The Greatest?

Jim Brown All American DVD

I have read some of the other reviews of this former HBO documentary from a few years back -- most of them take Spike Lee to task about not either not portraying the story of Jim Brown in a balanced way, as if it were too admiration-al ... and secondly, that it seemed to gloss over the darker history related to Jim Brown's life

Well, after finally seeing it, I have two impressions of it -- the portion about his athletic career really paints him in glowing terms -- and not having being alive for any of it, I can't evaluate it from my personal experience and memories

I do know that many consider him to be the best or at least in the Top 5 pro football players of all time -- I knew the small trivia that he probably was the best college lacrosse player of all-time -- I think that the movie handled these issues with glowing memories of the greatness of JB the athlete, and it was interesting to watch and see the testimonies

The place where the documentary starts walking that edge or thin line between the proposition of its own credibility is when it starts off in the portion of his life from the last years of his football career on into his movie career and career as an activist or community force

So is a documentary supposed to be truthful at any cost or does it have an agenda to carry out -- and if it has an agenda, does it bring aspects of its truthfulness into question -- I suppose that that has been the greatest question of the past few years with the popularity of Michael Moore's films

Aside from the takes of past reviewers, I thought that it handled the darker aspects of JB's life in a way that was minimal -- but effective in the context of the length of the overall movie -- it wasn't balanced, but sometimes I think that "balanced" with respect to certain touchy societal issues is in the eyes of the beholder

For example, if your mindset was that domestic violence is the worst thing, no matter the context of the situation or the facts of the story -- you would think Spike Lee is glossing -- I found that the two stories of domestic violence in the movie were very different in portrayal -- the recent events with his young wife was almost a recorded retraction, it seemed very put on and fake

The story of Eva Bon-Chin (sp?) is done Rashomon style which I thought was not particularly effective for me as a viewer, but the use of the technique by the director was to me an interesting choice because not because it makes the situation ambiguous, but because it makes you personally evaluate who is telling the truth

In terms of an agenda, it is quite clear that there is an agenda relating to being positive about the efforts of JB towards his community -- certain athletes in the 60s to form economic unions, to support Muhammad Ali in his conscientious objector status, his efforts to promote economic and community self-determination, his efforts to reclaim gang members in South Central

Personally, I didn't find anything wrong with this agenda -- I think that it just helps to round out the picture of JB -- even if on another level, it is showing certain things and issues of the African American community in general -- I think the overall message of the movie seems to be that being a member of that community is political, it has social ramifications, it has many other societal implications -- and here is JB who in his life has touched upon many of the aspects, and in many ways is not perfect