THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

For years I have been curious to learn more about Moe Berg. There have been books about Berg, who was a sort of Renaissance man on his own. He picked up foreign languages incredibly fast. He became a catcher for several Major League Baseball teams. Oddly, this led him to being a spy for the OSS. Later he studied the effects of nuclear weapons on civilians. THE SPY BEHIND HOME PLATE tells the story of Moe Berg. There are two kinds of goal for a documentary. A documentary can deliver a payload of information the audience did not know. In this case it need not have a great poetic beauty. It is a message container. On the other hand it can have a lyric beauty, in which case it may not tell any great information. This film uses a very traditional format of film footage and talking heads. But the story of Moe Berg is incredible It is amazing what Berg did, and it makes for an amazing story. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4).

					Mark R. Leeper
					Copyright 2020 Mark R. Leeper