Baseball - A Film By Ken Burns
List Price:
Our Price: $143.99
You Save: $36.00 (20%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $90.99 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Arthur Ashe, Bud Abbott, Hank Aaron, Red Barber, Roger AngellBrand: Team Marketing
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount
Product features:
- Officially Licensed
- Highest Quality Recording
DVD Reviews of Baseball - A Film By Ken Burns
DVD Review: You're Safe At Home With This One
Summary: 5 Stars
This isn't just for those of us who had carefully rubbed our gloves with Kneatsfoot Oil, had sore throwing arms at the start of each Spring or noticed how the darkness came earlier near season's end, making the spheroid harder to see at the same time of day. "Baseball" by Ken Burns is about more than our childhood memories of the sound of katydids, the sun, longer days, and dreams we would all save the game from the batter's box, with two out in the bottom of the ninth, and the bases loaded. It is uniquely American tracing the game's greatest triumphs and most tragic disappointments that matched an ever evolving culture decade by decade, and season by season. For a boy like me who is still a boy when it comes to baseball and loves history, "Baseball" provides both with everything except the wonderful sting of the bat hitting the ball, or the leather glove that comes between the ball and your face. It's a combination of pitching a perfect game and hitting a grand slammer.
Burns goes back to the beginning of baseball time where he dispels the myth that the game was created by Major Abner Doubleday, and tells us how Walt Whitman extolled the joy of playing a game of bases. With background music in a slow tempo that often includes "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Burns shows us pictures of now old stadiums being built and great baseball players whose achievements and batting stances I knew by heart: "Hammerin Hank" Aaron, Duke Snyder, Ty Cobb, Harmon Killebrew, Ernie Banks, Al Kaline, Joltin' Joe Dimaggio, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Jackie Robinson, Roger Hornsby, Whitey Ford, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Christie Mathewson, Tris Speaker, Roy Campanella, Roberto Clemente, Juan Marishall, Willie Mays, my favorite Mickey Mantle, and the oddball who would run to the sound of fire engines every time he heard the local alarm go off. These were giants we revered (all except the last one). We would know these names better than the characters of Shakespeare or other famous figures of history or science.
We also learn about players we never heard of. The Philadelphia Phillies traded one to the (then) hapless New York Mets for a player to be named later. He was so bad that he was traded back to the Phils one month later, as the player named later. He became the only player in baseball history who was traded for himself. Then, there was that mug who chased fire engines.
The series focuses on three teams at the expense of others, the wonderful New York Yankees, the hated Boston Red Sox (who still look like convicts), and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The first one is the team that most Americans love to hate except this one. The second were the hapless Sox who hadn't won a single World Series in four score and six years which was well within this production. There were the Trolley Dodgers who proudly referred to their team and themselves as "the Bums," normally a gross insult in baseball. Each team saw their dynasties, their power players, their wins, and their disappointments. The Dodgers will never forget 1951, nor 1955, just as the people of Boston will still talk about the Series of 1976 and Carlton Fisk. The Yankees will remember Bill Mazerowski batting against them in Pittsburgh in 1960, but they will also remember Murderers Row, the Bronx Bombers, and the farewells of Gehrig, Ruth, and Mantle.
Interviews with relative unknowns brought my childhood memories back from the dugout of my preconscious to a time when I wondered why every adult male didn't own a baseball glove. I felt the same sickness they mentioned wondering, hoping, praying that the nun or teacher would let us out early so we could run home to catch some of the World Series. One interviewee, a former pitcher described how the players' rights allowed "everyone" to profit, the players as well as the owners, but that was not exactly true. Someone always has to lose, and it was the fans who paid, and have ever since which makes the family trip to the park on Sunday afternoon a virtual thing of the past.
"Baseball" is a classic that will be one of the finest stories of our national pastime. What makes this so worth buying is that you can take out any DVD and enjoy watching it again and again. It's even cheaper than going to a, well, baseball game.
You're safe at home with this one.
For my great grandfather, Joe "Ubbo" Hornung, major league baseball player, 1879-1890.
Opening Day, 2009: The average cost of a ticket at the new Yankee Stadium is $76.00. A hot dog costs $5.50.
DVD Review: Could Have Been Much More
Summary: 3 Stars
Charlie Rose interview with Ken Burns is included in the final disc of this series and Rose asks Burns:
"Why in this film have you focused so much on the centrality of race in the evolution of baseball?"
