American Pastime
by Desmond Nakano
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Big Budah, Jeff Herr (III), Jeff Olson, Jon Gries, Sami RoeDirector: Desmond Nakano
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of American Pastime
Movie Review: Propoganda and Moral Absolutes
Summary: 2 Stars
"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.
Summary of American Pastime
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. HurleyPowerful 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.Running Time: 107 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 085391156321 Manufacturer No: 115632
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