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"Games of the XXI Olympiad" by directors Jean-Claude Labrecque , Jean Beaudin , Marcel Carrière & Georges Dufaux is a classic and very good 1970s documentary. It means it follows the path established by Michael Lindsay-Hogg's "Let It Be" (1970) -- the ultrarealistic, intimate, even brutal style, which flourished especially during the 1970s but somewhat disappeared later. But "Games..." is a masterpiece of the style and sports all the elements of it: a lot of close-ups, fly-on-the-wall observation method, minimal off-screen commentary, a lot of natural sound, minimal amount of off-screen music, minimal amount of self-censoring etc.

The movie is radical departure from hardcore artiness of "Visions of Eight" (the Munich olympic movie) and avoidance of cliches of classic olympic movies. It makes the film very unique. Even the slow motion is NEVER used! Only some brief special interviews and really as-less-as-possible off-screen informational comments are made (performed by classic 70s documentary film voice -- dry low baritone). Instead of them a lot of separate and even hidden camera footages are used.

The directors chose four athletes for more careful observation. Those are: Cuban sprinter Silvio Leonard, american decathlete Bruse Jenner, Soviet gymnast Nelly Kim and Hungarian pentathlete Tamás Kancsal. Reason is simple, they were all the favourites before the games. And as it turned out, 3 of them were really successfull, winning medals, two of them even golds. Three of them are very attractive and cinegenic too. Leonard is openly emotional, passionate, boyish, makes us compassionate towards him after a strange injury he gets. Jenner is powerful, good looking, talkative, easygoing and makes a really good comedic pair with his arch-rival, always silent but hilarious Mykola Avilov. Nelly Kim is extremely funny with her teenager's antics and shortcomings. Only Kancsal is almost autistic, never showing ANY emotion with his initial failures or even winning medal either. But with him are done some the most risque frames, the scenes where a nude male coach is giving a massage to naked Tamás.

But the film covers numerous other highlights of the olympics too, so no problem understanding what were the games about. Everything is done ultrarealistic way, so the movie is very close to even a time-machine. You can even imagine the smells in the events, all the emotions and mental power. Superb!

"O Sport, You Are Peace!" Is the last of the series of "arty" olympic movies, starting with "Tokyo Olympiad" 1965. From "16 Days of Glory" (1985) the films have been more dry and serious reportages about the ultimate sports events.

The lead director of "O Sport, You Are Peace!" is Juri Ozerov. Ozerov was one of eight directors who made the notorious olympic movie "Visions Of Eight" about Munich olympic games in 1972. It is strange to admit but O Sport... seems to be influenced by the German movie. Strange, because the overall mood of two movies are very different. "Eight" is a serious, very arty, quite unaccessible and experimental movie. "O Sport..." attempts to be funny, easygoing, lighthearted and accessible for the general public. But the two movies have a lot in common.

Both olympics were marred by political problems: Munich by a bloody terror attack and Moscow by the Cold War and huge boycott. So the both games have very bitter aftertaste and notorious legacy. But same time both olympics were carefully prepared and well executed.

It seems like Ozerov tries to make something like "Eight" but better. From the main themes on "Eight" we can see six here: the beginning (including the huge opening ceremony in Moscow); running (but not only 100 meters, others events too); pole vault (plus high jump); weightlifting; marathon; women in olympics. Decathlon is replaced with collage several track competitions but the segment is edited the same grotesque way like Milos Forman did in 1972, mixing competition's funny elements wit frames of folk dancing. There is no special "The Losers" segment, but frames of failing athletes are put inside the other segments. But there is a new and very good segment "The Trainers" about hilarious show of coaches.

Ozerov has added some more pieces, for example about social life of athletes, also the cultural programme, and short reportages of random events. The unique element of the movie are the short animations about ancient olympic games.

Here are the problems rising: there are too much material taken and Ozerov probably tried to press every lovely piece into the movie and it makes the segments very short and the movie too light and flat.

There are some problems more. The narration performed by Juri's brother Nikolai is filling the movie totally with his information and it makes watching soon somewhat exhausting.

Another big problem is music. While "Eight' had superb music by Henri Mancini. "Oo Sport..." is filled with dozens of pop, rock and easy listening pieces. No natural sounds at all, no silence. It creates a noise which starts annoy pretty soon.

Third big issue was very common among Soviet movie makers: editing is sloppy, lacks focus and rhythm. Some parts are too long, another ones too short. It makes the movie quite laborous.

But anyway, if you wanna see a joyful, funny, a bit strange, experimental, but a bit childish olympic movie then "O Sport" looks perfect.