Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

This gave me what I want from docs. I learned something. I love that. People are attempting to shit on this because they think of it as a pro-steroids doc, but I didn't see it that way, really. This was pretty fair in trying to examine and trying to present both sides. It was also, in some way, probably trying to excuse Chris Bell's brother's behavior in some way n the same way anyone else would want to explain away a siblings bad behavior. Very similar to something I can see myself making and HAVE attempted to make in the past. In fact, this opening reminded me so much of some of the stuff we used to make when I worked at 360. The pop music. The montage of pop culture movies and tv shows with a voice over that I did myself because there was really not anyone else who would do it the way I had it in my head. Unfortunately, this dudes voice was kind of grating.

This made me feel bad again for Marion Jones all over again, who didn't even go to jail for doping, but for lying about doping. Also, makes me think about the Olympics and the fact that so many of those athletes take performance enhancing drugs. It's a slippery slope. You don't want to se drugs because their illegal and you'll feel like you're cheating, but you have to use steroids because if you don't, everyone else who's using them (which is literally almost EVERYONE else) will outplay you in every way.

It's funny, I assumed this guy wasn't into filmmaking, just because he didn't seem all that into and it seemed kind of green with the whole thing. Like he doesn't know shit about filmmaking and he'd have to get a lot of help with the editing. he'd be over your shoulder like, "can we, like, do this one effect were the screen zooms in? oh yeah, that looks pretty good." Then I come to find out he went to USC and graduated from the film program. Whoops. One thing I appreciated was that he attempted to ask the tough questions but in a sensitive way. Tiptoing up to Carl Lewis to question him about his positive test for steroids BEFORE the controversial 1988 Olympics. Talking to the Hooton dad (who I'm guessing was probably not very happy with how the doc turned out) about his son's suicide having to possibly do with the anti-dpressants he was on. He did a good job in attempting to get those controversial answers.

That does make me wonder though. Do people forget that they're on film and this little video he's making is going to be turned into a movie or something? They question his brother's students about whether or not their coach (his brother) takes steroids and those kids say that he himself told them no. He said to their faces that he did not do steroids. He lied to them and yet, now, when the movie comes out, everyone's going to know. They sit at the dinner table and try not to say anything to their parents, but the when the movie comes out, everyone' s going to know. It's hard not to take that into account when watching. It's in the back of your mind the whole time. Like when two costars are dating in a feature and it's in your mind during the whole movie.

I like that this didn't solve any problems or give any answers. It wasn't really like Super Size Me in that way. It just was what it was. There really IS no right answer in all of this. It's a complicated matter. I'll leave you with this, though: "Peanuts are dangerous. There are people who eat a Peanut and they go into anaphylactic shock. Does that mean we ban peanuts and sue God for making them?"

More Than A Game

When it comes to the actual movie, the fact that they got all this footage from their journey to the national championship...something like that was just begging for a documentary to be made about it. It sort of looked liked it was being filmed for the purpose of becoming a doc. That's probably not true, but they did a great job in making it seem like that.

Th graphics in this one ware ridic. Like really fun. A lot of work when into that. I wonder how good the movie would be if they didn't have that flashy After Effects animation.

They cut the basketball games pretty well. They had to do it in a suspenseful way, but also in a truncated way to get to the point and move on to the next moment. It worked. One thing I thought was weird about the flimmaking was that we were never able to see the score during the game. The movie was wide screen, so the 4:3 cut off the part of the news footage with the score of the game. That worked against the suspense and you didn't really know who was in the lead until they told you that one of the other teams won. I didn't like that.

You gotta feel a little bad for wherever that dude was who replaced Willie as a started but wasn't in the Fab Five. They talked about Romeo feeling left out, but once they pulled Romeo into the crew and Willie wasn't a started anymore, that guy had to have felt left out.

I get a little conflicted sometimes when it comes to sports movies. With a movie based on fiction, or even a movie based on real events but it's a feature, you can have some disconnect from the team that loses. Someone has to lose for someone else to win. And when you clearly see that it's real people who are really upset and really want to win, it's kind of a sad moment to see. You're of course happy for the team that won, but the team who lost has to hang their head and drive back home in shame. Luckily, they didn't really show us much of the team that lost. Which I liked.

I realized while trying to watch this last night that basketball is still kind of angermaking for me. Kind of a soft spot. I haven't had an overall great experience with it in the past. In school, tryouts, etc. I've actually had kind of a bad experience. I had to turn it off and finish it the next day. Maybe I should get some therapy about that.

Sad to watch him and know that he abandoned the state that "raised him." People are really mad about that, huh! I sort of get why now.

Endless Summer

This is the oldest doc I've watched so far. Grey Gardens was old, When You're Strange had old archive footage in it, but this was from 1966. Even just the idea that this was made and made well is fascinating to me. if it were made now, it wouldn't be as good. The proof of that (I'm guessing, I have no basis for this because I haven't seen it) is in the remake (maybe?).

Usually, I think narration or voice over seems lazy, like you couldn't create enough content so you had to voice over what was happening to explain the story to the audience. Narration in this gets sort of a pass, though. It definitely made it a bit more interesting since they clearly didn't get any audio. It made it seem like they were doing an anthropological study reel that you'd later watch in class. I the 60s. Except this study has to do with human beings and the "thrill and the fun of the sport of surfing." Kind of cool.

Despite the voice over, it was easy to forget that this thing was actually being filmed It just seems like we were going on this trip with these guys. Even WITH the voice over. How'd they do that? That's the best kind of doc. The camera just disappeared.. And I think that gives some credit to the script too. The editing, combined with the script was a pretty good combination. And the music really pulled it together (except for the foley, which, besides the sound of the waves crashing, was pretty bad). But where'd the find people to drag them around the world? How'd they pay for this without online banking? Crazy.

Some cons:

The continued use of phrases like "primitive" Africa, "poor little African boy," "being good africans they threw a few rocks," that stuff was bothersome. I guess I should just think of it as part of the times, and it was interesting that they were introducing surfing to these communities, but the cultural insensitivity was still a bit annoying. Like... shut up voice over. And I bet they probably didn't even think of the fact that the camera might not even be allowed in some of these countries and tribes. But it was made in the sixties. As was Breakfast At Tiffany's with their horrible spoof of a Chinese man. Yikes, 60s.

I mean, I just knew that in Africa we'd see some non-primative black people. But no. Every person they talked to and surfed with that wasn't one of these primitive Africans was a white dude. You just forget that there are so many white people in South Africa in the first place. And no Hawaii's surfing in Hawaii at all? Oh sixties.

Speaking of 60s, that sixties corny humor in the voice over was kind of funny. And the innocence of being bale to just hitch a ride without considering that you might be kidnapped or killed.

Watching endless footage of surfing reminds me of being friends with skaters in high school and watching endless and endless footage of skateboarding tricks, and super cool aerials and rad grinds, etc. Since I don't and have no idea how to surf, it's not very fun after the first 17.

This whole thing made me want to learn how to surf. I'm in the right place for it. Not the right season though.