Catching Hell (2011)
**** (out of 4)
Terrific documentary from ESPN about Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman, the man who would walk into Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS hoping to see history with the Cubs reaching the World Series but instead became history after interfering with a foul ball, which many fans fill caused their beloved team to lose the game, the series and a chance at breaking the "curse" on their team. Director Alex Gibney spends the majority of the time going over the Bartman play but he also starts the film off by flashing back to 1986 when another cursed team, the Boston Red Sox, lost their game 6 game when Bill Buckner let a ball go between his legs. As with the Cubs in 2003, the Red Sox would lose that game six and then lose the next game to lose the series. The documentary does a very good job at connecting the two men but it also asks the question on why both men were as hated considering there were other people to blame during both games and not to mention that both teams had a game 7 that they could have won. The documentary features interviews with Bob Costas, Steve Lyons who was calling the game for Fox, a Fox producer, several security guards working at the game and we also get interviews with many of the people who were at the game. Some of those at the game include people sitting right around Bartman and one idiot who would go down and confront Bartman and throw beer on him. CATCHING HELL is a terrific little documentary because it's not just for baseball fans because its story is almost like a Shakespeare play or some sort of Greek tragedy. The human side of the story of a man making one mistake and becoming the most hated person is quite a tall order. There's some footage of Bartman being led out of the stadium where all sorts of things are thrown at him and even to this day he hasn't really came out of hiding. I think it should be noted that the documentary reveals that the man has been offered at least two-hundred thousand dollars to tell his story but he refused to make a profit off of it. I think he speaks a lot more highly than most people in this story. With that said, it should come as no shock that Bartman is not interviewed here and that there would have been the only thing that could have improved the film. The argument is also made that the story will never go away until the Cubs win the World Series but others seem to think that Bartman could take some heat off of himself simply by talking. CATCHING HELL is a perfect documentary that fans of the sport should love but I think just about anyone will be able to feel for the characters of this play.