Burns answers :
"This is our central story, as a country".
I watched this series when it aired in 1994 and again when I bought it on VHS. I am watching it anew in 2009 after buying the DVD set.
I'm afraid baseball fans in decades to come will be repeating Charlie Rose's question to themselves. Given the resources available to Burns and crew, one is left to ponder why he spent so much valuable time of the documentary addressing the 'race' question, to the exclusion of a lot of wonderful baseball history which is just not here or is barely touched on.
For instance,the Miracle Braves of 1914 get just a passing remark. Not even a photo of Rabbit Maranville.
The exclusions are numerous...too numerous to catalog here.
What is sad is that now, in 2009, so many of the players who were ready willing and able to appear in interviews in 1994 are no longer on this mortal coil. Future baseball documentarians will mourn the loss of their voices to the exclusion of Burns' airing out his liberal white guilt at the rampant racism of past generations. I certainly share his views but I feel he could have done the sport of baseball and we fans a much greater service by devoting less time to assuaging white liberal guilt and more time to the lovely history available to him at that time. No other professional sport in America has such a vast well of history and lore to draw on. He largely bypassed this to give us his view of what was wrong with society in the years gone by.
Certainly the story of Jackie Robinson needed to be told and is done so magnificently, as is the tales of black players who followed him.
As a baseball fan I would expect a huge series like this to concentrate on the major leagues. Burns' film veers off to cover the Negro leagues exhaustively, which is a valuable niche history subject, but no more so than the minor leagues or Cuban baseball or other niche areas of baseball history...areas just barely mentioned herein, and rightly so.
I'm left with a sense of disappointment over what 'could have been' and I think future historians will view this series and wonder "Why the heck did he make a documentary about racism and call it 'Baseball'?"
With that said, it is a great series..better than just about any other thus far made. I hope someone will go back and fill in the gaps that Burns left out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the interview disc there is a truly wonderful interview of Bob Costas by Charlie Rose conducted Oct 22, 1998 at first base in Busch Stadium, St. Louis. This is right after Mark McGwire had hit 70 home runs.
Costas gushes on & on about how great McGwire is--in vast contrast to how he is now held in contempt. Rose asks Costas if McGwire's use of performance enhancing drugs makes any difference and Costas poo-poos it.
Costas tells Rose the 70 HR mark will last for years and years. It actually lasted 3.
In contrast, they then discuss the 1998 Yankees who had just swept the Padres and are now considered by many the best team ever to play the game. Costas feels the Yankees will have trouble getting near the World Series again. In fact they made it back in '99, 2000, 2001 and 2003. This interview alone is almost worth the price of the set.
Other interviews are with Yogi Berra, Bob Gibson, Rachel Robinson (widow of Jackie) and another with Costas the day after he eulogized Mickey Mantle. Great stuff!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm from the South, and down here we have a personality type: kindly, gentile, courtly, gentle old men who are called 'storytellers' by those who enjoy their stories and 'windbags' by those who tire of the endless tales packaged with an effort to charm the listener.
In his Civil War series Shelby Foote of Memphis serves this role, and is give more air time than any other talking head. In this Baseball series it's kindly old Buck O'Neil, who spent most of his life in the Negro leagues and then later as a major league scout.
I suppose Burns, being from the North, had not run across these types of 'storytellers' and was charmed by them--to the exclusion of other voices.
Personally, I would have preferred less O'Neil and more from former MLB players.
Years ago I had season tickets to a MLB team. These were behind the backstop and a frequent seatmate was Rube Walker who was a MLB scout. As a Brookyn Dodger, he was behind the plate when Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" in 1951.
Guys like that are no longer with us. I wish he had been interviewed--and more like him-----with less Buck O'Neil.
DVD Review: the perfect gift
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend recommended this set of DVDs for my dad for Christmas. He was an avid baseball player growing up and even played against Catfish Hunter in high school and then went on to play college ball with N.C. State. He currently coaches my youngest son's 13U baseball team, as he has my two older boys in the past. The series of DVDs was indeed the perfect gift for him, and for him to enjoy with my boys. They have spent Sunday afternoons since Christmas piled up on the bed watching the Ken Burns film. My boys are as interested in the history of baseball as they are today's players. Ken Burns presents the historical information in a way that only leaves them wanting to know more. I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in baseball, current and past. DVD Review: Especially Loved The 'Deadball Era' (Innings 2 & 3)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is, appropriately, a nine-part series on the history of baseball up to the 1990s, shown on PBS and done by Ken Burns. Since it's the latter, you know it's going to be Liberal-bias PC but you just put up that. Overall, it is well-done and a must for any baseball fan and historian. There are many interesting profiles of players and facts of each era. Every "inning," about an hour-and-a-half covering the sport decade-by-decade, has fascinating material.
