Mantle (2005)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This HBO documentary quickly covers the life and career of New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. Through archival footage we see his rise through the ranks of one of the greatest baseball players in history and then his after career, which included several bad times due to his heavy drinking. At just 60-minutes this documentary is way too short to really dig into who Mantle was but I think for the most part it's a highly entertaining and touching look at the legend. If parents want to introduce their kids to who Mantle was then this here is going to work perfectly because it quickly gets to the highlights of his baseball career, the star he became but it also ends with a pretty strong message about the way Mantle abused his body. Some of the most interesting aspects were the baseball footage, which was great because one can see Mantle playing. The footage was in pretty good shape and we also got a lot of other footage including commercials that Mantle did as well as various other forms of advertisements. Mantle's wife, sons, friends and former teammates are all interviewed about the man and we also get sports writers like Skip Bayless and Bob Costas as well as fans like Ed Harris and Billy Crystal. MANTLE isn't what I'd call a definitive documentary but it contains plenty of great stuff and is certainly worth watching.