VIDEO : HERE, COOL RECEPTION A FACT OF LIFE.Byline: Robert Bianco Special to the Daily News Stow those footballs and sharpen those skates, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to switch sports. No doubt the non-fans among us, beaten and battered by Super Bowl hype, were hoping they would get a break from any sport for at least a week. But time and TV ratings wait for no man; we're skiing fast into the Winter Olympics, that quadrennial quad·ren·ni·al adj. 1. Happening once in four years. 2. Lasting for four years. quad·ren  ni·al n. attempt to persuade the
American public that it cares about luge luge (l zh), a type of small sled on which one or two persons, lying face up, slide feet first down snowy hillsides or down steeply banked, curving, iced chutes similar to those used in .
Actually, it's the very obscurity of most Winter Olympic events, coupled with the beauty of their locations, that gives the Winter Games
n. Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism. jin go·ist n. Cold War medal race that so often set the tone for the Summer
Olympics. Our wins in the winter Games tend to be less expected. (They
didn't call that 1980 hockey game the ``miracle on ice''
for nothing.)
Perhaps because the games are smaller, they've also attracted less attention from Hollywood. No American winter athlete has had a movie career comparable to summer sports stars Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe or Esther Williams - and few have even matched the movie careers of Bruce Jenner or Mitch Gaylord. In fact, the only real star to come out of the Winter Olympics has been Sonja Henie, and she had to skate over from Norway. Go figure. With that in mind, we'll start our Winter Olympic salute with Henie's first Hollywood film. Bundle up, grab some cocoa and fire up that VCR VCR: see videocassette recorder. VCR in full videocassette recorder Electromechanical device that records, stores on a videotape cassette, and plays back on a TV set recorded images and sound. . One in a Million: (1936, Fox; $19.98) For sheer, if brief, star power, few athletes of any stripe can top Henie, who won gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936. ``One in a Million'' has the sense to cast her as an Olympic competitor, but like all of her films, it has to struggle mightily to hide the fact that its star can neither sing, act, dance nor speak English. Still, if nothing else, her films do illustrate how far skating has come. Henie's skips and twirls have a certain charm, but they wouldn't win her gold at your local ice rink. Snow White and the Three Stooges: (1961, Fox; $14.98) American skating gold medalist Carol Heiss began and ended her film career as Snow White in this Stooges bomb. She went on to have a very successful career as a skating coach. I'm sure she'd rather we concentrate on that. The Cutting Edge: (1992, MGM MGM in full Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. U.S. corporation and film studio. It was formed when the film distributor Marcus Loew, who bought Metro Pictures in 1920, merged it with the Goldwyn production company in 1924 and with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1925. ; $19.98) Moira Kelly stars as a bratty brat·ty adj. brat·ti·er, brat·ti·est Characteristic of or being a brat; ill-mannered. brat ti·ness n. doubles skater who turns to an ex-hockey star (D.B. Sweeney) as a
last-chance partner. It's a movie for everyone who has suspected
that some of those pairs aren't as chipper chipper Drug slang An occasional user of illicit drugs. See Recreational drug use Tobacco A popular term for a person who smokes < 5 cigarettes/day, who may be resistant to nicotine dependence or addiction, and often born to non-smoking parents. as they seem.
Going for Gold: The Bill Johnson Story: (1985, Columbia TriStar; $14.95) The filmed story of one of the Games' most surprising heroes, downhill skier Billy Johnson. Of more interest now, however, are the movie's two then-unknown stars, Anthony Edwards and Sarah Jessica Parker. Ice Castles: (1979, Columbia TriStar; $14.95) The schmaltz schmaltz also schmalz n. 1. Informal a. Excessively sentimental art or music. b. Maudlin sentimentality. 2. Liquid fat, especially chicken fat. is laid on so thick on this one, you need a blow-torch to melt your way out. Lynn-Holly Johnson stars as a skater who triumphs over blindness with the help of her friends and family members (Robby Benson, Tom Skerritt and Colleen Dewhurst). The film's theme song, ``Through the Eyes of Love,'' often is heard at skating exhibitions - proof that schmaltz flows downhill. For Your Eyes Only: (1981, MGM; $19.98) Johnson is much more amusing as a nymphomaniac nymphomaniac an individual patient habitually showing signs of nymphomania. young skater in this Roger Moore Bond epic that also features a neat biathalon ski chase - though it doesn't compare to the classic ski scenes from ``On Her Majesty's Secret Service.'' Downhill Racer: (1969, Paramount; $14.95) Robert Redford stars as a hotshot Olympic skier in this acclaimed Michael Ritchie film, known for the thrill quality of its downhill scenes. Cool Runnings: (1993, Disney; $19.99) This very popular Disney comedy was loosely based on the improbable Jamaican bobsled team The Jamaican Bobsled Team first gained fame during their debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. Origins Two Americans were largely responsible for the founding of the Jamaican Bobsled Team. George B. . It's formulaic, but it features one of John Candy's last, and best, performances. Miracle on Ice The "Miracle on Ice" is the popular nickname for the men's ice hockey game in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, in which a team of amateur and collegiate players from the United States beat the long-dominant and heavily-favored Soviet Union, in a match held on February 22, 1980, at : (1981, Fox; priced for rental) Quickie TV movie about that 1980 hockey gold medal, one of America's most inspirational (and parochial) Olympic moments. Unfortunately, it also inspired America's most annoying new Olympic traditions: that ``USA'' chant. Slap Shot: (1977, Universal; $14.98) George Roy Hill and Paul Newman (``Butch Cassidy'') reunited for this comic tale of a losing hockey team that wins by playing dirty. Team it with ``Miracle on Ice,'' and you can follow a player's transition from happy amateur to profane pro. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: For sheer, if brief, star power, few athletes of any stripe can top Sonja Henie. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion