30 MORE? When the final dayenu is said for Bill Simmons' career, ESPN's 30 for 30 series will probably be the second verse. If all he did was bring a smart, pop culture-savvy fan's voice into sports commentary and executive produce and curate as fine a series of sports documentaries as we've ever seen -- that, indeed, would be enough for anyone.
At this just-past-halfway point, I'd say my favorites have been "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks," "June 17, 1994," "The Two Escobars" and "The U," with "The Guru of Go" (on Loyola Marymount) being a favorite for sentimental if not film-making reasons. The only two clunkers, IMHO, were the Jimmy the Greek and history of rotisserie baseball films, but even the former had its moments just from some of the archival footage.
The series resumes tonight with Ron Shelton's "Jordan Rides the Bus", about 23's year in Birmingham.
added: Alan Sepinwall was disappointed by tonight's entry: " The story ... is strong enough to carry even the most generic treatment. And in part because Jordan declined to be interviewed for the film, generic is about what Shelton provides."
I think my favorite so far was the one about the Colts leaving Baltimore. I also enjoyed the one about Jimmy the Greek. Admittedly 6/17/94 and Escobars are sitting on my DVR as of yet unwatched. I actually found Reggie Miller to be boring, but maybe that's just because I'm not a big hoops fan these days.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was also "Band That Wouldn't Die", followed by "The U" and "King's Ransom" (though the last probably due mostly to subject matter than actual quality.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would strongly back "Silly Little Game". I enjoyed the campiness of the re-enactments, and thought they were appropriate for what was being discussed. Also, it was the only one so far that I really felt like I learned something after watching. Most of the others, despite the early claims of "little-known sidelights in 30 years of sports history" have been things I was fairly familiar with, if not very.
I have only seen 5 or 6 of them because it took me a long time to realize that a) we had ESPN--not big sports watchers in my house, but I sure am a sucker for sports documentaries and movies and b) you could set a season pass for it for tivo.
ReplyDeleteBut I am really enjoying them so far. So glad that I found them! Definitely enjoyed the Ricky Williams one and the 2 Escobars one the best.
Have to agree on King's Ransom. I loved it and probably more for the subject matter, than quality. That Gretzky made himself available for interviews and seemed candid in doing so was great. "Silly Little Game" for the same reason. Trump being Trump. And actually learning something from the film.
ReplyDeleteThat Jordan wouldn't interview for this film unfortunately sounds as though it leaves the film more retrospective than introspective.
I have a huge backlog of these on my TiVo, including the Two Escobars, Winning Time, Run Ricky Run and The Guru of Go. But I have enjoyed most of them that I've watched. Perhaps The U or Band that Wouldn't Die being my favorites so far. I appreciated June 17, 1994 for the approach (and was amazed at how big of a sports day that was), but something about it left me cold.
ReplyDeleteFor me, "The Band that Wouldn't Die" was the best of the lot, because it showcased the project's true potential: Allowing somebody to craft a small and personal story that also illuminated the biggest sports story attached to it. The ones that have "failed" (relatively speaking) are the ones that have just done standard sports docs, like "Guru of Go" or the USFL film and even those haven't *failed* per se.
ReplyDelete"Jordan Rides the Bus" is a major disappointment, though. It's a generic sports doc from one of the few directors I would have expected would be able to deliver personality and specificity by default.
Next week's Little League World Series film is very good, though.
-Daniel
Those two failed to be better than they could have been, but at least told their basic stories well and used good archival footage.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the point of June 17, 1994 was to leave the viewer cold. Not only is it interesting because of everything that happened that day, but also because it lets you see how your sports television sausage gets made.
ReplyDeleteI loved The Band That Wouldn't Die, and I only saw the tail end of Without Bias, but I found that one bit devastating.
my favorites have been The Two Escobars and King's Ransom
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