Negro League Baseball Discussion Forum: General Discussion About The Negro Leagues: Soul of the game
By Brent Kelley (Tomturner) on Saturday, July 17, 1999 – 06:55 am:
This is a very well-written, well-acted, well-produced, and entertaining video, but it just plain didn't happen. I think those who have interest in the Negro leagues know that, but the vast majority of viewers do not. The casual baseball fan, or even those not so casual, have heard of Satch and Josh, but no one else. They think of Negro league baseball as thhse 2 guys standing out there on the field, one throwing and one hitting. After viewing this video, they now know that Jackie was out there, too. What about the thousands of other men (and women) who made up the Negro leagues? Ignoring them is bad enough, but ignoring them in an untrue fictionalization of the sport does a lot of harm.
Soul of the Game tells little more of black vaseball than does Star Wars.
By Forum Administrator (Admin) on Saturday, July 17, 1999 – 09:54 am:
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. Soul of the Game does not purport to be a factual documentary chronicling the history of Negro League baseball. The goal of the film is to acquaint the viewer with the fact that there were professional black baseball players before Jackie Robinson appeared in a Dodger uniform and, to some extent, capture the color and flavor of the Negro Leagues.
Moviemakers have approximately 90 minutes in which to tell their story. Unless the story they are telling relates to an event which spanned only 90 minutes of time, it is necessary that they condense, aggregate and form composites of events. That is what the filmmaker did, and rather well, with Soul of the Game.
Any viewer of the film (regardless of the viewer's level of knowledge with respect to the Negro Leagues) would come away from the experience realzing that:
- There were professional, black baseball teams prior to the integration of baseball;
- Those teams operated within established, professional leagues;
- The players on those teams were unfairly denied an opportunity to exhibit their talents in the major leagues;
- Jackie Robinson was neither the only black player possessed of major league talent, nor necessarily the most talented player in the Negro Leagues at the time he was signed by the Dodger organization.
Certainly, as you say, the film does not personally acquaint us with "…the thousands of other men (and women) who made up the Negro leagues." On the other hand, Saving Private Ryan does not acquaint us with every soldier who served in World War II. It does, however, effectively communicate the central theme of the film…the horrors of war.
There seems always to be a tendency among those who are very knowledgeable about a subject to criticise books and films directed at general audiences. Those of us who feel that the story of Negro League baseball should be brought to the general public must realize that only a minute percentage of the general public has any interest in acquiring an in-depth knowledge of anything. The television viewing public, on the whole, simply wants to be entertained. (When was the last time that an academic text book appeared on the Times Best Seller List?) If a filmmaker hopes to educate the viewer on any topic, the message must be presented in a highly condensed and entertaining form.
By Brent Kelley (Tomturner) on Monday, July 19, 1999 – 07:00 am:
You make excellent points, but I still feel that a truer story could have been told. I did not care for Bingo Long's Traveling All-Stars (or whatever it was called), but I think it showed more of what went on than Soul does. It would have been simple to make Soul more factual and still entertain, and I do agree: It was entetaining. And very well cast, although I feel they could have done better with Jackie.
By Taylor Hallman (Hallmant) on Friday, September 24, 1999 – 11:44 am:
I agree with the forum administraror, especially about the tendency of speciallist in a field to be overly critical and to expect a work of fiction to approximate their experience. I have this issue with many of my fellow Vietnam veterans, who can not grasp the concepts of fiction and metaphor in films about Vietnam.
My partner and I are current working on a stage play set in a fictionalized NLB team. I have just posted an author's query for assistance with some research. Of course, I expect to field a lot of questions regarding the play's treatment of the Negro League. However, I hope that all here in this discussion will be helpful and interested.
I am collaborating with Ivan Comer, another writer. We have a producer, Tom Ferriter of StagePlays Theatre Company in NYC, who has been very encouraging. He is offering us a development contract.
Later,
Taylor
[email protected]
By Brent Kelley (Tomturner) on Saturday, September 25, 1999 – 07:28 am:
I hope your play is a smashing success, but please do not include things that just plain did not happen. That is my complaint about The Soul of the Game video. People who do not know the subject see it and believe it. There are many things that did happen that are just as good or better than the blatant fictionalized stuff. Why not use that? If a work of fiction is the goal, don't use real people as the main characters.
By J. Swift (Jswift) on Saturday, September 25, 1999 – 01:52 pm:
It is a little difficult to create a stage play without including "things that just plain did not happen." This would be even more true of a stage production than a movie. The presentation of a stage play restricts the producer to those activities which can actually be carried out on stage.
So, any game action would be out of the question — you couldn't be slapping baseballs around the stage in a theater. Anything that happened while traveling around on the team bus or in automobiles would be difficult to pull off on stage. And, dialogue? There isn't much of a record of private dialogue from which to draw, and most of the principal characters in any "true story" about the Negro Leagues have been dead for quite some time, making it difficult to interview them.
So, what's left to the playwright? I guess the lead actor could stand on stage and read old box scores, but that wouldn't make for such an interesting theater experience.
Many years ago the television industry created what it calls the "docudrama." This genre weaves fiction and fact together to present the subject matter in composite. Many of the individual "facts" may, in fact, not be facts at all. Yet, the production conveys a truth about the subject matter that could not be conveyed by a mere recitation of carefully selected, isolated facts.
If docudrama writers (and playwrights) did not create fictional dialogue and situations for historical figures, the great majority of their works would be very short, silent productions.
By Taylor Hallman (Hallmant) on Saturday, September 25, 1999 – 04:21 pm:
A response from the author:
Perhaps I should state a few things about this play for clarification.
The play was inspired by Ken Burns documentary "Baseball," which in part covered Jackie Robinson and the Negro League. After watching that part of the documentary, I asked myself, "What must it have been like to have been on a Negro League team on the day that Jackie played in 1947? What were their hope, fears and dreams? What was thier response to Jackie playing in the 'Big Leagues.'" From there my collaborator and I set out to write about a fictionalized team, "The New Jersey Storm". We decided on a fictionalize team so that we didn't have to deal with the many and complex issues involved in documenting something such as the Negro League. No real individuals are represented on stage. And only a few real individuals are mentioned. Jackie Robinson, of course, Veck and Rickey.
The play is called "Thunder and Lightning." It is intended to represent the spirit of the Negro League, the social climate at the time and to honor those involved in the League. It shows how far the nation has come and how far we need to go. You see, a drama is about people,
not events. The theatre is about human emotions, conflict and dreams, not history. Yet the drama can illuminate our past, without being a documentary peice.
We developed characters first. Among them two players that are major league prospects; one a rookie, "Lightning," the other a seasoned player,
"Thunder". Apparently only one player from the team is going to be signed by the scout, providing conflict and drama. Other characters include a player-manager, the owner, a major league scout, a reporter, girlfriends and lovers. A former Negro League pitcher, now a blind news vender in front of the stadium acts as a "Greek Chorus" providing narrative and insights.
The play is in three sections:
1. Outside the stadium prior to the game
2. The dugout and locker room during the game
There is also a scene in the manager's apartment.
When the focus is on the dugout, the game is being played "Off Stage." Players can be seen in the on-deck circle and running on and off the field. An announcer/radio broadcaster does play by play. There are sound effects also. While the acting and staging this might present a few problems, they are, my producer assures me, not insurmountable.
2. Outside the stadium after the game
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!
Taylor