Which would we rather live without: movies or sport? Right now, we have no choice, but usually at this time of year, the two would be vying for our attention: big summer blockbusters versus big sporting events such as Euro 2020 and the Olympics. Now all we have got are empty stadiums and cinemas, and endless discussions about when either might reopen.
By way of compensation, we can at least watch films about sport, and canny operators are filling the void this summer. New streaming releases include the documentaries In Search of Greatness, on sport’s great innovators (bottom line: if you need to learn from a sporting genius, you aren’t one), and Corneliu Porumboiu’s Infinite Football (on a Romanian eccentric who attempted to reinvent the beautiful game – by making it utterly confusing), while Netflix is doing gangbusters with its Michael Jordan doc The Last Dance (technically a TV series, but serving the same function).
Despite their rivalries, sport and cinema have come to a comfortable accommodation lately. These releases follow in the wake of quality sports content such as Asif Kapadia’s Senna and Diego Maradona or the Oscar-winning Free Solo and OJ: Made in America. At their best, sports documentaries find that middle ground: interesting to people who don’t follow sports; an extra dimension for those who do. The Last Dance, for example, reveals aspects of both Jordan and basketball we have never seen before. For non-aficionados (I still don’t understand the NBA draft system), it is a fascinating character drama, better than a biopic could ever be. Jordan gives a superb performance as himself. And he does all his own stunts.
Sport and film are both designed to manufacture drama: conflict, heroism, victory, defeat – all safely insulated from reality. But let’s be honest, following either on a regular basis is often a matter of anticipation, exasperation, boredom and disappointment. In his earlier football doc, The Second Game, in which he watches an old match with his dad, Porumboiu jokes: “It’s like one of my films: it’s long and nothing happens.” On a week-to-week basis, sport is less an epic saga than a routine soap opera, but when it does produce something spectacular, documentary is there to forge it into myth.
Is that enough right now? No matter the quality, the steady flow of new sporting action and new movies makes us feel we’re living in the present. Despite these industries being considered “non-essential”, life just isn’t the same without them. So for now, sport and movies are on the same team, you could say, although the current backlog means next summer is shaping up to be an almighty smackdown. Can’t wait.
