O sport, ty - mir!

O Sport, You Are Peace! is a documentary about the 1980 Summer Olympics, which were held in Moscow. This Olympiad was significant for two reasons: it was the fist held behind the Iron Curtain, and as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the games were boycotted by 66 countries (including the United States.) This movie, for the most part, is a pretty standard Olympics documentary. The first half hour is devoted to the set up of the games and the opening ceremony. There is also some cute animation about the history of the Olympics. The coverage of the events has some nice cinematography but seems a little haphazard. A couple events are covered in depth (such as the marathon and women's gymnastics) but most events are rushed through so fast that it is hard to get a sense of who is competing. My biggest objections to the movie though are the narration and the music, both of which are treacly and annoying. But if you can concentrate on just the visuals, this movie is worth watching.

"O Sport, You Are Peace!" Is the last of the series of "arty" olympic movies, starting with "Tokyo Olympiad" 1965. From "16 Days of Glory" (1985) the films have been more dry and serious reportages about the ultimate sports events.

The lead director of "O Sport, You Are Peace!" is Juri Ozerov. Ozerov was one of eight directors who made the notorious olympic movie "Visions Of Eight" about Munich olympic games in 1972. It is strange to admit but O Sport... seems to be influenced by the German movie. Strange, because the overall mood of two movies are very different. "Eight" is a serious, very arty, quite unaccessible and experimental movie. "O Sport..." attempts to be funny, easygoing, lighthearted and accessible for the general public. But the two movies have a lot in common.

Both olympics were marred by political problems: Munich by a bloody terror attack and Moscow by the Cold War and huge boycott. So the both games have very bitter aftertaste and notorious legacy. But same time both olympics were carefully prepared and well executed.

It seems like Ozerov tries to make something like "Eight" but better. From the main themes on "Eight" we can see six here: the beginning (including the huge opening ceremony in Moscow); running (but not only 100 meters, others events too); pole vault (plus high jump); weightlifting; marathon; women in olympics. Decathlon is replaced with collage several track competitions but the segment is edited the same grotesque way like Milos Forman did in 1972, mixing competition's funny elements wit frames of folk dancing. There is no special "The Losers" segment, but frames of failing athletes are put inside the other segments. But there is a new and very good segment "The Trainers" about hilarious show of coaches.

Ozerov has added some more pieces, for example about social life of athletes, also the cultural programme, and short reportages of random events. The unique element of the movie are the short animations about ancient olympic games.

Here are the problems rising: there are too much material taken and Ozerov probably tried to press every lovely piece into the movie and it makes the segments very short and the movie too light and flat.

There are some problems more. The narration performed by Juri's brother Nikolai is filling the movie totally with his information and it makes watching soon somewhat exhausting.

Another big problem is music. While "Eight' had superb music by Henri Mancini. "Oo Sport..." is filled with dozens of pop, rock and easy listening pieces. No natural sounds at all, no silence. It creates a noise which starts annoy pretty soon.

Third big issue was very common among Soviet movie makers: editing is sloppy, lacks focus and rhythm. Some parts are too long, another ones too short. It makes the movie quite laborous.

But anyway, if you wanna see a joyful, funny, a bit strange, experimental, but a bit childish olympic movie then "O Sport" looks perfect.