Sports Documentaries

[Satchmo Distel]

The Marinovich Project (full film): https://vimeo.com/90829218

[Flynnie]

That’s a very good one. Disney+ has a bunch of 30 for 30s, and most of them are excellent.

BBC IPlayer still has OJ in America, which at least starts as a sports documentary and is incredible.

I don’t know if it’s available to stream anywhere but the 30 for 30 on the 86 Mets (Once Upon A Time In Queens) is really good, which is remarkable as that is well-trod ground (it’s the second 30 for 30 doc on that team).

[Satchmo Distel]

Netflix has a 'Bad Sports' series, of which the one that caught my attention was on Cronje:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15528100/?ref_=tt_ep_nx

I think it could have gone deeper but it's a good refresher if nothing else, and you get insights into the other characters (his family, the Indian police, etc). The interviews with players and journalists (especially Agnew ffs) are pointless filler.

[Simon G]

That’s a very good one. Disney+ has a bunch of 30 for 30s, and most of them are excellent.

BBC IPlayer still has OJ in America, which at least starts as a sports documentary and is incredible.

I don’t know if it’s available to stream anywhere but the 30 for 30 on the 86 Mets (Once Upon A Time In Queens) is really good, which is remarkable as that is well-trod ground (it’s the second 30 for 30 doc on that team).

I love the 30 for 30 series. The Steve Bartman one is great, and I enjoyed the one on the Michigan 5 (whose nickname now escapes me) - I don't even like basketball.

[ursus arctos]

[Hot Pepsi]

They definitely changed fashion (for the better).

[Hot Pepsi]

I've been getting into all of the docs about rock climbing, mainly because I don't have any interest in rock climbing so I'm fascinated by the people who are.

"Addiction" gets thrown around too much, but for the professional climbers and/or the amateur ones who live in their cars, etc, I don't know if there is a better word.

It's painful and extremely frustrating, even for the experts, and requires constant training. It can also be extremely dangerous. But for a bunch of people, it's all they think about or care about.

This one was especially illuminating.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Was the Buffalo Bills documentary a 30 for 30 one? That was excellent.

[ursus arctos]

Yup

[caja-dglh]

Rock Climbing is a great sport for documentaries. Both 14 Peaks and Free Solo are great.

[Hot Pepsi]

The Dawn Wall is good too and also that one about the history of the dirtbag climbers in Yosemite is good - Valley Uprising or something like that. There's a bit about how, in 1977, a plane full of Mexican pot crashed high in the mountains and a bunch of them made a lot of money by digging it out of the ice and scavenging it.

[multipleman78]

There was a brilliant Dutch documentary that followed the ladies hockey team back in 2006 or thereabouts. I have never seen it on UK television since the night I stumbled upon it while channel hopping.

The climbing documentaries are fantastic. 14 Peaks was a gripping watch.

[Jon]

What was the Michael Jordan one called on Netflix? I was riveted - a great mix of story, interview and phenomenal sporting action. And this is from someone who had never shown any previous interest in basketball at all.

Talking of Netflix, lots of talk on the tennis circuit about a new Netflix series coming soon. I doubt I'll be watching it though. I've been put off tennis documentaries since watching the excruciating Andy Murray one on Prime.

I've mentioned before Six Dreams on Amazon Prime. It's an excellent series about the 2018-2019 Spanish La Liga season. (And now I've just found out they've made a second series - yay!)

That’s a very good one. Disney+ has a bunch of 30 for 30s, and most of them are excellent.

BBC IPlayer still has OJ in America, which at least starts as a sports documentary and is incredible.

I don’t know if it’s available to stream anywhere but the 30 for 30 on the 86 Mets (Once Upon A Time In Queens) is really good, which is remarkable as that is well-trod ground (it’s the second 30 for 30 doc on that team).

Oh, wow. Good to know that they've got a lot of them on Disney plus. Is that second Mets documentary you mention the Judd Apatow directed Daryl and Doc?

[ursus arctos]

The Jordan one is The Last Dance

[Jon]

Ah yes, thanks ursus. I have to say it's probably my favourite sports documentary ever.

