Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Kon Ichikawa) (Patreon)

49/100

No point in belaboring this—I’m not a sports guy, never watch the Olympics unless compelled by circumstance, had no desire to sit through three hours of edited highlights. (Criterion completism: There is no vaccine*.) Held out a little hope because I’d always heard that Ichikawa takes a more abstract approach, emphasizing aesthetics rather than competition; there’s a bit of that, and I appreciated every shift to slo-mo (did this influence Chariots of Fire?) and extreme close-up (rifle-shooting sequence a particular standout in that regard), but the vast majority of the film just speeds through one event after another, understandably lingering whenever a Japanese athlete contends for a medal. (Was oddly touched by the voiceover narration, forever empathetic: “She did her best.”) Also, there’s 26 fucking minutes of pomp before the games begin—I’d potentially have been interested in behind-the-scenes prep work, but ceremony reliably puts me to sleep. Most of my interest was extratextual, as I paused to look up information that most of y'all no doubt learned long ago: how long-distance runners determine their optimal pace (this turned out to be fearsomely complex, not unlike bobsled curve trajectories which I somehow already knew about), why most long jumpers continue flailing their legs in mid-air (wouldn’t have guessed that it’s for balance, and am now confused about how some can perform superlatively despite not doing so), etc. Movie gets no credit for that stuff, though. Anyway, just not my thing; disregard if you’re a normal person who enjoys watching extreme physical exertion that doesn’t involve either roundhouse kicks or tap shoes.

* Though that 35-film Olympic box set may eventually see me establish a revised criterion of my own, requiring me to watch only those films with their own spine number. Not sure I really want to see every Zatoichi picture, either, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the first one.

QUESTION I HOPE SOMEONE CAN ANSWER: Why do the high jumpers look for all the world as if they're landing on a pile of old, discarded shoes? I tried googling this (without "shoes" in the query) to no avail.