Going for gold on celluloid<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The opening of the Sydney Olympics is only a
\nhop, skip and a jump away.<\/p>\n
There are bound to be some who will feel motivated by Olympic
\nfever to put on a pair of sneakers and head off to the track at
\nSenayan. The rest of us will feel quite content to stay put in
\nour comfy chairs and watch from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
For two definitive documentaries on Olympics past, try to get
\nyour hands on the following:<\/p>\n
Olympische Spiele 1936 (Olympiad). Directed by Leni
\nReifenstahl.<\/p>\n
Great director or Nazi stooge? It was the question which
\ndogged Reifenstahl throughout the rest of her career (and just
\nhow close she was to old Adolf anyway?). The story of the
\nOlympics in which American Jesse Owens' athletic prowess put paid
\nto the idea of Aryan supremacy. Britain's Time Out magazine said
\n\"the human body is eroticized in a paean to physical beauty that
\nsuggests how compatible fetishism and fascism can be\". You be the
\njudge.<\/p>\n
Tokyo Olympiad 1964. Directed by Kon Ichikawa.<\/p>\n
A more than two-hour immersion in the 1964 Olympics, the first
\nheld in Asia, by feature-film director Ichikawa. It was the Games
\nof American Wyomia Tyus, Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila and Australia's
\nDawn Fraser (who was suspended from competition for 10 years
\nafter trying to steal flags from the Imperial Palace). Time Out
\nsaid \"the only sustained 'performance' is Abebe Bikila's triumph
\nin the marathon, but the rest is funny, sexy, beautiful or
\natmospheric enough to give a lot of pleasure to the open-eyed\".
\n(brc)<\/p>",
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