The Everlasting Flame is the official documentary of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Beijing. The movie takes two approaches towards documenting the games. The first is to highlight a handful of athletes: Thomasz Wylenzek (Germany, canoeing), Kyle Bennett (USA, BMX racing), Haile Gebreselassie (Ethiopia, 10K race), Usain Bolt & Asafa Powell (Jamaica, track) and Hadi Saei & Sara Khosjamal Fekri (Iran, Taekwondo). These athletes are shown training at home and special attention is paid to their events. The women's gymnastics events are also given detailed treatment. All of the rest of the events are covered in snippets and montages, which is a shame, but given the number of events, understandable. The opening ceremonies, directed by Zhang Jimou, are also given an in depth look, although they were so beautiful, I could have watched a whole movie about them.
