Cynical Cinema

Hustle is a 2004 movie from ESPN and Alliance Films, all about the troubled life of Pete Rose. It comes out on DVD today, July 22nd, and it begins after his retirement as a baseball player, in 1987 when he was the manager of the Cincinnatti Reds. I assume we all know the Pete Rose story, but here it is in a nutshell anyway: Rose is still the all-time hits leader in baseball history, a man who knew nothing but baseball. In 1988 he was banned for life from baseball by commissioner Bart Giamatti for gambling. As the manager of the Reds, he was betting on baseball, (including some bets on his own team). Tom Sizemore plays Rose, and one can only imagine he brings many of his personal demons to the role. And I found his performance alternately brilliant and irritating. At times, he really seems to embody Rose as he was at his most charming and reckless (he really does look like him), and at other times, I couldn’t shake the image of John Turturro. Somehow, he really reminded me of John Turturro. But that’s likely my own problem. The movie opens with Springsteen singing Glory Days, which is a promising beginning.

Hustle is directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the man behind such classics as The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon. Bogdanovich shows a sure hand here, but he isn’t given much to work with. I have always felt that the way Rose played the game was an incredibly important part of his story. That on the field, he had no off switch, and that made him an all-time great. But off the field, that lack of an off switch made him something of a menace, to himself and others. The moment when, in the 1970 all-star game, he ran over Ray Fosse, a catcher for the Cleveland Indians, separating his shoulder. Fosse was never really the same after that.

And at the time, this moment became famous in baseball. Look how much Pete Rose wants to win! Even in a meaningless All-Star game he’s willing to get dirty! Well…OK. But suppose, for a moment, that Scott Stevens had laid out say, Ron Francis at centre ice during an NHL All-Star contest, ruining his career. Would anyone celebrate this? Or would they call him a maniac? No one throws at batters in an All-Star game. No one slides hard into second or runs over a catcher. It’s a meaningless exhibition. This was perhaps more an indication of a sociopathic personality than it was an example of hard-nosed baseball.

And the Fosse incident is dealt with in Hustle, early on in a throw-away moment. “Oh, isn’t that Ray Fosse? He was never the same, eh?” And that’s it. So although the details of the Pete Rose baseball playing career are glossed over, his gambling habits are put under a microscope. The whole movie deals with just two years - from 1987 when Rose met Paul Janszen, the man who would become his assistant and later bring him down. And really, Paul is the star of the movie, as he goes from wide-eyed hero-worshipper to a disillusioned, badly used former friend of Rose who turns him in partly because he has no choice, and partly because he has been victimized by the man.

And that’s fine, Paul is played quite well by Dash Mihok, but this really is a movie about Pete Rose, right? Well, why not spend the time learning about Rose and how he got to be the way he is, instead of focusing on the other guy? Why not start during his playing career, at least a bit? Rose comes off at first as a guy who just wants everyone to like him, but slowly it becomes clear that he is just using these people who consider him their friend. And that’s all we really learn about him throughout the whole film. Which makes the whole picture feel very long.

The baseball scenes are few and far between, and really don’t look realistic at all. The supporting cast is decent, but Melissa DiMarco as Rose’s wife Carol doesn’t really seem to know how she feels about her husband at all. Sarain Boylan, as Paul’s wife, is pretty easily placated. And the people playing Marge Schott and Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent all look quite a lot like the people they are playing, but that is where this story really is. In the back rooms of baseball. And these characters are terribly underused. This movie is really not good enough for the story it tells.

But wait! There is a reason to pick up this DVD! It is the special features. Bart Giamatti’s press conference in 1988, where he banned Pete Rose from baseball for life, has an eerie ring in the context of baseball today. His line “the integrity of the game of baseball must be defended by a process which, itself, lives up to the same standards of integrity” (I paraphrase because I can’t remember it word-for-word) is really striking when looked at through the lens of the steroid scandal. The interviews with Rose are incredible to watch as well - the Primetime interview where he finally admits to betting on baseball in 2004. A Sportscentury interview with John Dowd. There is even an interview with Paul Janszen on ESPN. But what’s saddest about these special features is that they give more of a window into Pete Rose than does the movie. The movie is a miss, but the special features are magnificent.

My memory is spotty when it comes to the first incarnation of Degrassi. Oh, I remember that Joey Jeremiah character with his funny hat, and Snake and Wheels and the hot chicks - Spike and Caitlin. And I remember I hated watching that show. Not so much because I didn’t like it, but because every single show dealt with a controversial subject and high school-age children. And after the show was over, my mom would try to get me to talk about it. “What do you think about abortion?” she would say. And I would squirm and fidget and try to escape to my room. I don’t know! I’m ten years old. I have no opinion on abortion yet. I liked the character in the show who had one, so I’m…pro-abortion? Can I go now?

Degrassi: The Next Generation, Season 6, is out on DVD May 27th from Alliance Films. And I just watched it. My recollection of the original being suspect as it is, I have no idea how this new one measures up. And perhaps my hindsight is from the perspective of a ten-year-old, and that is colouring my opinions some, but this new version of Degrassi seems watered down. And it seems more…Hollywood, I guess. For one thing, this new Degrassi stars way more hot chicks. WAY more. I think I liked the realism of the old show, in that not every girl was a knockout. It was more…real. And the one I remember, Caitlin, was just the really-hot chick in comparison. Like, a real high school.

And sure, this new Degrassi deals with the same stuff as the old one, only a little updated for today’s world. Season Six has episodes that deal with wars over girls, crippled guys trying to have sex, homosexuality, lesbianism, virginity, teen mothers, and - the modern twist - internet nudity. There is even a stabbing and a murder! But somehow this modernized version of Degrassi feels dumbed-down. Most of the actors are good, with a few exceptions, and the writing seems to be as good as ever. And so I can’t quite put my finger on what makes this new Next Generation show miss the mark. I think, and I really mean this, that it is the attractive women. Not only do most of them look too old for high school, but they also look like they come from Central Model Casting. And that gives an air of fakery to the school itself. The old Degrassi students looked like they came from, well, high school. As far as I remember.

That being said, once I put in disc one of Degrassi: The Next Generation Season Six, I had to see the second disc. And the third. I actually got into the show and wanted to see what happened next. I hardly cared about any of the characters, or their motivations or their drama, but the story lines are good and they’ll suck you in! Degrassi! Who would have thought? And I also liked the appearance of Snake from the original series, whose name in this series is … Snake. He’s now a teacher at Degrassi. Named Snake. Well, props to the old school, I suppose. A tip of the hat to that show that once rocked the world, in this one that merely rocked one Thursday afternoon for me.