FINDING BUCK McHENRY (2000) **1/2 In a baseball film, for a baseball fan, everything is secondary to...baseball. It's not about drama, or acting, or scripts, it's about whether or not, to what extent, the film manages to touch upon that special area of the soul where the game has claimed domain. This cannot be explained to normal people, and it's their loss. So it makes little difference whether some of the acting is fairly bad, even by the relaxed standards of American television. What matters is that the scenes depicted are real: kids riding up to the field on their bikes, wise old men trying to explain the fundamentals to young hotshots, the hotshots talking back with insights gained from the back of a baseball card. It touches the baseball spot, it wins! There is a bit of plot, anyway, several uncompromised observations about racism, and a more intricate mystery than much of what is passed on for the contemplation of the pondering armchair set. Fine performances, too-Ossie Davis is powerful as the center of the mystery, and how can (real life wife, too) Ruby Dee still be such an unrecognized talent?! The lady oozes soul and wisdom, feminine powers that are probably even more mysterious than baseball, and an understanding that transcends human endowments. But, for baseball fans, the real spinal shivers are going to be when Ernie Banks appears on screen-Mr. Cub, Amen. The Negro League references are also tremendous-it's impossible to know too much about Satchel Paige, and Ossie even threw in a tall tale about "Cool Papa" Bell that I hadn't heard before. And the final question, from the kid in the back who doesn't get it: Is Buck McHenry real? He is, my son, whether he ever existed or not.
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