White Rock

A brisk, 76 minute documentary of the 1976 Olympic Winter Games held in Innsbruck, Austria, narrated by James Coburn and focused more on the beauty of the human form and the intensity of the events than being a complete accounting of the competition. The approach has its pros and cons: it's not a dry rehash, some of the footage is sublime, and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes livens things up with some trippy music, but on the other hand, the sampling of the sports is uneven and there are glaring omissions. With that said, it's fun to compare this to the modern games, both in the equipment used (that Czech goalie's facemask!) and in technique (notably the ski jumpers not holding their legs in a V shape for increased lift, as that innovation hadn't been popularized until the 1990's).

It was interesting to see James Coburn, but he's hit and miss in his role as narrator. When he tries sports like bobsledding or biathlon himself, we really feel how intense and difficult they are, but he was also overly dramatic with the superlatives in his descriptions. Of the men's downhill skiing champion, he says "And the man that wins the gold on this mountain will not only be Olympic champion, he'll receive more adulation and publicity than all the other medalists combined." Oh, really, all of them combined? He tended to ham things up ala William Shatner, and overall I'm not so sure he was necessary.

Regrettably, the women athletes who were most successful at medaling at these games are barely mentioned. We see Rosi Mittermaier, the woman's skiing champion from Austria who two golds and a silver, for all of ten seconds, something that felt like an afterthought. We don't hear at all how in her final race she missed a historic third gold - and in her home country - by just 12 hundredths of a second. We don't see Soviet skater Tatyana Averina-Barabash (2 gold, 2 bronze) or Soviet Nordic skier Raisa Smetanina (2 gold, 1 silver) at all. The male bias cuts across all countries: from the United States we don't see Sheila Young (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze in speed skating) or Dorothy Hamill winning gold in figure skating. At least Soviet legend Irina Rodnina and her partner Alexsandr Zaytsev got a decent amount of coverage.

I know the filmmakers consciously chose to make the documentary in the style of other successful artistic representations of the games (Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad from the 1964 Summer Games really comes to mind). However, when you think we saw Coburn flailing around as a hockey goalie or waxing skis as if he's some kind of shop pro instead of world class athletes who worked hard to be there and succeeded in dramatic fashion, it has to be chalked up as a misfire in some ways. Entire sports like speed skating are neglected, with a few sequences shown during the closing credits without explanation.

Still, despite all of my complaining, I liked watching this. The insanity of going 70 miles an hour down a bobsled run or nearly that while downhill skiing hits home. The form of the skill jumpers, some of their bodies looking nearly parallel to the skis after taking off, is incredible. Even though it was just 46 years ago, it feels like a simpler time in all of these sports, with many events having been added since, but the athleticism comes through. It also doesn't overstay its welcome, and would probably be enjoyable to non-sports fans.

Once upon a time, pre-satellite if not pre-TV, most sports fans went to the cinema to get a glimpse of the Olympic Games. Local Organizing Committees hired a director from their country to cobble together a feature documentary, in addition to which the likes of Bud Greenspan produced newsreel footage.

Roone Arledge and his ABC-TV unit began to force changes to this routine in the 1960s. By the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics, the five-ring film was on its last legs. Arledge's same-day satellite transmission of Franz Klammer's spectacular downhill ski victory far outstripped Joe Jay Jalbert et al's coverage of the same event in "White Rock", the official film of this Austrian fortnight.

A team of directors, producers, camera and sound people with many shared experiences of Olympics past contributed to the content of "White Rock". Jalbert did ski-camera duty on "Downhill Racer". Mike Samuelson filmed many Olympics. Arthur Wooster the same, plus "Magical Mystery Tour". Herb Lightman of "American Cinematographer" once again filmed and then wrote about it. This was practically the last time such a fraternity had occasion to assemble.

The Olympics are surely not an exercise in nostalgia, but that is an inescapable conclusion about "White Rock".

Do you like Wes Anderson style shots? Are you into 70s euro awesomeness? Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, biathlon is your sport? This film is for you. Watch it for the people watching sport. You will not be disappointed.

I saw this film at the cinema, I already had the Rick Wakeman album and needed to see the film that went with the music. It turned out to be a magnificent combination, James Coburn's wonderful narrative, the different events of the Winter Olympics and the musical interpretation of the sports. The film was so memorable that I can still "see" the film when I hear the music, 30 years on. I've been trying to obtain a copy of this film, to no avail, this seems to be one of many minority interest films lost in the dusts of time. If anyone can advise on how best to obtain a copy of this film, it would be much appreciated. The Luge was exciting, I remember leaning in my seat, figure skating was beautiful, RW's music matched to perfection. The bobsled got the adrenaline flowing, I was there with them! I can't remember the ice hockey and the biathlon was OK, the 90 metre ski jump, something else!When one considers that this was made before the modern miniaturised cameras and videotape the effects were all the more enthralling. I still listen to the soundtrack, but it's not quite the same as seeing the film. The combination of an action hero and a progressive rock musician with a sporting spectacle were for me one of the best films of the 70s, I remember it well because it was one of the very few occasions I was tempted to go to the cinema as a student.(The other films were Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, Yessongs and The Aristocats)