Turner Classic Movies has recently broadcast a dozen of the documentaries about the individual Olympics, and I have been going through them. This is not among my favorites. I don't like the way the Eastmancolor prints have aged towards brown, lending everything a faded, dingy appearance. I despise the voice over, with its overblown phrases, its commenting about everything; he only shuts up briefly for the figure skaters. I understand his Italian nationalism, but it seems out of place for the spirit of universality and good sportsmanship that the Olympics is supposed to promote. And I personally despise the bobsledding and luge, which strikes me as strapping yourself into a tin can and careening through a tunnel of ice at high speed, hoping that you don't break your neck. If that's a sport, so is going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
Well, at least the final shot of the setting sun tinting a peak of the Dolemites a brilliant gold is pretty.
