Well Deserved Praise

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"Baseball, Dennis, and the French"document's Paul Crowshaw's conversion from a liberal atheist to a conservative Christian. The movie does a wonderful job of laying out Mr. Crowshaw's background and how his finding Dennis Prager on the radio dramatically shifted the course of Crowshaw's life. BD&tF does not call liberals and atheists names, but rather simply lays out the reasoning as to why Crowshaw converted. This movie is fair, at times funny, and certainly thought provoking. I would recommend this flick to anyone and everyone. If you are liberal, this movie will certainly force you out of your comfort zone, and more than likely, it will bring up arguments that you have never heard. If you are conservative, BD&tF will reinforce your beliefs but will also give some great debate fodder.

Paul Croshaw's independent film, "Baseball, Dennis & The French," certainly must be judged as the best political biography to appear since David Horowitz's Radical Son. Additionally, it must be praised for its particular courage in putting onto celluloid the Grand themes that have been judged "radioactive" to the ethos of an increasingly secular film Industry. What begins as a young boy's desire for acceptance (and a flirtation with divine providence) soon opens up as a robust inquiry into the roots of: our American Founding, our Cultural and Political Exceptionalism, and a reasoned apologetic into the existential Crisis of the West- which in the process of losing its Judeo-Christian values, risks the diminution of its distinctive joy and unique character as a benevolent force in a darkening world.Using the root theme of baseball as its Archimedean point, Paul takes us on an odyssey wherein the subterranean lessons of the workaday world etch an incremental and inexorable metamorphosis on the author. There is no "Damascus Moment" here, just a slow awakening from the dream of unchallenged opinion through knowledge to a slow epiphany of wisdom. Guided on his pilgrimage by media figure Dennis Prager, Croshaw's constant muse, (or should it be Siren?) Prager launches his powerful rhetorical skills in drawing Paul to a return to our soul's and civilization's First Principles.Indeed, Mr. Prager's inspiring and honest persuasiveness anchors the film's expansive world view and primal thesis: That American greatness is intrinsically linked to its goodness, and that its goodness is inextricable bound to America's apprehension of Judeo-Christian ethical monotheism. While other cultures have grasped only parts of the whole, The Bible, the West's moral load stone, both imparts and has sustained the Judeo-Christian epistemological foundation of: a knowable rational nature, an enlightened and transcendent justice, and of a personal God that takes a loving interest in both the moral cultivation and the tragic sufferings of his creation. It is within this backdrop that Croshaw demonstrates how a disenchanting secularism has opened a rift between the European and American ethos, and that we follow the Continental Post-Modern philosophies to our own moral peril.In his transformation from Liberal Doctrines to the Deep Mystery of the Cross, Mr. Croshaw has rounded the metaphorical bases of life into his mature world view, and as such, his self-discovery is the vindication and ultimate fulfillment of a young boy from Rowland Heights' dream of a single home run. Through his nuanced craft, Croshaw has squared the proverbial circle by melding an incredibly persuasive and substantive message with the hallowed memories of Childhood that we each treasure within us. The author has given religious Americans a poetic and convincing vehicle to transmit the rationality and gravity of our values to both the secular and to our youth: who are increasingly becoming ethical blank slates. If you are fortunate enough to catch Mr. Croshaw's film, I think you will agree that he has achieved an emotional and philosophical tour DE force--the equivalent of a Conservative Grand Slam.

This movie is packed with just about everything a conservative Christian would want to tell a liberal atheist, and maybe a little too much, so that's why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10. Using one man's lifelong evolution as the story line, the film peppers the viewer with ideas that are frankly, difficult to argue. Dennis Prager's common sense and logical explanations rip holes in liberal views that are often considered conventional wisdom on the left. Unlike a Bill Maher or Michael Moore film that attacks the weakest parts of conservative Christian arguments, or goes after the lunatic fringe to make a cheap point, director Paul Croshaw takes on the left's strongest assertions and Prager exposes then as pure nonsense in a brilliantly simple and surprisingly humorous way. Most people who know Prager will probably expect his usual enlightened commentary, but I was not prepared for how funny this film was and how it presented these ideas in a non-threatening and non-preaching way. Ultimately, the heart of this film is how the true emotions of Paul's story are revealed, the conclusions he makes with rare intellectual honesty, and the hope it provides for everyone watching. Men, don't wear a silk tie because at the end of the film your wife may use it as a handkerchief like my wife did. I hope this film gets seen everywhere. America needs it.

How does a Jew convert an Athiest into a Christian and how do you explain baseball to the French? This movie is a sweet look back on a life in progress that has many lessons to be learned. Paul opens up his life in a touching and funny way and we realize how similar he is to each of us. His spiritual mentor, Dennis Prager, is an inspiration and examines life, love, and God with his usual clarity, but no whacking over head. The film uses archived historical, as well as old family footage, which is combined with contemporary additions to create a seamless biography that is really funny and insightful Please pass it on.