[Tony C]

Rock Climbing is a great sport for documentaries. Both 14 Peaks and Free Solo are great.

I may have mentioned this previously on here but I was at the British premier of Free Solo when it screened at Kendal Mountain Film Festival three or four years ago. The audience was full of highly renowned mountaineers and climbers, pretty much all of whom watched the film through their fingers saying “Jesus Christ” and “what the fuck was he thinking?” at regular intervals. As simply a character portrait of Alex Hannold alone it’s riveting enough but the mountain shots are spellbinding.

The cricket corruption documentary ‘Death of a Gentleman’ still on Netflix which is worth ninety minutes of anybody’s time.

[nmrfox]

The cricket corruption documentary ‘Death of a Gentleman’ still on Netflix which is worth ninety minutes of anybody’s time.

On a similar Giles Clarke theme, The Man Who Bought Cricket about Allen Stanford was a bit over-long but still interesting and jaw-dropping in equal measures.

[Simon G]

Similar to the WWE rewriting the history of the Monday Night Wars, the split in darts these days is talked about entirely in favour of what the PDC have achieved since the split in 1993, and how backwards the BDO was. Don't get me wrong - the way the BDO treated the top players at the time was appalling, but they did seem to have a logic to their reasoning (not that I agree with it).

For probably the most even hand, the best documentary is Blood on the Carpet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryz-39eyrXg

[San Bernardhinault]

I may have mentioned this previously on here but I was at the British premier of Free Solo when it screened at Kendal Mountain Film Festival three or four years ago. The audience was full of highly renowned mountaineers and climbers, pretty much all of whom watched the film through their fingers saying “Jesus Christ” and “what the fuck was he thinking?” at regular intervals. As simply a character portrait of Alex Hannold alone it’s riveting enough but the mountain shots are spellbinding.

I think Free Solo could be one of those films where the more you know about the subject, the more utterly terrifying it is. If you've never climbed, you might end up watching it as an almost abstract piece.

[Billy Casper]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Hoop Dreams yet.

[Hot Pepsi]

I think Free Solo could be one of those films where the more you know about the subject, the more utterly terrifying it is. If you've never climbed, you might end up watching it as an almost abstract piece.

I've heard loads of interviews with him and he makes it sound almost sensible.

It's not like he just walked up to the wall and climbed it. He spent two years climbing it with ropes every day and had every move memorized and felt completely certain he could do it. But his certainty was just subjective, as opposed to quantifiable, so it might be a case of literal survivor's bias. Maybe all of the free solo climbers who have died in the process were completely certain too. But he does seem to have a

He also points out that not using ropes isn't just an aesthetic decision. Carrying all the ropes slows the climber down, so then they have to take even more gear and supplies to be able to stay on the rock overnight, which just slows them down further. That's why it usually takes days. So the only way to do it in one go is to do it without ropes. In one of the other docs I saw, there's a guy working on how to carry a parachute while doing free solo. That might help.

I don't know how it compares to Formula 1 in the 50s, for example, in terms of overall danger. But like motor sports, I think people do it because they'd find life intolerable if they couldn't.

Aside from the tolerance of danger, the total 24/7 commitment to one thing is what I cannot relate to. I'm interested in a lots of different things and don't want to spend too much time on any one of them. That's why I haven't accomplished much in life but it makes me better at trivia.

What is definitely madness is all of those amateurs climbing Everest. What a mess that is.

I haven't read Into Thin Air because I heard a presentation by Krakauer before he'd even finished the book where he explained what happened and now I just don't want to relive that story in detail. Apparently neither does he. He's done some interviews lately where he said that he's not going to write any more books and is also involved in support groups for PTSD because of that experience.

[steveeeeeeeee]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Hoop Dreams yet.

I was going to. It was on the iPlayer last year, along with other Storyville stuff. Probably still there. I thought I'd just watch the first half hour one night to remind myself how good it is. Of course, I ended up watching the whole thing and it clocks in just under 3 hours.

The party to celebrate Arthur's mum's graduation is one of the most joyous things in cinema. The moment his dad buys drugs in front of him is one of the saddest.