When I was in junior high, I was not cool enough to have a pair of Nike Air Jordans. I do recall there was some controversy about the original shoe's design with the NBA, but I never knew the exact details. Then the recent film with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Air explained everything.
Admittedly, I'm not really into sports, but in my junior year, I was a manager of my high school's varsity basketball team (and not a very good one). I do like sports films because they're often inspirational and humanistic, and I've featured a few of them in Ted's MOVIE OF THE WEEK--Woodlawn, The Replacements, Days of Thunder, My All American, and Escape To Victory.
Air is an unusual sports film because it's as much about a shoe product line as it is about the athlete it's based on. I mean, really, when was the last time you saw a movie about a shoe?
But like many great sports films, Air is about an underdog--and it's not Michael Jordan. While Nike is a household name brand, the company didn't sponsor professional basketball players as much as their competitors back then, and the story revolving around Air Jordan is one of the most fascinating in corporate history.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have come a long way since their first film, Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon delivered one of his finest performances in Air. Ben Affleck has gone on beyond screenwriting and acting to become an accomplished director, and Air is, without a doubt, one of his best films and certainly one of the must-see films of the year.
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