DOCUMENTARY ABOUT HANK GREENBERG A MOVING TRIBUTE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

If there was ever anything bad to say about Hank Greenberg, you wouldn't know it from Aviva Kempner's worshipful documentary ``The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.'' More to the point, you wouldn't want to. The sheer inspirational gratification of the baseball legend, here enhanced by Kempner's witty, insightful and thoroughly gripping storytelling abilities, makes this the greatest unadulterated movie pleasure of the season.

For those who don't know, Greenberg was the sport's first Jewish superstar. A New Yorker who spent most of his playing career with the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg led the team to the top of its league through much of the 1930s and nearly matched Babe Ruth's home run record in the process. Just as importantly, the easygoing but stubbornly proud first baseman represented an American ideal to generations of Jews, many of whom saw their own love of baseball reflected in his achievements, and a validation of the very symbol of their belonging to a society that often went to great lengths to exclude them.

It was not easy, of course. Depression-era Detroit, the home of conspiracy-monger Henry Ford and the virulently intolerant Father Coughlin, was the nation's nerve center of anti-Semitism at the time. Greenberg was not only blanketed with ethnic slurs from competing team players, but from local hecklers in the Tiger Stadium bleachers.

Never one for complaints or self-pity, Greenberg concentrated with herculean effort on improving his game. It worked, along with a certain genius for winning over hearts and minds. The Greenberg story is full of breathtaking convergences of social history, sports milestones and - dare we say it - magnificent examples of people rising to meet their better natures.

Kempner wisely structures the piece chronologically, in a way that builds the tension of each season and even key games. And while the film is undeniably hagiography at its best (if most blatant), she is anything but solemn about the proceedings. Glowing commentary from family members and such lifelong celebrity fans as Walter Matthau, Alan Dershowitz and Ira Berkow are mixed with humorous asides from cranky retired teammates and what was apparently a female stalker, now a sweet old granny still infatuated with her hero.

Of course, there's a wealth of documentary footage, wild clips and Hollywood movie scenes that help set the tenor of the times. The result is pure cinematic euphoria. If ``The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' doesn't move you to tears of joy, you're a rock.

The facts

--The film: ``The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg'' (not rated).

--Behind the scenes: Written, directed and produced by Aviva Kempner. Released by Cowboy Booking International.

--Running time: One hour, 35 minutes.

--Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

--Our rating: Three and one half stars