09:29 AM EDT on Friday, May 21, 2004

BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

My definition of a Boston Red Sox fan goes something like this:

The Sox have lost 10 games in a row and everyone is gloomy and disheartened.

Then, miracle of miracles, they win two in a row and the word on the street is: "We're on our way to the pennant!"

"No, no, no," disagrees Journal Food Editor Gail Ciampa, a lifelong Red Sox fan. "It's really when it comes to the seventh game of any important series and you wonder how they're going to blow it. That's who a Red Sox fan is."

Director Paul Doyle Jr. has caught the very essence of that odd mixture of pie-in-the-sky hope and gloom-and-doom fatalism that sits in the heart of every Red Sox fan in his hugely entertaining Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie.

Still, We Believe is a fans'-eye view of the 2003 season, when the Red Sox had made it through a very up-and-down year to the playoffs and it looked as though they had a good shot at going to the World Series. The only dark shadow: they first had to face off against their ever-present nemesis, the dratted New York Yankees, before the dreams of everyone in Red Sox Nation could come true.

Of course, where the Red Sox are concerned, every dream of every year since 1918 -- the last time they won the World Series -- has become a late-season nightmare. And before the 2003 season eventually fulfilled that awful expectation yet again, there had been plenty of hope and prayer and, yes, heartache and anger, too. For deep in the heart of every Red Sox fan is the notion that even when things look sunniest, the Red Sox can be counted on to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Although Still, We Believe delivers a cursory look at the Sox players and its management, where it seems to be very much a bottom-line business despite the mythic luster lingering in the shadows, most of Doyle's film concentrates on several fans who ride the yearly Sox roller coaster through the always-guaranteed highs and lows.

Thinkfilm Dan Cummings, one of many diehard Sox fans profiled in Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie.

They're magnetic figures:

"Angry Bill" (Paul Costine) from Watertown, who fatalistically follows the team closely through the season, calling radio sports talk shows to share his pain with thousands more.

Erin Nanstad and Jessamy Finet of East Boston, who turn up in an early February drizzle to cadge tickets to opening day and to those most-difficult-to-get-of-all ducats: The Red Sox-Yankees matchups. Baseball groupies who even follow the Yankees to Chicago to see them lose in an interleague rivalry with the Cubs (the game is rained out) and the Sox to Milwaukee to see them win against the Brewers (they don't), these gals are like the Susan Sarandon character in Bull Durham, minus the sex angle.

Jermaine Evans Sr. of Brockton, who has a strong opinion about every aspect of the game.

Harry Mann of Dracut, who has been a Sox fan since the year he made his first Holy Communion, a long time ago, and would get eight quarters from an aunt -- enough for bus fare, a ticket to Fenway, a hot dog, a soda and a program. "This is our year," he whispers conspiratorially to the off-camera Doyle while sitting down to watch an early-season game on TV.

Dan Cummings of Hyde Park, a young man in a wheelchair whose Sox enthusiasm nearly propels him out of his chair during a game at Fenway Park.

Firefighter Jim Craven of Roslindale, who's almost grateful for any emergency that calls him away from the fire-station TV set during particularly nail-biting moments in a game.

Jim Conners, a transplanted Red Sox fan, who runs a sports bar in Southern California that's devoted to the team and organizes bus tours to Sox games played in the Golden State.

Doyle's cameras follow them -- from hopes and dreams to utter despair -- cutting from one fan to the next to on-field moments, sometimes effectively using a split screen to follow fan reactions through an especially grueling play. Time-lapse photography of the field, shot from high above Fenway Park, boils game time down to seconds. From this vantage point, the fans spilling into their seats look like so many ball bearings dropping into slots.

When the Sox lose a game, some fans are philosophical: "It's a long season; we'll get it back tomorrow."

But when, as is too often the case, the Sox demonstrate their unnerving ability to turn around what looks like a sure win going into the ninth inning into a catastrophic loss, the black cloud of defeatism lingers: "Nobody can lose like the Red Sox," vows Craven. "When it comes to crunch time, they'll lose," says Bill, who later adds, "They never win. They're not gonna win this year. They may make the playoffs, but they're not gonna win."

Yet still they watch with equal measures of dread, awe and hope, which makes them such fascinating sociological studies for Doyle's cameras. "They blow this game," says Angry Bill as the Red Sox take on the Yankees in the last game of the playoffs, "people will be jumpin' off the Tobin Bridge. People will be blowin' their brains out."

There were no reports of those things having come to pass. And, as more than one fan says, there's always tomorrow . . . or next season . . . or the next.

"Hear the chant?" asks Angry Bill during a moment when the Red Sox are on a roll. " 'Let's go Red Sox!'

"You don't hear that in the stadium too often."

****

Still, We Believe:

The Boston Red Sox Movie

Starring: "Angry Bill" (Paul Costine), Erin Nanstad, Jessamy Finet, Harry Mann, Jermaine Arthur Evans Sr., Steve Craven, Dan Cummings, Jim Conners.

Rated: PG, contains brief profanity.