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Topic: Eddie the Eagle

Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 04-25-2016 03:31 AM

There have been many, many films made about our equally many sporting heroes and they all tend to hit much the same beats. Commonly these heroes will hail from non-privileged, undisciplined backgrounds to rise above all adversity to become kings and queens of their respective sporting fields. As such, one story is much the same as the other.

It is perhaps a result of the popularity of geek chic in recent times that a movie about an athlete who goes to the Olympics and comes dead last in his event has become a commercial viability. Such a story has a precedence in truth, of course, with Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, a British ski jumper who was so far behind the competitive field of his Olympic peers that he endeared himself to people the world over for simply having the guts to "have a go".

It must be said from the outset that there is a great disparity between this film and the facts in terms of the peripheral characters and some of the locales. Indeed, Eddie Edwards himself has claimed that only 5% of the story portrayed in the film is true. But that 5% represents the spirit of the man and his unshakeable determination to achieve his goals. In, perhaps, a Lord of the Rings fashion, the details may, at times, deviate significantly from the source but the broad strokes feel right and we receive a message which is in keeping with how we remember things panning out.

Star, Taron Egerton, first appeared on our radar in Kngsman: The Secret Service and with his hugely endearing performance in the title role here, he marks himself as an actor to watch. Hugh Jackman brings his usual infectious charisma to his fictitious, disgraced athlete come ski jump coach. And even Christopher Walken appears as another (albeit fictitious) character.

Eddie the Eagle may not be entirely true to life but it is true to tone. The film is funny and heartfelt and speaks to a worthwhile theme of never giving up on your dreams - even if you're (relatively) crap at it.

Next up must surely be a biopic of Eric the Eel.

9 out of 10

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 05-26-2016 10:42 PM

quote: Stu Jamieson
It is perhaps a result of the popularity of geek chic in recent times that a movie about an athlete who goes to the Olympics and comes dead last in his event has become a commercial viability.

I think it's also an English cultural thing, too: the idea that it's not winning that matters, but playing the game honorably according to the rules. Hence the description of foreigners in Flanders and Swann's Song of Patriotic Prejudice: "They argue with umpires, they cheer when they've won, and they practice beforehand, which ruins the fun."

At around the same time that Eddie the Eagle was at the, erm, peak of his career, there was a grossly incompetent Formula 1 racing driver called Pedro Diniz. He was only competing because his father was a multimillionaire and basically bought his way into a whatever team would give him a drive. On the very rare occasions that he didn't cause an accident, taking at least himself out of the race and often other drivers with him, he usually finished last or almost last, having been lapped at least twice by the leaders. Yet the entire British sports media was obsessed with him, and gave him as much if not more screen time than Schumacher, Hill and the other greats. There was one occasion on which, astonishingly, he finished in the points. It was essentially a lucky gamble: the weather was threatening at the start of the race, he put wet tires on at the outset (and was the only one to do so), the heavens opened in about lap 3, and stayed open for the rest of the race. Even though Diniz had qualified in last place (as he almost always did), by simply plodding around the track very cautiously while the others either slid off or lost time in the pits changing tires, he just managed to finish sixth. That literally made front page headlines the following day.

The movie sounds fun, and I'll try to catch it anyways.

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