For my second movie, I started already chipping away at my documentary limit, but it was worth it. For a while now, Jayne and I have been wanting to watch Catching Hell, about the Steve Bartman incident and scapegoating. We are both fans of the 30 for 30 series on ESPN. The first one we ever saw was the one about the death penalty on the SMU football program. It must be good because I have no interest in SMU football and Jayne certainly doesn’t.
So I figured if we’re going to spend a disc it would be on a movie that Jayne would watch too. I think Catching Hell did its job because Jayne seemed really into it. The movie did a great job of conveying the living nightmare Bartman must have gone through with the entire stadium chanting “Asshole” at him.
The story of Bartman is fascinating because he is someone who did not want to capitalize or respond to the situation. The stories of him turning down six figure amounts for card shows or $25,000 to sign a picture of himself are pretty amazing. I mean if I went through that crap I’d be tempted to harvest it some.
Like most decently done documentaries, the score is a cakewalk. It’s hard to strike out with me if you’re a documentary. The only strikeout for this movie was when it tried to reach a little further and make further scapegoat connections including a minister who gave some sort of sermon on Steve Bartman and scapegoating. I understand the stress a minister must have of coming up with a topic every week but her story seemed pretty fluffy and not really needed for the movie.
Catching Hell – 3 for 4, strikeout, two singles and a homerun
As you’re probably aware this scoring system is already pretty weak. I’ll just say this was a good movie. It made me feel for Bartman and made me want the Cubs to win a World Series for him but to never win a World Series for the rest of the fans. The homerun was definitely for the selection of the topic. It was a great choice to get the ESPN Films treatment.