Video/DVD Reviews -
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings: Navigation

• CSM Reviews <--
• Adult Reviews
• Kid Reviews

Common Sense Note

Tired of being abused by miserly owners, a talented team of black ballplayers sets out on a wild tour of 1930s America, staging games and entertaining crowds. One of the most overlooked movies of the 70s, it has great baseball sequences and a festive attitude. But it is less than admirable in the way it treats women, who are portrayed as objects of sexual conquest. Older kids will be entertained, but parents should determine if the material is appropriate for their child, given the sex, drinking and mature themes involved. Teens will like the players' antics and find the historical content interesting.

Families who watch this film may want to use is to discuss how the treatment of disempowered people has changed since the 1930s -- women and people of color -- and how it's still the same. Are women and African-Americans treated as equals now? Why or why not?

Rate It!

Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Randy White

Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) puts together a motley team of ballplayers, including Leon (James Earl Jones), the best hitter in the Negro National League. The players, called the All-Stars, break from the league, undertaking a high-spirited tour of rural America. When the Negro National League shuts them out, they challenge white teams and rely on humor to weather the tense race relations of the 30s.

The All-Stars' diverting brand of baseball entertains crowds but infuriates League owners. Fed up, the owners rough up a player. The medical costs bankrupt the team. Bingo agrees to a showdown between the All-Stars and a select group from the Negro National League. Despite the bosses' best effort to fix the game, the All-Stars pull out a thrilling win. One of Bingo's players even gets invited to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers, signaling the end of the Negro National League.

More than just great baseball players, the Bingo Long All-Stars are entertainers who criss-cross the country playing a riotous style of baseball. They start their on-field antics with Bingo Long's "invite" pitch. At the top of each game, Bingo throws the first pitch with his entire team standing on the third base line, daring the batter to take a swing and hit it into an empty field. Crowds love it!

Billy Dee Williams (Brian's Song) is particularly good as a showman with the heart of a unionist. He believes workers should seize the means of production and share profits. James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams) is also rock-solid acting as the group's moral conscience, and Richard Pryor is hilarious as a black man masquerading as a "Cuban" (later a Native American) so he can make it into the white leagues -- and with white women.

Of course, a story about the Negro National League must confront the issue of race. The movie uses a light touch. For example, there are vast differences in the pre-game festivities of a black crowd and the more formal good-time efforts of the white folks.

The movie also captures the changing face of baseball. Bingo knows that the Negro National League --and his career in baseball -- is coming to an end. Though change is bittersweet, Bingo and Leon manage to find humor in it. Older kids wanting to learn more about the integration of baseball should see The Jackie Robinson Story, a biography of the first black player in the major leagues.

Rate It!

Content
		CS	adults	kids
Sexual Content Several of the ballplayers are seen in bed with women, but little is actually shown.
Violence Minor fistfights. A player is slashed with a razor blade off-screen.
Language Moderate, including "god."
Message
	Social Behavior A good account of segregation and racial animosity in the late thirties. Loyalty is portrayed as a noble ideal. The sexual proclivities of the players are depicted with a "boys will be boys" attitude. One player hires a prostitute. Though the movie handles race issues responsibly, parents should be aware that strong racial epithets are used, often by the black players themselves.
	Commercialism
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco The players smoke, drink, and carouse.

Rate It Now

OR