[font:26e2="]In the 1960's when Michael Jordan was a young
boy in the suburban middle classes throwing a basketball into a dustbin instead
of a hoop and playing baseball, nobody would have suspected what he would
become some thirty years later. An early experience of racism perhaps puts him
off baseball but he takes up basketball with the same intensity that he
approaches everything. High Schools seems him working hard to get into the main
school team and from there he continues into North Carolina's starting line up. It is
here that he makes his name and when he is drafted by the Chicago Bulls it is
only the worries of his doting parents that cause him pause.
Like most people across the globe, I'm an admirer of not only Jordan's skills
but also his drive to get what he wanted – that I had a thimbleful of that
motivation. So it was natural that I would take the chance to watch this film,
especially since this was the first I had seen available on television in the UK. Having read
the book "Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World he Made" I
like to think that I am at least a bit aware of Jordan's history if nothing
else and it is a shame that this film doesn't quite have the same eye for a
story and for a character that the aforementioned book did. Instead the film is
like a sprint through elements of the story, never missing an opportunity to
simplify or turn into melodrama anything that might have approached an
interesting moment. The basic story doesn't feel anywhere near as interesting
or as inspiring as it really is mainly because the film just skims through
things to the point where it feels more than a "by the numbers" TV
filler movie than it is a true story; in fairness that is just what it is –
by-the-numbers filler stuff; the subject really deserved better.
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