100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov, December 19, 2017

The "100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012" collection arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The 32-disc box set gathers 53 newly restored films from 41 editions of the Olympic Games, presented together for the first time ever, with exclusive newly commissioned scores for the silent films composed by Maud Nelissen, Donald Sosin, and Frido ter Beek. The release also arrives with a lavishly illustrated, 216-page, hardcover book, featuring notes on the films by cinema historian Peter Cowie; a foreword by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; a short history of the restoration project by restoration producer Adrian Wood; and hundreds of photographs from a century of Olympic Games. With multiple audio tracks, and optional English or English SDH subtitles for the main features. Region-A "locked". 

The greatest hockey game ever played

When a few years ago the folks at Criterion announced Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman box set I was convinced that it will remain the most ambitious high-definition release produced not only by a U.S. label, but any label. It was just one of those dream projects that even long-time fans of the legendary character did not think was likely to materialize -- but it did, and it turned out to be a very special treat. 

I have now officially changed my mind because I think that the new 100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 box set is an even more ambitious project, and one that does not have a serious competitor even in the libraries that previous home video formats left us. It is true. It is not only the volume of the content that is hugely impressive, but also its variety and significance. Given the subject matter, the release is as comprehensive and definitive as it possibly could have been. 

The box set contains 32 discs with recent restorations and reconstructions of films that basically offer one giant lesson in Olympic history. For approximately a month I have tried to view at least one film per night and now I feel like I have completed a major course that has helped me fill in important gaps and gain an entirely new appreciation of the Olympic Games. For example, I understand better how different sports evolved during the years and how the success of various nations at the games also had a tremendous impact on their standings on the international stage. All of the films also offer very unique glimpses at the socio-cultural environments of the host nations that are frequently just as fascinating to analyze as the archival footage from the wide range of activities. 

I did not view the films in chronological order. (Some I did, but not all). Though I first viewed a couple of the bigger and more frequently discussed films -- such as Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia and Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad -- I quickly shifted my attention to the 'smaller' films that I was unfamiliar with. Hannu Leminen's Where the World Meets, for instance, was produced for the games that were held in Helsinki in 1952, and given the time period, I found its casual yet very illuminating social commentary to be absolutely fascinating. Initially it highlights the country's extensive preparation efforts, but then it produces some very interesting observations about the balance of powers in a post-WW2 world. Tancred Ibsen's The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 delivers an equally captivating social commentary and its glamour-free coverage of various competitions gives it a borderline neorealist vibe. (There is some raw footage with bobsleigh teams trying to break different records while relying on very early equipment and protective gear here that I thought was simply astonishing). Another early film with a very interesting history that I had never seen before is The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928. This film apparently became quite controversial after the Organizing Committee for the Games of Amsterdam granted the exclusive rights to it to the legendary Italian studio Istituto Nazionale LUCE. The Dutch press was very critical of the decision and consequently the Italian production was boycotted and banned in the Netherlands. A restored and reconstructed version of the film is presented here with a brand new piano score that was composed and recorded by Maud Nelissen in 2017. 

While every single film is special there are five that I enjoyed a bit more than the rest, though admittedly for very different reasons. The first is Tony Maylam's White Rock with the late James Coburn, which became the official film for the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 1976. It uses the conventional documentary format, but Coburn very quickly adds a personal touch to the narrative that reshapes it into something quite different and very original. (This film also has some incredible bobsleigh footage that was actually shot with Coburn). The next is 13 Days in France which is officially credited to Claude Lelouch and François Reichenbach, but actually combines original content from various directors that were present at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble. It is an enormously atmospheric project that functions in a way that reminded me of Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait -- it is very relaxed and fluid, and yet strikingly elegant and even modern. The film also has a stunning score from the great Francis Lai (Emmanuelle 2, Love Story). The third film has the iconic footage from perhaps the greatest hockey game ever played, the Miracle on Ice. It is Drummond Challis and Maylam's Olympic Spirit, and like the rest of the films in this box set it has been fully restored for your viewing pleasure. The fourth film is Yuri Ozerov's O Sport, You Are Peace! which was produced for the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. The United States boycotted the games after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan -- and four years later the Soviet Union and all but one of its European satellites boycotted the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles -- and so at the time the atmosphere on the other side of the Iron Curtain was very awkward. The entire film is a remarkable time capsule. The last film is one that I had seen many years ago on a dusty VHS tape. It is called Marathon and was directed by the great director Carlos Saura for the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. This film features that glorious duet that Freddie Mercury and the Spanish diva Montserrat Caballe recorded together and in my humble opinion has one of the most elegant opening ceremonies ever staged. 


