Only plots and stories that are understandable to our viewers.
The New Year’s holidays are a time for extended home movie nights. Sports fans, of course, can revisit the recordings of their favorite broadcasts, but it is much better to watch the adaptation of important stories from the world of sports in the cinema. Especially since in the last couple of years the world and domestic cinematography has given us a lot of movies and series of different quality and type. We have gathered our selection and deliberately removed from it all the pictures about American soccer, baseball and other cricket and golf, which most Russians are unlikely to have heard of. Only familiar subjects and our favorite sports.
World Champion
We suggest starting with the premiere of last winter. As a matter of fact, before the New Year holidays it was shown in cinemas. Sports drama of 2021 directed by Alexei Sidorov tells about a chess duel for the title of world champion between the Soviet grandmaster and current world champion at the time Anatoly Karpov and grandmaster-applicant, dissident Viktor Korchnoi. The match took place from July 18 to October 18, 1978 in the resort city of Baguio in the Philippines. One should not expect a documentary here. Sidorov focused on the great success at the box office “Legend № 17” and “Moving Up”. Therefore, the script of the picture, although it was based on real historical events, for the sake of artistic style of narration in it added a significant amount of fiction. But if the movie about basketball was about the cornerstone reassessment of the actions of key characters, then “World Champion” competently conveys the tone of the era and does not conflict with reality.
The main achievement of the film’s authors is that they managed to show beautifully and spectacularly on the big screen a sport that was not originally designed for this purpose. It’s easy to produce bright shots of hockey or soccer, but what about chess? Not without computer graphics and ingenuity, which caused mixed reactions from critics. However, if a blockbuster for a wide audience is planned, the director can be forgiven certain liberties he took in order to adapt a meditative intellectual game into an intriguing plot.
Another reason for negative reviews is the allegedly unambiguous position of the authors of the picture, who justify the Soviet propaganda and system. However, upon close viewing, one can see that the screenwriter is rather trying to maintain an independent position, not likening himself to any of the common clichés in this genre. And it is ridiculous to criticize the film for the abundance of politics – the whole drama of that chess match was connected with the events of the Cold War.
King Richard
This movie has garnered a huge number of awards and nominations at various film festivals for winter through spring 2022. In particular, the movie was nominated in the main category for Oscar, Golden Globe, British Academy Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. The performer of the main role, Will Smith, took statuettes for Best Actor at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes. According to reviewers, the high ratings are due to the fact that “King Richard” finally goes beyond the template of sports biopics. The movie has a non-standard script and charismatic protagonist, which is great showed Will Smith. In this regard, the picture is reminiscent of the drama of five years ago “Tonya Against All Odds”, where eccentric Tonya Harding brightly issued in his trademark style Margot Robbie. If you liked this movie, then the work of Reynaldo Marcus Green will not leave indifferent. And without regard to tennis and the Williams family.
Actually, what the movie is about. Serena Williams’ extraordinary career (as well as Serena’s passion for filmmaking) made a movie about her a matter of time. However, “King Richard” is not a movie about the younger Williams, or even Venus Williams. It is entirely about Richard Williams, the father of the famous tennis players, without whom their incredible careers would not have happened. Moreover, in this case, it is not even a figure of speech. Richard originally planned to make superstars out of his daughters. He wrote a plan, took into account all the circumstances and went along with them on the way to the dream against all odds. This is not a banal story of how people through perseverance rose from the bottom and became legends – for such a cliché sports movies and do not like. It’s more complicated than that, like the figure of Williams himself. Was he a successful adventurer or a management genius? A loving father or a domestic tyrant? You can draw your own conclusions after watching the movie.
Ford vs. Ferrari
Another sensational novelty from the foreign box office is Ford vs Ferrari. Although the novelty is relative, the film was released back in the fall of 2019 at that for sure many people have not yet reached it. And for nothing, because it is worth watching at least for the sake of the two main characters Christian Bale and Matt Damon. And the charisma exudes both the actors themselves and their characters – the irascible British pilot Ken Miles and sports director Carroll Shelby. Conflict immediately erupts between them, yet they both realize they can’t do without each other. Ford in terms of sports then falls on hard times and hopelessly inferior to its principal Italian rivals – Ferrari. A failed attempt to merge the two car companies added to the drama. During the negotiations, Enzo Ferrari showed that he does not consider his American partners equal to himself and sees the main thing for himself as achievements in racing.
Ford accepted the challenge and decided to beat Ferrari on their own field – in Enzo Ferrari’s favorite race “24 Hours of Le Mans”. For this purpose, Shelby was called in as a sports director – he was at that time the only American who had conquered this endurance race. Carroll put before the management of Ford one and only one condition – the pilot he sees Ken Miles and no one else. The team eventually took Miles, but to make the face of the company eccentric Briton Americans did not want. Therefore, Miles and Shelby had to fight not only with rivals, but also within their own team to prove their right to fight among the best. Despite the fact that everyone knows the outcome in advance, it is interesting to follow the plot right up to the final denouement. Director James Mangold was able to show an unconventional view of motorsports, but, more importantly, to emphasize the story of true male friendship.
Mr. Knockout
The last major domestic biopic about sports was released on the eve of spring of this year. This time the screenwriters departed from the already become a template scheme about the formation of personality and overcoming obstacles. The protagonist – the legendary Soviet athlete Valery Popenchenko causes mixed feelings, but even more nuances in the biography of an unsettled and conflicted coach Grigory Kusikyants. However, it was Kusikyants who saw in the wayward and not too disciplined cadet of the naval school the future genius of world boxing. You bet, because Popenchenko was the only winner of the Val Barker Cup in the Soviet Union – the prize for the most technical boxer of the Olympics, the “Nobel Prize” for amateur boxers.
Artem Mikhalkov’s movie, like many others in the genre, tells about his childhood and youth, his studies and military service, the beginning of his sporting career and his victories. But in a light casual form, thanks to which an adventurous sense of great adventure is created. Of course, it did not do without script conventions. In particular, the movie shows the hardest three-round fight in the final of the Tokyo Olympics, during which the protagonist is knocked down several times. In reality, Mr. Knockout “dropped” his opponent in the final fight of the five-time champion Emil Schultz in the first minute of the first round. There was no real meeting between Popenchenko and Schultz a few years before the Olympics in illegal fights, but in order to please the mass audience and the general spirit of the picture such conventions can be forgiven to the authors of the movie.
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