Tonight's Movie: Facing Nolan (2022) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

One of my lifelong loves, along with movies, is baseball.

Although I've always been a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, I have fond childhood memories of watching Nolan Ryan pitch for the local California Angels in the '70s. (We'll gloss over Ryan later pitching his fifth no-hitter -- breaking the previous tie for the most no-hitters he held along with the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax -- when the Houston Astros played against the Dodgers...)

I was thus really looking forward to catching up with FACING NOLAN, a documentary on the pitching great which was released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber late this past summer.

I'm pleased to report that FACING NOLAN is a completely engaging 102 minutes. It's a must for baseball fans, but I think Ryan's story is so compelling and the documentary so nicely done that other viewers would enjoy it as well.

Ryan pitched for a staggering 27 years, from his teens into his 40s. His achievements included an amazing seven no-hitters, the last coming at the age of 44, when many pitchers are already retired; he also racked up over 5700 career strikeouts.

While the film focuses on Ryan's career, it also makes clear that his priority was his family; that commitment led to him choosing to play for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers after leaving the Angels, so that he would be closer to home. Ryan and his wife Ruth, who married at ages 19 and 17, have been devoted to one another for most of their lives, and she's a key interviewee in the film.

Ryan reminds me a bit of actor Joel McCrea, who thought of himself firstly as a rancher; Ryan loves ranching and joked that when he headlocked Robin Ventura in an (in)famous brawl, it was simply a move he'd used on steers. (In an amusing moment, a card informs the audience that Ventura declined to be interviewed for the documentary.)

The film is filled with "talking head" interviews with many players familiar to me from years past, including one-time Dodgers catcher Jerry Grote, who played on Ryan's first team, the New York Mets. The enjoyable walk down memory lane also includes an interview with former Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush.

FACING NOLAN was directed by Bradley Jackson and filmed by Jacob Hamilton.

Blu-ray extras include the trailer, a pair of Q&A sessions, and clips.

Recommended.

Previous reviews of documentaries released by Kino Lorber: OBIT: LIFE ON DEADLINE (2016), HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY (2015), DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (2016), THE GODDESSES OF FOOD (2016), BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (2017), CHEF FLYNN (2018), LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE (2019), DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY (2019), THE BOOKSELLERS (2019), THE DONUT KING (2020), FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN (2022), and THE AUTOMAT (2021).

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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