BOX SET CONTENT

DISC ONE
Stockholm 1912
The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912 (dir. Adrian Wood • 2016 • 170 minutes)
Presented with a brand new piano score composed and recorded by Donald Sosin in 2017. (LPCM 2.0).

DISC TWO
Chamonix 1924
The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 (dir. Jean de Rovera • 1924 •​ 37 minutes)

Paris 1924
The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece (dir. Jean de Rovera • 1924 •​ 8 minutes)
The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (dir. Jean de Rovera • 1924 •​ 174 minutes)
All films presented with brand new piano scores composed and recorded by Donald Sosin in 2017. (LPCM 2.0).

DISC THREE
St. Moritz 1928
The White Stadium (dirs. Arnold Fanck, Othmar Gurtner • 1928 •​ 124 minutes)
Presented with a brand new piano score composed, performed, and recorded by Frido ter Beek, with additional by Yamila Bavio, in 2017. (LPCM 2.0).

DISC FOUR
Amsterdam 1928
The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam (dir. unknown • 1928 • 251 minutes)
Presented with a brand new piano score that was composed and performed by Maud Nelissen in 2017. (LPCM 2.0)

DISC FIVE
Amsterdam 1928
The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928 (dir. Wilhelm Prager; supervisor Jules Perel • 1928 • 192 minutes)
Presented with a brand new piano score that was composed and performed by Maud Nelissen in 2017. (LPCM 2.0)

DISC SIX
Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936
Youth of the World (dir. Carl Junghans • 1936​​ • 38 minutes)

Berlin 1936
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (dir. Leni Riefenstahl • 1938 • 127 minutes)
Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (dir. Leni Riefenstahl • 1938 • 103 minutes)

DISC SEVEN
St. Moritz 1948
Fight Without Hate (dir. André Michel • 1948 • 91 minutes)

London 1948
XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (dir. Castleton Knight • 1948​ • 138 minutes)

DISC EIGHT
Oslo 1952
The VI Olympic Winter Games, Oslo 1952 (dir. Tancred Ibsen • 1952 •​ 103 minutes)

DISC NINE
Helsinki 1952
Where the World Meets (dir. Hannu Leminen • 1952 • 101 minutes)
Gold and Glory (dir. Hannu Leminen • 1953​ • 97 minutes)
Memories of the Olympic Summer of 1952 (dir. unknown • 1954 • 50 minutes)

DISC TEN
Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956
White Vertigo (dir. Giorgio Ferroni • 1956 •​ 96 minutes)

DISC ELEVEN
Melbourne1956
Olympic Games, 1956 (dir. Peter Whitchurch • 1956 •​ 60 minutes)
The Melbourne Rendez-vous (dir. René Lucot • 1957 ​• 106 minutes)
Alain Mimoun (dir. Louis Gueguen •​ 1959 • 24 minutes)

Stockholm 1956
The Horse in Focus (dir. unknown •​ 1956​ • 16 minutes)

DISC TWELVE
Squaw Valley 1960
People, Hopes, Medals (dir. Heribert Meisel •​ 1960 •​ 93 minutes)

Rome 1960
The Grand Olympics (dir. Romolo Marcellini •​ 1961 • 147 minutes)

DISC THIRTEEN
Innsbruck 1964
IX Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1964 (dir. Theo Hörmann •​ 1964 • 90 minutes)

DISC FOURTEEN
Tokyo 1964
Tokyo Olympiad (dir. Kon Ichikawa • 1965 •​ 170 minutes)

