Search - Baseball - Dem Bums: The History of the Brooklyn Dodgers on DVD

More To Treasure

J. H. Minde | Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York | 08/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"DEM BUMS is a moving documentary about the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, "the team of the ordinary man."

In their earliest years, the Dodgers were known as "The Brooklyn Bridegrooms," but "The Brooklyn Bridesmaids" would be more appropriate. Perennial winners of the National League Pennant, the Dodgers took ten trips to the World Series altar, but were kissed only once, in the mythic year, 1955, when the Boys of Summer of the Borough of Brooklyn conquered their dominant American League crosstown rivals and opponents, the New York Yankees. Still remembered "unto the third generation," this lone victory has achieved the status of legend.

The DVD is comprised of several thirty minute miniseries-type episodes. The first part recounts the history of the Dodgers from their earliest 1840s beginnings in Brooklyn up to their kidnapping (so it is referenced) to Los Angeles by Walter O'Malley in 1958. By default and by document, most of this history focuses on the Golden Era of New York Baseball (between 1947 and 1957, New York teams played in ten of eleven World Series competitions). Fuzzy, unrestored black and white film footage of the seemingly endless string of eleventh hour Dodger defeats is overlaid with commentary. Their 1955 victory crowns this history.

The remaining chapters focus on the biographies of key players such as Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, and Jackie Robinson, leavened with fellow-teammate interviews and archival footage.

Viewers of The Brooklyn Dodgers, An American Treasure will be surprised (and perhaps initially disappointed) to discover that DEM BUMS was not only created by the same production group but that it uses in large part the identical script. Be aware that this is not merely the same DVD in different packaging. David Hartman does NOT narrate this film, and the segments of DEM BUMS are greatly expanded beyond what the other DVD offers. Made in 2007, four years after DEM BUMS, AN AMERICAN TREASURE is in all regards the abridged version of the same documentary.

DEM BUMS not only discusses the Brooklyn Dodgers but goes beyond talking merely about The Boys of Summer. As an example, Gil Hodges' military service and awarding of the Bronze Star is discussed, as is his stewardship of the New York Mets, and how the former Brooklyn first baseman recreated the hapless Mets into world champions (and, not just incidentally, the true heirs of the Brooklyn Dodgers' legacy).

The Brooklyn Dodgers were not only beloved by the fans. They clearly loved each other (even when they didn't necessarily like each other). They were a spectacular group of athletes, possibly the best assemblage of baseball players in history. Still bitterly missed by their fans, the Brooklyn Dodger mystique has been passed down from Brooklynite to Brooklynite by seeming osmosis.

The Brooklyn Dodgers were a great team, nearly the best team never to have won a championship. Individual defeats and victories aside, the Dodgers (and Brooklyn) were far more crucial in American history and to American society than any other sports team, ever, because of their quintessentially American refusal to be defeated despite all odds, and by the simple expedient of being the first professional sports team to integrate.

The ability of a talented black man to play a game on the same team and the same field as a talented group of white men was absolutely revolutionary in 1947, and went far in changing America; this took place seven years before "Brown v. Board of Ed. and eight years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Jackie Robinson blazed a trail for equality among all races. And it happened in blue-collar, ethnically and racially-diverse, and innately tolerant Brooklyn, perhaps the only city in America where it could have happened in 1947.

DEM BUMS is a great and entertaining documentary, worthy of being watched over and over and over."

Great Item for a Die Hard Brooklyn Dodgers Fan

Big Boy Toys | Hudson Valley, NY | 05/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bought this for my dad who practically spent his youth at Ebbets Field. Added this to his collection of autographed baseballs, books, photos and even a brick from the old stadium. He LOVES this DVD and watches it over and over! Perfect for the true fan -- and plenty to watch!"