Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Not Rated, 102 minutes.
Director: Bradley Jackson
Featuring: Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose, George Brett, Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Cal Ripkin, Jr., Ruth Ryan, John McClain, and George W. Bush
Baseball is a slow man’s game.
It is fun to play, but it’s difficult to watch. Why? Because it’s so slow. It’s a game of anticipation – where the crack of a bat or leather catching a ball can spell the difference between winning or losing.
What is indefensible of being slow is the fastball. It has to be fast. That’s why they call it a fastball. It is a magnificent sight to see pitchers rack up strike-outs as if they were taking aim at a shooting gallery.
Nobody did it better than Nolan Ryan.
FACING RYAN is his story. From his humble beginnings in Alvin, TX, to his maturation into becoming one of the most feared pitchers to step onto a baseball mound, Bradley Jackson’s documentary plays like a campfire tale of a father telling his son about the legend of “Big Tex.”
Nolan Ryan was baseball’s Paul Bunyan. Only he wasn’t a folk hero; he was the real deal. For 27 years, Ryan’s career spanned seven different U.S. presidents. With the speed of his fastball and the amount of time spent on the mound, he is definitely deserving of his other moniker, the “Ryan Express.” If you don’t include pitchers, Ryan retired 47 future hall of famers at least once in their careers. Among the strike-out casualties: Hank Aaron, Willie Mayes, Pete Rose, Ricky Henderson, Cal Ripken Jr., and Ken Griffey Jr.
Generally amiable and with a heart as big as his home state, Nolan Ryan seems rather bland compared to other sports documentaries about players who squandered their talent or let their bad decisions get the better. But Jackson’s documentary is neither a cautionary tale nor a reclamation project to shine the pine tar off Ryan’s baseball cleats. Nolan Ryan was one of the league’s good guys, even if he threw pitches tight and inside, on occasion, to rattle opposing batters.
The biggest disputes were had off-field during contract negotiations which, at one point, gave Ryan the distinction of being the first player in professional sports to have a contract valued at one million dollars. (Comparatively, close to twenty years after Ryan’s retirement, New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole would sign a nine-year guaranteed contract worth $324,000,000.)
The only other controversy would be his infamous fight with Chicago White Sox’ Robin Ventura. It’s an episode etched in Texas baseball lore, according to former President George W. Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. The notorious scene has Ryan standing his ground, pummeling a mild-charging Ventura in the head with his fists while wrenching him into a chokehold as if he was taking part in a calf scramble. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the images taken of the incident could buy a round of drinks for an entire sports bar.
About pictures telling stories, if there’s something to nitpick about FACING NOLAN, it’s having a narrator’s voice pop up now and again to bridge scenes. The beginning starts like a baseball game. Slow to move. Then, Jackson gets flashy with some dramatic re-creations of a youthful Ryan on the mound and includes narration when archive visuals and audio can’t fill the gap.
Of the newly recorded material, the best bits are with Nolan and his high school sweetheart Ruth and anything involving the Astros baseball team (because I’m a Houston native). Ryan isn’t the most animated speaker, so Jackson makes sure to include a lot of heavy hitters to bolster his subject (not that he needs any bolstering). Beyond the Ryan family, we have sports journalists, former teammates, coaches, and adversaries talking about the intimidating Big Tex. From early pitching control issues and eclipsing his idol Sammy Koufax’s no-hitter record in a few years, FACING NOLAN throws out plenty of statistics and incredible records to make you reconsider if Ryan is from this planet.
In an age where people are quick to use the GOAT phrase when it comes to athletes and just who is the Greatest Of All Time, Nolan Ryan doesn’t need anyone to throw his name out as a GOAT. With more than 5,700 strike-outs, he did it himself.
Grade: B