DISC FIFTEEN
Tokyo 1964
Passion of the Century (prod. Taguchi Suketaro, supervisor Nobumasa Kawamoto • 1966 •​ 156 minutes)

DISC SIXTEEN
Grenoble 1968
13 Days in France (dirs. Claude Lelouch, François Reichenbach •​ 1968 • 112 minutes)
Snows of Grenoble (dirs. Jacques Ertaud, Jean-Jacques Languepin •​ 1968 ​• 97 minutes)

DISC SEVENTEEN
Mexico City 1968
The Olympics in Mexico (dir. Alberto Isaac • 1969 •​ 160 minutes)

DISC EIGHTEEN
Sapporo 1972
Sapporo Winter Olympics (dir. Masahiro Shinoda • 1972 •​ 167 minutes)

Munich 1972
Visions of Eight (dirs. Miloš Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling • 1973​ • 110 minutes)

DISC NINETEEN
Innsbruck 1976
White Rock (dir. Tony Maylam • 1977 •​ 77 minutes)

Montreal 1976
Games of the XXI Olympiad (dirs. Jean-Claude Labrecque, Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux • 1977 •​ 118 minutes)

DISC TWENTY
Lake Placid 1980
Olympic Spirit (dirs. Drummond Challis, Tony Maylam • 1980 •​ 27 minutes)

Moscow 1980
O Sport, You Are Peace! (dir. Yuri Ozerov • 1981 ​• 149 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-ONE
Sarajevo 1984
A Turning Point (dir. Kim Takal • 1984 • 82 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-TWO
Los Angeles 1984
16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 1986 • 284 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-THREE
Calgary 1988
Calgary '88: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 1989​ • 202 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-FOUR
Seoul 1988
Seoul 1988 (dir. Lee Kwang-soo • 1989​ • 139 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-FIVE
Seoul 1988
Hand in Hand (dir. Im Kwon-taek • 1989​ • 119 minutes)
Beyond All Barriers (dir. Lee Ji-won • 1989​ • 92 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-SIX
Albertville 1992
One Light, One World (dirs. Joe Jay Jalbert, R. Douglas Copsey •​ 1992 • 104 minutes)

Barcelona 1992
Marathon (dir. Carlos Saura dir. Carlos Saura •​ 1993 • 130 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-SEVEN
Lillehammer 1994
Lillehammer '94: 16 Days of Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 1994 • 209 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-EIGHT
Atlanta 1996
Atlanta's Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 1997 ​• 206 minutes)

DISC TWENTY-NINE
Nagano 1998
Nagano '98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 1998 •​ 119 minutes)
Olympic Glory (dir. Kieth Merrill • 1999 •​ 42 minutes)

Sydney 2000
Sydney 2000: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 2001 •​ 117 minutes)

DISC THIRTY
Salt Lake City 2002
Salt Lake City 2002: Bud Greenspan's Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 2003 •​ 119 minutes)

Athens 2004
Bud Greenspan's Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan •​ 2005 • 96 minutes)

DISC THIRTY-ONE
Turin 2006
Bud Greenspan's Torino 2006: Stories of Olympic Glory (dir. Bud Greenspan • 2007 ​• 88 minutes)

Beijing 2008
The Everlasting Flame (dir. Gu Jun • 2010 ​• 101 minutes)

DISC THIRTY-TWO
Vancouver 2010
Bud Greenspan Presents Vancouver 2010: Stories of Olympic Glory (prods. Bud Greenspan, Nancy Beffa •​ 2010 • 116 minutes)

London 2012
First (dir. Caroline Rowland • 2012 •​ 109 minutes)

100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 Blu-ray, Video Quality

   

All films that are included in the box set are presented in their original or intended aspect ratios. Additionally, virtually all of them have been scanned in either 2K or 4K and meticulously restored and reconstructed. 

