Cole says in the featurette, "America really wanted to sweep [the internment camps] under the rug"--but thanks to the film and the documentary, the real history can be illuminated. --A.T. Hurley
Propoganda and Moral Absolutes "American Pastime" could have been an excellent film, but it fails utterly in character development.
The white people are virtually always bigoted, ignorant, and arrogant.
The Japanese are virtually always friendly, resourceful, courageous despite their circumstances.
The writers were less interested in character development and much more interested in presenting a highly slanted and biased portrayal of the War's impact on the psyche of America. This is unfortunate because they had ample material to write an excellent story. Sadly, the film spirals into a highly cliched and predictable ending.
American PastTime It was really good stating what happen with the Japanese during WWII. I did not recall any bad language.
Enjoyable film for a time often skipped over "American Pastime" is a nice film about a period of America's history that most people would like to forget ever happened. The internment of US citizens of Japanese descent was one of the more embarrassing things that the US government has done to its own people and this film tries to capture some of those sentiments. The movie touches on a lot of themes that Japanese-Americans likely felt during this time period and as such, is a nice fictional representation of the era.
One of my complaints however is that I feel like the love story is extraneous and doesn't really help flesh the characters out. There are limited extras but the interviews with some of the people interned during the time period were very good to listen to.
reviewing dvd purchase This purchase was a Christmas gift for my son. He was very pleased to receive it. The product arrived in a timely manner in great condition.
Go for broke I found the movie very inspiration and appeal to the highest ideals of Christ: forgiveness, love, communicate that bridged culture chasms, courage against injustice, and inspiration to act. The movie highlights the dreary and dusty conditions of topaz and the sense of betrayal by the law and the court system. Go for broke signals the unified voice of the Japanese community to be great and through this courage gain the respect. The movie is about a forbidden love; a son who wants to prove loyalty; a son who died because of spite towards his father; a father who must forgive himself; a time of economic stabily; a localized environment of rural America with is dreams and disappointments; a respect between two parents of different race; 2500 dollars in quarters for the right to receive a haircut; a struggle to patch walls from dust; a mail order catalogue that improve quality of life; a fight; a kiss; and game won by a sincere question; a fence that separated lovers; a saxaphone and piano combination; two scholarships for a brigher hope, one a baseball pitching scholarship and another a music scholarship. I liked the message of love, community unity, endurance through adversity, and forgiveness found in this film.
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