Friday, May 1, 2020

The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952

As mentioned in the past, I will randomly watch these Olympic films in no particular order. There was no specific reason this was selected; turns out, this was a rather clinical, newsreel-like examination of the Oslo games, directed by the grandson of playwright Henrik Ibsen.

Turns out, I do not have that much to say about this. It won't appeal to everyone as there isn't much in the way of artistic flair, but for my tastes... that was fine as it was interesting seeing how all those sports (not all that happened were shown, yet many were) along with the scenery and several moments where they tried to humanize the competitors, or show what life was like in the Olympic Village, then a new-fangled concept. As at this time the host country typically produced these films, there is some Norwegian bias in this case; that was fine. I can't exactly excuse the casual sexism that appears a few times from the Norwegian narrator, but I understand that is a sign of how things were back then.

At least this was competently shot and had plenty of exciting clips of winter sports action for those that dig such things; furthermore, at times there is slow motion used to explain a technique or spotlight someone's performance, good and bad. I understand there are more worthwhile Winter Olympic documentaries... with the caveat that this is only the second one of those I have viewed, this was functional and was a fine way to spend 103 minutes.

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