Please note that the screencaptures that are included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1 and 2: Olympic Spirit
2. Screencaptures #3 and 4: O Sport, You Are Peace!
3. Screencaptures #5 and 6: White Rock
4. Screencaptures #7, 8, and 9: Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations
5. Screencaptures #10, 11, and 12 Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty
6. Screencaptures #13, 14, 15, and 16 The White Stadium
7. Screencaptures # 17, 18, and 19: The Olympic Games in Paris – 1924
8. Screencaptures #20, 21, and 22: The Olympic Games, Amsterdam 1928
9. Screencaptures #23, 24, 25, and 26: Where the World Meets
10. Screencaptures #26, 28, and 29: 13 Days in France
11. Screencaptures #30, 31, and 32: Visions of Eight
12. Screencaptures #33, 34, and 35: Tokyo Olympiad
13. Screencaptures #36 and 37: 16 Days of Glory

Excluding a few films that were completed during and after the 1990s -- see Bud Greenspan's projects where some of the materials that were accessed were not optimal or show some signs of wear -- the quality of the technical presentations is excellent. In fact, the majority of the best results can be observed with the very early films, some of which were also reconstructed from multiple sources. (The likes of The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 and The IX Olympiad in Amsterdam are very good examples of the excellent work that was done to preserve these important films). I also wish to specifically mention the restorations of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia and Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad as both films now look the best that they ever have. The first, in particular, has a far superior and better balanced look than seen on previous home video releases. Obviously, because of source limitations some minor fluctuations exist, but the overall quality of the content is indeed very good. Also, it is worth mentioning that a couple of the modern films have standard-definition content that was upscaled, though I cannot confirm if this is the original native resolution of the content that was used by the producers of these films or they were remastered from a second generations sources. Given the nature of this massive project and Criterion's clarification that the folks at the International Olympic Committee aimed to "retain the character of the original film elements", my guess is that the quality of the content reflects that of the available elements/masters. In terms of color grading I think that the quality is ranges from very good to excellent, and there are only a few films where I felt that the overall balance could have been slightly better. (Romolo Marcellini's film The Grand Olympics is one of them). All of the films have strong and convincing organic appearances. Image stability is also excellent or in the case of some of the early films optimized as best as possible. (Note: All Blu-ray discs are Region-A "locked". Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access their content). 

100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 Blu-ray, Audio Quality

   

There are multiple lossless audio tracks, but typically for the early films the original soundtracks are presented as LPCM 1.0 tracks while the newly recorded music scores are presented as LPCM 2.0 tracks. (You can see the individual listings in the main review above to identify which of the early films comes with new music scores). Some of the more recent films also have LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided as well. 

The quality of the audio tracks is excellent. While the original soundtracks of a few of the early films exhibit some very small fluctuations -- and typically because they are inherited from the original audio elements -- it is very clear that during the restorations and reconstructions the audio was also remastered for optimal results. So, expect consistently excellent audio quality for all films, but keep in mind that many films use what can best be described as conventional documentary content. There are no purely digital/transfer anomalies to report. 

100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

   

• Hardcover Book - a lavishly illustrated, 216-page, hardcover book, featuring notes on the films by cinema historian Peter Cowie; a foreword by Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; a short history of the restoration project by restoration producer Adrian Wood; and hundreds of photographs from a century of Olympic Games.

• New Scores - a number of the early films come with exclusive brand new music scores that were commissioned by Criterion for this release. For details, please see the listings under Box Set Content in the main review above.

• Short Films - some of the discs include 'smaller' films, a few of which are apparently incomplete, whose creators are unknown. They are not what one would consider conventional bonus content, but a few certainly function as such.

100 Years of Olympic Films: 1912-2012 Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

   

It took me well over a month to view all of the films in this massive box set, and while the experience was certainly a tad exhausting, I tremendously enjoyed every single minute of it. Each night, I felt like I was placed in a real time machine and then sent back to relive some absolutely glorious moments of Olympic history. Some of the films in this collection I had seen before and knew well, but there are 'smaller' films that I discovered that turned out to be every bit as spectacular. If some of you are on the fence and are unsure if you are going to enjoy this much Olympic content, you should know that these films offer a lot more than that. Many of them were created by some of the greatest masters to ever step behind a film camera, and are actually magnificent time capsules that have a lot to say about the evolution of the world we live in. It is a very, very special release, and perhaps one of the most ambitious ever produced. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.