Olympia
Leni Riefenstahl's epic documentary of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Your viewing pleasure may be somewhat tainted by the appearance of Adolf Hitler. He hosted the games and commissioned the film. The insanely long opening sequence shows nude and loin-clothed athletes, Greek ruins and German forests. Next, the camera pans over a map of Europe. Names of countries, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia pop up. It reads like a roadmap for coming invasions. Then on to the stadium full of heiling masses. Jesse Owens' series of wins in the sprint races, an athletic bird-flip to Nazism, are a definite highlight. Gives some perspective on Olympic Games and politics, no?
Tokyo Olympiad
Set at the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964, Kon Ichikawa's film opens with a wrecking ball on old fire-bombed buildings, then cuts to a brand new jet age Olympic stadium. Think of this as a post war bookends to Olympia. Out with the old in with the new. Children cheer the torch relay by the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. It's the '60s. Peace love and sportsmanship. The team from newly independent Ghana marches in Afros, Kente cloth and sunglasses. Post-revolutionary Cubans wave flags. Ridiculously huge teams from the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. compete for world domination. This is sort of an anti-thesis to Leni Riefenstahl's totalitarian perfection. Ichikawa's camera finds weirdness in the details. A shot-putters round belly; the jaunty swing of race-walking butts; a sprinter from Ceylon lost on the field.
Chariots of Fire
Lanky Cambridge men in stylish white underwear run like the wind to win for Britain at the 8th Olympic Games in Paris in 1924. The country is still suffering the aftershocks of World War I. The Olympic Games are on the cusp of becoming the realm of professional athletes rather than gentleman amateurs. Two young lads, one Jewish, one an evangelical Scotsman, must overcome petty prejudice and personal obstacles on their way to the games. Like any self-respecting Olympic flick this one is based on a true story. Upper-crust period costumes abound. As an added bonus you get to see a foppish British nobleman jump hurdles on which he has balanced brimming glasses of champagne.
Munich
Low on sports, high on 1970s terrorist chic. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Black September, a terrorist group, broke into the quarters of the Israeli Olympic team, took them hostage, and killed them. Spielbergs movie is based on the events and the vendetta with the Israeli secret service that followed. Flashes from the pivotal bloodbath are replayed throughout. Most notably when Eric Bana's character makes love to his wife; one of the more uncomfortable sex scenes in history. Steven Spielberg doing what he does best. You know he's driving your emotional roller coaster, but who cares when it feels this good?
Personal Best
Set at the try-outs for the 1976 Olympic track trials. No terror drama here. Just a lot of lesbian tension with Mariel Hemingway — of Manhattan — fame and Patrice Donnelly in the lead roles. skimpy mid-70s shorts. 'Nuff said.
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