Sports — Volume 2: The verdict is written off the field
The worth of an athlete decided a long way from the scoreboard.
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The volume
There is always a result, and none of these films falsifies it: a time, a score, a final standing, the vote of a panel. Every time, though, the result arrives when the important thing has already been settled elsewhere, in an office with portraits on the wall, in a hospital room, in a town that does not want to see that trophy raised, in an armchair in front of a camera. The worth of an athlete, here, is decided in the reason he runs, in the rival who serves as his measure, in the version of his story the world chooses to believe. One executes the formula in full and then withdraws it. One removes from the story the thing that looked indispensable, a single man to root for. The last leaves the account open, with witnesses who contradict each other on everything.
The five films, and why they are here
Million Dollar Baby
How much credit a reassuring formula builds up, and how that credit gets spent all at once.
Chariots of Fire
Lingering where the sports story is usually in a hurry: with the outcome already known, the tension moves to who will stay himself.
Rush
Two protagonists with opposite reasons and equal right: how to reach the end without ever fielding a villain.
Remember the Titans
A stock situation handled without irony that carries a second load, with the real opponent placed off the field.
I, Tonya
The parable of deserved redemption taken apart piece by piece, with a contested truth the film leaves contested to the end.
Inside the volume
- Introduction to the genre: the essay that binds the volume's five titles together and says what to watch for.
- Five analytical chapters, one per film, from the dramatic premise to the legacy of the work.
- Comparative glossary: thirteen or fourteen craft concepts, tested against these five titles.
- Over two hundred pages, in PDF and EPUB, in your account library.