I'll always be indebted to this series because it introduced me to, I think, the most interesting era in baseball history: the Deadball Era. Innings 2 and 3, in this set, were fantastic and covered that period. Since then, I have had many hours of great reading, learning about and enjoying the exploits of the great people who played from 1890-1919.
It would be interesting to see this `Baseball' set updated and revised to include the strike in the mid '90s, its aftermath with the home run record-breakers and subsequent steroid scandal and, yes, the Red Sox finally winning it all - twice!
DVD Review: A Keeper
Summary: 4 Stars
As a rabid Phillies fan, I find my mental energy sapped by the end of each season. Normally because the Phillies have blown it yet again; this year because of a maniacally dramatic finish culminating in a World Championship. In any case, November and December are a break for me, but around mid-January I begin contemplating the game, and in February I warm up to worrying about the impending season. So it was perfect that my husband ponied up to buy me the DVDs of Ken Burns' *Baseball.*
Ken Burns' groundbreaking documentary style is well-known and well-suited to the subject of baseball. He must have spent countless hours sifting through the sport's vast history and lore to come up with a thread that holds the story together through an entire 150-year history. I do agree that there is an East Coast focus, but the East Coast is where baseball was born, grew up, and came of age. I also think the racial angle is overplayed, but this is PBS, so you wouldn't expect them to be subtle about that. Fun things for everybody are trying to identify the actors that voice the characters, and hearing commentators from all walks of life tell what the game means to them.
So, unlike, say, Pat Burrell, the *Baseball* DVD set is well worth the money and will continue to bring enjoyment for years to come. I know that I will be watching it every late-winter as part of my pre-pre-season warmup till the discs fall apart. Thanks honey!!
Description of Baseball - A Film By Ken Burns
Ken Burns tops himself with this epic of American history, told in "nine innings," with a skilled narration by John Chancellor and the voices of Paul Newman, Jason Robards, Billy Crystal, and other stars. The series spans 150 years, starting with the myth-debunking tale of baseball's true beginnings -- when it was a game "one degree above mayhem." Then follow the growth of America's National Pastime through the decades of glory and record-setting achievements, as well as the scandals, the bigotry, and the big money. The series portrays the game as a mirror of America itself -- the passions, prejudices, and ambitions that have shape the country.General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Man on WireRelease date: 2008-12-09; DVD
Best price: $13.37
Price in other shops:
Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $17.59
Price in other shops:
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedRelease date: 2008-10-21; DVD
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth & The Blue Planet Seas of Life (Special Collector's Edition)Planet; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $52.97
Price in other shops:
The Beales of Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
A Haunting in ConnecticutRelease date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $25.20
Price in other shops:
ReligulousLions Gate; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
The BBC Natural History Collection featuring Planet Earth (Planet Earth/ The Blue Planet: Seas of Life Special Edition/ Life of Mammals/ Life of Birds)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $85.99
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $19.49
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Field of Dreams (Widescreen Two-Disc Anniversary Edition)Universal; Release date: 2004-06-08; DVD
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops:
Ken Burns - American Lives (Thomas Jefferson / Lewis & Clark / Frank Lloyd Wright / Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B Anthony / Mark Twain / Horatio's Drive / Unforgivable Blackness)Paramount; Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $69.95
Price in other shops:
Baseball - A Film by Ken BurnsRelease date: 2000-10-17; DVD
Best price: $149.99
Price in other shops:
Eight Men Out (20th Anniversary Edition)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $7.56
Price in other shops:
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of DiscoveryParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $15.25
Price in other shops:
Ken Burns Presents: The WestParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $36.84
Price in other shops:
When It Was a Game - Triple Play CollectionTeam Marketing; Release date: 2001-05-01; DVD
Best price: $23.20
Price in other shops:
Jazz : A Film By Ken BurnsPARAMOUNT PICTURES; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $71.99
Price in other shops:
The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn NovickParamount; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $38.99
Price in other shops:
The Civil War - A Film by Ken BurnsParamount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $33.81
Price in other shops: