Typically, sugar was used to treat indigestion and stomach ailments, and was also used in wound healing. Sugar in its crystalized form also has a long history and was even found in medicinal records of both Roman and Greek civilizations. Sugar cane spread from the Polynesian region across the world, becoming a truly global crop with strides in cultivation and processing along the way. While chewing sugar cane for its sweet taste was likely done in prehistory, the first indications of its domestication were around 8,000 BCE. Where Does Sugar Cane Come From: Prehistory When harvested, sugar cane is cut just above the root level so new sprouts will grow, ready to be harvested again in 10–12 months. Unlike sugar beets, it’s perennial, meaning it doesn’t need to be replanted every year. Sugar cane is a tropical grass that grows 10–20 feet high. Note: The R rating is for relatively inconsequential reasons.Did you know that real sugar is one of the world’s oldest documented commodities? And at one point in time, it was so prized that people would actually lock it up in a sugar safe? The whole story begins with sugar cane, about 10,000 years ago. Algenis Perez Soto plays the character so openly, so naturally, that an interesting thing happens: Baseball is only the backdrop, not the subject. For them this film is a chapter in the more interesting story of the lifetime Sugar has ahead of him. The filmmakers are too observant to settle for a quick, conventional payoff. ![]() Whether this happens for Sugar, or how it might happen, you will see for yourself. Boden and Fleck are interested in newcomers to this country, doing what they can to make a living and succeed. The true subject of "Sugar" is the immigrant experience in America. ![]() He finds the farm system is supportive, and he gets help from coaches who care, but there is always another player waiting behind him in line.Īnna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who wrote and directed "Sugar," are serious filmmakers who have no desire to make a "sports movie." They've obviously done their research on the Major League farm system and the men who pass through it at some level, this entire tryout process is for the benefit of a fan in the grandstands with a wise-ass opinion about the "new kid." Remembering a day when Sammy Sosa was booed at Wrigley Field, I see it now in a wholly new light. On their regular phone calls, his mother fears she can sense something troubling in his voice. On the team, he bonds with Jorge ( Rayniel Rufino), a more seasoned player from the Dominican Republic, and Brad Johnson ( Andre Holland), who is the same color but from a different world if baseball doesn't pan out, he'll go back for an advanced degree from Stanford.įor Sugar, who mumbles he's had "a little" high school, everything depends on baseball panning out. There is also the presence of their granddaughter Anne ( Ellary Porterfield), who sends out mixed messages she's obviously attracted to him and invites him to meet her friends, evangelicals who would like to get him on board. ("You've been dropping your arm," Helen tells him, and Sugar doesn't disagree.) He finds himself boarding in the friendly Iowa farm home of Helen and Earl Higgins ( Ann Whitney and Richard Bull), who have taken in a generation of new players for the local farm club. Sugar isn't "torn with conflict," as movie ads like to say, but weighed with worry. What's special about the film - and this is a very special film - is how closely it observes the emotional uncertainties of a stranger in a strange land, not speaking the language, not knowing the customs, beset with homesickness and the dread of disappointing his family.Īlgenis Perez Soto, a young baseball player in his acting debut, embodies Sugar with a natural sincerity. If very few players ever make it into a Major League starting lineup, well, they know that going in. Baseball seems, in fact, a friendly if realistic destination, an income where there was none before. "Sugar" isn't filled with melodramatic developments and a hard landing on U.S. For years, their dreams have been filled with visions of big-time baseball. ![]() American teams maintain elaborate Dominican training facilities, send talent scouts to local leagues and keep recruits under close watch: Room and board is provided, there are security guards to enforce discipline, the kids get a few days off once in a while. The film is knowledgeable about how the system works.
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