Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, The

Documentarian Aviva Kempner follows the career of baseball star Hank Greenberg, who played first base for the Detroit Tigers through much of the 1930s and then, after military service in World War II, came back to play again, leading the Tigers to three pennants and two World Series championships. Kempner emphasizes Greenberg’s stature as the first great Jewish ball player and an epicenter for both the dreams of Jewish kids and the virulent anti-Semitism of Detroit during the Depression, when Henry Ford and Father Coughlin were both holding forth about the International Jewish Conspiracy. Kempner, like Greenberg (who died in 1986), emphasizes the positive moments in his career, and the film is loose-limbed and ingratiating—much like Greenberg himself, who appears in interviews throughout his career.