Tokyo Olympiades

While I've yet to see all of what many consider to be THE document of 20th century Olympics in Riefensthal's Olympia (it is, of course, a very long movie, and we only saw bits in a class), this document of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by Kon Ichikawa is quite the spectacle on its own. Ichikawa understands something that five years later Michael Wadleigh, director of Woodstock, would understand about filming an event (though Woodstock will always be the better, more incredibly watchable film for me). And it is, simply put, to make it an EVENT- in bold letters- for people who may not even really usually watch the Olympics. The way he uses his many, many, many cameras an exhaustively large crew is staggering, and just in the first half hour or so, when the countries all line up and the audience fills in as the games kick off, it's done in a very dynamic style. He alternates interestingly between big wide shots of the crowds (like Woodstock, seeming larger than it really is with everyone packed in thousands of masses), the stadium itself, and then to close-ups of individuals and bodies moving. It's this side of the film, the technical one, that is most worthwhile to see in the film.

If it's less than perfect, it's because, frankly, it almost does become 'too much' to see so many games that go on in the near three-hour running time. And the narration voice that pops up now and again sounds way too much like a narrator from old newsreels, trying to add emphasis where it's not really needed. It's too immense an event with too many goals vied for victory to add on extra words. But there are highlights though, such as the 100 meter dash, done in a slow-motion that might echo some of Ichikawa's other narrative films. And the Joe Frazier boxing match, while brief, is memorable. Sometimes Tokyo Olympiad comes off almost like an avant-garde film as much as it does just straight-on documentary, and it's here that I got drawn in. Of all major events involving sports and other games and activities and trials and such, the Olympics brings together all cultures for the sake of competing for a country's honor and respect, and Ichikawa has a very good balance between showing that and adding a distinct style to the numerous events. In fact, Ichikawa has what might be the best avant-garde sports documentary ever made, at least in the past forty or so years.

Kon Ichikawa's "Tokyo Olympiad," a record of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, is not only arguably one of the best sports documentaries ever made, it is also among the best documentaries ever made, period. It is everything one would expect from a man who is known as one of the premiere stylists of the cinema and more. It is poetry, it is art, and it is almost ruthlessly compelling.

Whereas most sports documentaries are relatively cut and dry in that they focus mainly on the winners, Ichikawa has almost no regard for winning or losing at all. For him, it is about the event, the preparation and the movement embodied in Olympic competition - and the film follows both the winners and the losers. The film is incredibly textural. Sight, sound, and movement - even the most imperceptible - all weave together to form a remarkable tapestry that is as much about the director's own concerns as it is about the Games themselves. It is for this reason that the film initially had a rather stormy reception from those that had commissioned Ichikawa to make the film (and given him an army of cameramen to do so), though if my recollection is correct it went on to break box-office records in Japan. "Tokyo Olympiad" is not a film about the victory of winning, it is about the victory of attending - of being amongst the awesome crowds, the athletes, the bodies in motion. Being there is it's own victory, which is why Ichikawa focuses so much on the athletes from the newly formed African nation of Chad who, although they do not come close to winning any medals, are the first representatives of their country to appear in the Olympic Games. For Ichikawa their story is just as triumphant as that of the Ethiopian long-distance runner who unflinchingly leaves all his opponents in the dust and goes on to win his event by a mile. "Tokyo Olympiad" is not just about the realm of athletic or Olympic experience, it is about the human experience and about creating cinema out of it. At nearly 3 hours in length it is neither a minute too short or too long, and I personally feel privileged to have seen it.

This documentary of the 1964 Summer Olympics is a made up of a series of visual impressions with minimal narration that are are arranged in sequence from the opening to the closing ceremonies. It is excellent. Due attention is given to the host country but the high points of this Olympics are touched upon in a very moving way through superb photography and scenes of human interest.

The viewers see the history of the Olympic Torch and the excitement in Japan as the flame is lighted. The opening ceremonies show Hirohito, the longtime emperor of Japan as he stands in tribute for the March of the Athletes. There are cutaways to the Crown Prince and other members of the family who take in the games. We see a short profile of an athlete of the 3-member team from the new country of Chad. We see a series of competitions at one point that highlights a wrestling match with men in thick kimonos trying to pin down the opponent using very strange contortions. We watch athletes in short sprints that are over in seconds. There is a view of cyclists who speed by the camera in a quick blur. An aerial scene shows the winding line of cyclists who stream by like slow moving chariots seen from above. Some prominent athletes appear like 18 year old Don Schollander of the USA who won five medals at the games; Joe Frazier, a rival of Muhammed Ali aka Cassius Clay, who repeated Clay's gold medal victory of 1960 while fighting with a broken thumb; and the legendary Adebe Bikila, who won his second consecutive Olympic marathon.

Director Kon Ichikawa has left a monumental work that celebrates the ideals and traditions of the Olympics. Though three hours long, it had to be edited down and the result is still a wonderful tribute to the Olympics.

Seeing as how this dvd is almost 3 hours long I assumed that I could fast forward through some of it. I was wrong. As much as I tried, every new scene kept me glued to the screen. It's the Olympics like you've never seen them, shot and edited with the eye of a real artist. Once again Criterion brings us a lost masterpiece.

A true celebration of the poetry of the human body, as athletes attempt to live up to the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius," Faster, Higher, Stronger.

Director Kon Ichikawa knew that impressionistic images of the athletes, audience, and even those working at the games held great power, and used cinematic artistry instead of giving viewers a dry accounting of the results for all events. The way he shot this was brilliant. There's a medley of long shots, close-ups, unique camera angles, and an attention to little details that are completely irrelevant to the outcome of events, and yet are strangely compelling. He isolates sounds the athletes were making, e.g. Footfalls, shot put landings, the whoosh of an athlete swinging around on the uneven bar, and integrates it with other elements of the soundtrack which gives the documentary an epic feel.

He tells the human story of some of the athletes but even there he uses a light touch, not expounding on all of the details in the packaged, glitzy form you might see in modern games. This feels very much like the things that caught his eye as an observer, spanning the gamut from sublime moments of athletic achievement to silly little rituals or facial expressions. He realizes an athlete from Chad is older than his country, and shows not just his race (where he didn't qualify for the final) but also him quietly eating in isolation from other athletes afterwards. At other moments he focuses on those who have fallen or are struggling to finish, something the epitomized the spirit of the games well.

There are drawbacks to this approach, however. The coverage of the events is uneven to say the least, with some getting less than a minute and others going on for so long that my attention wandered. Because he's presenting this more as art as opposed to journalism, we're not told of some of the more interesting aspects of the games. Some examples: the 1-0 result of the field hockey final between bitter rivals India and Pakistan, the fact that Joe Frazier (initially just a reserve) was boxing with a broken thumb en route to his gold medal, how Ann Packer of England was originally going to take a shopping trip instead of run the 800m, and had only run five 800m domestic races before winning gold, and how gymnast Larisa Latynina of the USSR set the lifetime record for medals (18!) at these games (one which stood until Michael Phelps came along).

We don't hear of how Billy Mills from the United States was an Oglala Lakota Native-American who was a virtual unknown going into the games, making his stunning gold in the 10km race one of the greatest upsets of all time, or how the Olympic torch was lit by a man who was born on the day of the Hiroshima bombing. We also don't see anything at all of the basketball final between undefeated Cold War rivals USA and USSR, but do see quite a bit of coverage for events that Japan medaled in. It can't all be presented given the sheer breadth of the games, and one person's interests are bound to be different from another's, but those were some of the things that ended up a little frustrating for me, much as I admired how artistic the documentary was.