When the documentary brings up the notorious tale of the swag bags Jeter gave out to one-night stands, he makes fun of the specific New York Post story and says it wasn’t true, but that isn’t the same as denying the details in the story. Note how the documentary mentions the names of exactly zero of Jeter’s tabloid-friendly former flames (and none appear). Listen to Jeter’s answers on subjects like his limitations on defense or when referring to certain former teammates. If Jeter doesn’t want to play ball, so to speak, and Jeter is the sole focus of your story, there isn’t much you can do when he gives answers so carefully worded that they become irrelevant, which he definitely does when it comes to A-Rod. The answer to that second question is Cashman and longtime frenemy Alex Rodriguez, whose diplomacy in discussing Jeter is matched only by Jeter’s obliqueness in discussing Rodriguez and Cashman.Ī-Rod is here a lot, because Wilkins isn’t bad at acknowledging the things you want a Derek Jeter documentary to acknowledge, which isn’t the same as digging deeply into those things. It’s fun to play the “Who’s missing and how much must that mean Derek Jeter hated them?” game, and nearly as fun to play the “Which talking heads is Derek Jeter extra-vague about?” game.
THA CAPTIN SERIES
The series doesn’t lack other voices from those teams, ranging from longtime manager Joe Torre and executive Brian Cashman to fellow standouts like Mariano Rivera, Tino Martinez, Andy Pettite and more, but they’re treated as accessories, with no personalities or backstories. It’s the story of Derek Jeter and his centrality to the Yankees dynasty. The Captain is not the story of the Yankees dynasty. While The Last Dance is Michael Jordan’s biography first and foremost, it’s simultaneously the story of the 1997-98 Bulls, including Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson.
The Last Dance director Jason Hehir also smartly realized that while Jordan is prone to clamming up at inopportune moments, if you treat the supporting pieces of a sports dynasty as comparably important, they can pick up story slack as required.
THA CAPTIN PROFESSIONAL
This is a bad comparison - both because Jordan’s supercilious ego is a more clearly delineated disposition than whatever Jeter is affecting at any moment, and because Jordan’s professional arc was marked by more narratively friendly obstacles, like his gambling addiction, his baseball career, the Pistons, and so on. Jeter comes across here, personality-wise, as Michael Jordan-lite, which is appropriate since Jordan is an occasional talking head in the documentary and because ESPN wants you to approach The Captain as a companion piece to The Last Dance. It’s a recipe for a plaque in Cooperstown, not for seven hours of entertainment. Jeter’s struggles in his first minor league season aren’t ignored, but what do you say about those struggles other than, “Yeah, he didn’t hit for a year and then … he did”? From there, Jeter mostly hit more often than he didn’t, was treated as a photogenic media God more often than he wasn’t and won championships more frequently than any other player of his generation. The challenges of growing up biracial in Kalamazoo obviously weren’t small but, other than serving as a multi-decade origin story for Jeter’s cautious public persona in the NYC fishbowl, it’s treated in nebulous generalities instead of specific anecdotes.
In this case, Jeter went from high-school star in Michigan to first-round draft pick to top minor league prospect to near-instant major league start to World Series champion to Hall of Famer, and the bumps in the road were either negligible or evaded. The Captain and The Arena are equally misguided when it comes to duration and failure to get their guarded heroes to engage with any real candor.ĭirector Randy Wilkins struggles to conquer the bland straight-line to greatness that was Jeter’s career (whether his post-Yankees career, including a failed tenure operating the Marlins, will be better depicted in later episodes is unclear).Īdversity isn’t necessary for good drama, but, man, it helps. So please don’t think my general antipathy toward The Captain is rooted in my personal fandom.
Note that this is an ongoing problem for the Worldwide Leader, which previously gave Tom Brady, similarly entrenched in his sport’s pantheon and similarly committed to an impenetrable public persona, a ridiculous 10 hours for The Arena.
THA CAPTIN MOVIE
Jonathan Majors, Spike Lee Reteam for Amazon Movie 'Da Understudy'
0 kommentar(er)
