Larry Horricks
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” – Pierre de Coubertin (one of those primarily responsible for reviving the Olympic Games in 1894)
I don’t follow sports, and I’ve never had much interest in Olympic athletes. All I know is they’re prone to outstanding displays of athleticism far beyond my mortal capabilities. I know they work hard and dream even bigger, and I admire them for possessing those qualities. I’m too young to remember the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics (I would’ve turned 6 years old that March). Therefore, I had never heard of Michael “Eddie the Eagle” Edwards until watching Eddie the Eagle, his biopic from 20th Century Fox starring Taron Egerton in the title role, Hugh Jackman as his fictional coach Bronson Peary, Christopher Walken as Peary’s coach and Jo Hartley and Keith Allen as Eddie’s lovable working-class parents.
Having watched the film directed by Dexter Fletcher, I can understand why Eddie’s story captivated the press and Olympics watchers spanning the globe at the time. Eddie was not your ideal Olympic athlete, but what he may have lacked in athleticism he more than made up for with his spirit, enthusiasm and passion. Inside him beat the heart of a champion; it just took a while for the rest of his body to catch up and fulfill his dream. And it took a while for those around him to take him seriously as a contender.
Eddie’s childhood dream was always to be a competitor in the Olympics, but he had issues with his legs, knees and eyes that required him to wear a leg brace and thick glasses. He may have been a little bit clumsy and nerdy, but that didn’t stop him from dreaming big. While most kids were outside playing, Eddie spent hours poring over books containing the greatest moments in Olympics history. It was important to him that he someday have his moment in order to prove everyone who ever said he wasn’t Olympics material wrong (namely his dad, who kept urging him to give up on the ridiculous idea and focus on becoming a plasterer with a steady income and benefits instead). Watching him hold his breath underwater in the bathtub in an effort to establish a new record and seeing him put coffee cup rings on the kitchen tablecloth in the pattern of the Olympics rings allows the viewer to emotionally connect with the character right off the bat. It’s clear that this kid, albeit an unlikely underdog, is going to go places and achieve things most of us can only dream about.
After being snubbed by the British downhill skier team, an adult Eddie realizes his one shot to become an Olympic athlete lies in a technicality. Great Britain hasn’t had an Olympic ski jumper since the 1920s and all he has to do to represent his country at the next Winter Olympics is qualify at one sanctioned ski-jumping event. The only trouble is he has never made a ski jump in his life. He travels to this fancy ski-jumping institute in Germany (I didn’t even know such places existed), where he enlists the help of an unlikely source to begin his training. Bronson Peary (Jackman) was once an Olympic ski jumper himself, but he let the fame and partying go to his head. He ended up disgracing himself, his team and the sport itself, much to the tremendous disappointment of his coach Warren Sharp (Walken). Now he’s just a drunk hanging around at the institute. He’s a ghost of a man tormented by his past mistakes and barred from competing in the sport he loves.
Poor Eddie gets picked on virtually everywhere he goes. The Norwegian skiers make fun of him, saying the world’s best ski jumpers all began their training at age 5 or 6. Even Peary makes fun of him, saying he’ll end up killing himself on the slopes. However, an undeterred Eddie eventually wins over Peary to become his coach and (shocker) he makes it all the way to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary (where once again, he’s picked on by other athletes and those in charge of the British team). While he finishes dead last in the competition, the fact that he made it there at all is nothing short of a wonder and an inspiration. Eddie the Eagle is like an Olympics fairy tale set in the magical 1980s era complete with montages set to Van Halen’s “Jump” and Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True.” I couldn’t have asked for more.
The film left me wondering more about “Eddie the Eagle” in real life. It’s true that Eddie was the first person to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping, and he held the British ski jumping record for a time. Although he finished last in both the 70m and 90m ski-jumping events in the 1988 Games, he became a folk hero to the masses because he represented that if a person had enough discipline and perseverance, they could overcome the highest obstacles and reach their goals. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t technically a winner. One could make the argument that he was a winner just by competing.
Did Eddie make it to the 1992 Olympics? The answer sadly is no. According to my Internet research, he failed to qualify in both the 1992 Winter Olympics held in Albertville, France, and in the 1994 Games held in Lillehammer, Norway. While he did receive a five-year sponsorship from Eagle Airlines (a small British charter company) to try to make it to the 1998 Games held in Nagano, Japan, he also failed to qualify for those. As a matter of fact, in what I can’t help but feel is a direct slap to the face, the International Olympic Committee came up with a rule in 1990 dubbed the “Eddie the Eagle Rule” that states all Olympic hopefuls must be ranked in the top 30% or the top 50 competitors in their sport (whichever is fewer) to qualify on an international level. However, I suppose it’s a comforting afterthought that Olympic organizers asked him to carry the Olympic torch in both 2008 and 2010.
Eddie the Eagle is another feel-good tale about an Olympics underdog a la 1993’s Cool Runnings that should be a hit with people of all ages. The camera work is breathtaking; it feels like you’re going down those steep ski slopes and soaring like an eagle right alongside Eddie. The acting is credible, and the creative liberties they’ve taken with Eddie’s story are justifiable. Whether you consider Eddie a folk hero or a canker sore to the sport (you’d be shocked at how strongly some still feel this way even after almost 30 years), I highly recommend this movie.
Eddie the Eagle has a running time of 1 hour 46 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some suggestive material, partial nudity and smoking.
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