Thursday, January 12, 2012

Hello. For six years this was the blog known as This Side of Sunday (see a best-of archive in the menu bar). Although I'll likely be back here again, at present the bulk of my blogging takes place with a group over at Out of Bounds: Theology in the Far Country. I'd love to chat with you there. Please feel free to browse my curriculum vitae (detailed resume) and get in touch with me either in the comments or  at coutts dot jon at gmail dot com if you have any interests or questions. Thanks!

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Catching Hell - 10/10

Back when I used to keep up the blog I also kept up a sidebar where I ranked every movie I saw on a scale of 1-10. Because I'm a list guy and I'll probably come back to blogging one day I'm still keeping this list active (though hidden for the time being). Anyway, all that to say I've done something relatively rare, and seen a film I'd call a 10. It is the ESPN Films documentary Catching Hell, and you can see it here.



It is the story of Steve Bartman, a long-time fan who innocently reached for a foul ball at a Chicago Cubs playoff game and ended up being the scapegoat for their disastrous collapse. Along with it we get the story of Bill Buckner, who missed a routine grounder for the Red Sox and likewise took the blame for their World Series loss. In there you get a whole lot of humanity and as I watched it with my sons we were literally on the edges of our seats. My eldest had his mouth dropped open and even walked out of the room at one point because he couldn't bear to see what would happen. When it came around to talk about scapegoating and then showed Buckner's pseudo-redemption it occasioned a brief chat with my sons that I don't think I'll soon forget (even if they do). I realize that my subjectivity comes in to play because I'm a sports fan and I like a good real-life documentary, but I still think this is one that everyone will appreciate. For me it is a 10/10, and easily the best film I've seen in awhile.

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