30 for 30 running thread

I should have expanded my thoughts, but you're right. The Oliver Stone in me, however, thinks it all started with Michael Carbajal beating one of the top Korean boxers in a prelim bout. It seemed Korea did everything possible to fuck American boxers.

1. Anthony Hembrick was one of America's top boxers that year. His first bout was against a Korean. However, the schedule mysteriously changed and the only people who weren't informed of the schedule change were those in USA Boxing. Hembrick showed up late for the fight, and the Korean won by walkover.

2. Todd Foster was fighting a Korean in a Round of 16 fight. Bizarrely, two rings were used at the same time in the arena. But each ring had distinctively different sounding bells. The bell from the other ring went off during Foster's fight, and the Korean dropped his hands. Foster tattooed the Korean. The fight was quickly ruled a no-contest and the two would fight again. Foster won the rematch, but was spent for his quarterfinal, which he lost by decision.

3. Even Carbajal got screwed later on. In his gold medal fight, Carbajal clearly beat his Bulgarian counterpart, yet lost a unanimous decision. Carbajal's reaction - a WTF shrug to his brother - said it all.

4. Immediately after Carbajal lost, Kennedy McKinney fought for gold. He was reportedly so upset that Carbajal lost that he told his trainer something along the lines of, "The only way I can win is by knockout." He didn't win by knockout, but beat the tar out of his opponent Bulgarian Roy Jones style, putting him down in the first 10 seconds. McKinney did win by decision.

5. Roy Jones. YouTube the medal ceremony. Even the Korean boxer who "won" knew it wasn't right.

 

I refuse to believe that South Korea would ever receive favorable treatment in a major international sporting event it happens to be hosting.

 

I kept thinking the interviews and music would stop, and they'd delve in deeper. After 45 minutes, I gave up. First 30 for 30 I didn't make it through.

 

Expected them to do vignettes/breakouts on Dykstra, Kenny Anderson, Kosar, etc. Would have provided much-needed change of pace, escape from that music and better understanding of downward spiral if shown in context. Would have been instructive to hear a former coach or an ex-wife or an old teammate talk about what they saw going on, anecdotes about the spending or squandering. Really not filmmaking at all.

 

I don't know if you guys saw 'Cocaine Cowboys' or 'The U'.. Both really good films.. this is Billy Corben's style of filmmaking. Some people don't like it... A whole lot of people do.

 

Exactly.

I happen to be one of the people who like it.

 

Loved The U, but that one had highlights of games and old footage. This latest one had nothing but talking, and talking, and ....
Not sure what more they could have done, but I didn't learn a whole lot from it.

 

See.. I knew about a lot of those guys already. Shilling has been in the news for video game company flop. I already knew about McCants. I read about Searcy in SI. Same with Kosar and Mashburn. I knew most that stuff on Rison.
The only knew stuff I learned was the from the people who weren't famous. - and a little more about Kosar. And I would have liked to have gotten more about him and his family dynamic.

 

I learned a few things... But sometimes the point of a film is simply to entertain.. And I was thoroughly entertained by the anecdotes.

 

Everybody cheats. Then they lie about it. Oh, and Carl Lewis is still a pompous jerk.

 

And a fucking cheat himself.

 

I thought 9.79* was great. The subtle shot of Lewis wearing braces, minutes after we hear that drug users often have trouble with their teeth and have to wear braces, was pretty great. And how about the answer from the guy who supposedly spiked Ben Johnson's beer? "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

Damn. Great job.