This film is about the life of baseball player Roy Campanella following his car accident that left him paralyzed back in 1958. Up until that point, he'd been a major star--having been the league's MVP and all-star many times. Apparently, the film is based on a book written by Campanella about how he and his family dealt with the disability. Interestingly, this made for TV film was directed by Michael Landon and stars Paul Winfield as Campanella.
So is it worth seeing? Yes. I liked how the film was NOT simply a schmaltzy inspirational story--a story that would have seemed very fake. Instead, Campanella, for a while, wallows in self-pity. Additionally, instead of bringing his family together, it just brought out the problems that were there and magnified them. All in all, a very good film and one that is apparently in the public domain, as it's available at archive.org--a website frequently linked to IMDb. My only quibbles are that of a history teacher, as some of the fashions and hairstyles are not true to the period--but, aside from nuts like me, most folks won't notice or care.
So is it worth seeing? Yes. I liked how the film was NOT simply a schmaltzy inspirational story--a story that would have seemed very fake. Instead, Campanella, for a while, wallows in self-pity. Additionally, instead of bringing his family together, it just brought out the problems that were there and magnified them. All in all, a very good film and one that is apparently in the public domain, as it's available at archive.org--a website frequently linked to IMDb. My only quibbles are that of a history teacher, as some of the fashions and hairstyles are not true to the period--but, aside from nuts like me, most folks won't notice or care.