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The Little Giants (1958, Los Pequeños Gigantes)
987 minutes; Blu-ray courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures
The Little Giants is the true story of how a Little League baseball team from Monterrey, Mexico, with limited resources—some of its members were barefoot street-children recruits—managed to travel to the United States beating impossible odds, win the 1957 World Series with the only perfect game in Little League championship history.
Here, director and co-screenwriter Hugo Butler (Hugo Mozo) with co-screenwriter Edward Huebsch (alias Eduardo Bueno) perfect the revolutionary docufiction style, combining elements of documentary and narrative fiction. All of the players from the Monterrey team, including pitcher Ángel Macías, play themselves in the film recreating actual events and borrowing from cinema vérité, improvising their lines.
Like Crusoe, the film, produced by George Pepper (alias George P. Werker) is a commentary on colonialism and entitlement. It has become popularized in Mexico, probably because of its metaphoric associations to David and Goliath; the colonized facing off with their imperialist masters. It is also a metaphor for the blacklisted artists vs. their McCarthyite censors.
The team’s victory and ensuing fame—partially owing to the Olmec Productions film—changed the course of Monterrey, Mexico. The team became legendary throughout Mexico, boosting its town’s economy. Most of the players went onto successful careers that enabled them to raise two generations of professionals.
800 Chestnut San Francisco
