In the wake of September 11, 2001, all Americans,
and New Yorkers in particular, were uncertain about how to proceed
with their daily lives. The game of baseball provided a welcome
relief and helped galvanize the country that found itself rooting
for the New York Yankees, who had come to symbolize the City of
New York, in one of the most dramatic and eventful World Series
championships ever.
CRITIQUE
As propaganda
films go, one could do much better than Nine Innings From Ground
Zero. For whom was this documentary made, anyway? There is too
much baseball here to get any real insight into the families, but
there is too much about the families to get into any real
behind-the-scenes sports drama. In the middle of it all, Nine
Innings also attempts to celebrate how great it is that we
were able to collect ourselves after 9/11 and find some normalcy. At
barely an hour long, maybe this film just did not have the running
time to find itself. In any case, the film is a jumbled mess that
just is not that interesting.
There are
some incredibly odd moments in this film. One of the fire chiefs
talks about how, while consoling one of the widows, he got a call from
Derek Jeter, and he was totally starstruck. A moment like that
would be funny if it wasn’t true. Then we have George W. Bush, who
threw out the first pitch at one of the games. Dubya, in a moment of
high drama, was actually going to throw his pitch from the mound, as
opposed to those other pansies that have to move in a few feet. The
President of the United States actually says, “I didn’t want people
thinking their President couldn’t find the plate.” Somehow I think
that was the least of their concerns. And what an interesting look at
Bush’s priorities. He didn’t seem to care what people thought when he
was nowhere to be found on 9/11, but throwing a pitch with some zip on
it was important.
Moments like
that are a real shame considering how truly tragic some of the stories
are. There is the daughter who had tickets to a rained-out September
10th game with her father, a fire captain who died the next day.
There is the newspaper columnist whose brother was killed in the
Pentagon attack, who has to excuse himself during every seventh inning
stretch to avoid becoming overcome by emotion. For every heart
wrenching story, there is one that seems like it was written by a hack
soap opera writer, like the guy who had tickets to the series, but
wasn’t sure he should leave his wife’s bedside until she awoke from
her coma and mouthed the words, “go, go.”
Nine
Innings From Ground Zero
is all surface and propaganda, so much so that it is difficult to
really feel for the people in the film. The filmmakers also make the
mistake of trying to create an aura of suspense around the outcome of
the World Series, as if we don’t already know. The film is such a
mess that it is hard to determine just exactly what they were trying
to accomplish or what we have here. Not that it matters. There is so
little to get from this film that it is not worth figuring out.
THE VIDEO
Nine
Innings From Ground Zero is presented in the original
fullscreen format. Much of the film is taken from newscasts and video
footage shot in New York at the time, and the overall picture quality
is as good as it can be. The color levels are good, and the image is
free of any serious defects.
THE AUDIO
This is DVD
offers English and Spanish language tracks, both in Dolby Digital
2.0. The sound quality is average; there is nothing bad about it, but
there is also nothing that stands out. The roar of the baseball
crowds is usually drowned out by voice over.
THE EXTRAS
Zilch. There
is not a single piece of bonus material on this disc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Nine Innings From Ground Zero
captures a moment that, while it should not be forgotten, no one is
particularly nostalgic about. The documentary is not terribly
interesting, and added to the fact that this DVD contains nothing in
the way of bonus material, the appeal here seems incredibly narrow
outside of New Yorkers and Yankee fans, but even that feels like a
stretch.
