If you’re like me, sometimes the movies you watch have something to do with what is front and center in the news. Right now if you’re an escapist, you’re probably watching the 2024 Summer Olympics. And maybe you wish you’d had the time and money to go to Paris and see them in person.
What kind of movies do you prefer? A true story like the one of the American hockey team defeating the Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid? Then the film Miracle is for you. Are you just as happy watching a fictional film? Then you’ll be just fine with Downhill Racer?
Whatever your preference, you’re in luck. I’ve put together a list of 16 Olympic themed movies for all of you ‘woulda, coulda, shouldas’ out there. The list is all mixed up: some are based on real life, some are documentaries, some are funny, some are romantic. But (because this is Cold War Studies after all) they all are situated in the Cold War timeframe.
Want to check them out before you commit? Most of the trailers are on the Cold War Studies YouTube Channel. You can check them out by clicking here.
1956 Summer*– Freedom’s Fury
Freedom’s Fury tells the heroic story of the democratic Hungarian uprising of 1956 through the lens of the epic Olympic water polo showdown between Hungary and the Soviet Union.
The year in context:
- Colonized countries continue to gain independence. For example, Morocco gains independence from France (March 1) and Spain (April 7).
- May 21: The US tests the first aerial hydrogen bomb over Namu Islet, Bikini Atoll, with the force of 10 million tons TNT. In actuality, Bikini Atoll may be more famous as the home of the daring two-piece swimsuit dubbed a “bikini.” You can read all about that here.
- Late June: A workers’ uprising against Communist rule in Poland is crushed. Soviet troops and tanks crush anti-Communist uprisings in Hungary in November.
- July 26: Egypt takes control of the Suez Canal. In response, Israel launches an attack on Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, pushing toward the Suez Canal in the last days of October. The British and French also invade Egypt. A cease-fire is forced by the US, halting the British, French, and Israeli advance.
1964 Summer – Tokyo Olympiad
According to Forbes, Tokyo Olympiad offers a stunning and poetic portrayal of the Olympic Games like no other feature has in the history of cinema. The film takes an artistic and contemplative approach, focusing on the beauty and drama of the athletes’ performances in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The year in context:
- June: three civil rights workers are murdered in Mississippi.
- July: Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa.
- August: Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after North Vietnamese boats allegedly attack US destroyers.
- October: Khrushchev is deposed; Kosygin becomes premier and Brezhnev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party.
- China detonates its first atomic bomb.
- The Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Jack Ruby is convicted of murder in the slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald.
1968 Summer – Fists of Freedom
1968 was one of the most consequential years in Cold War history. If you want to do a deep dive, check out CNN’s 4 part series titled 1968: The Year That Changed America. A sampling of events is below.
The year in context:
- January: North Korea seizes the US Navy ship Pueblo and holds 83 on board as spies.
- January and February: The North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive, a turning point in the Vietnam War.
- March: American soldiers massacre 347 civilians at My Lai.
- March 31: President Johnson announces he will not seek or accept presidential renomination.
- April 4: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is slain in Memphis.
- June 5-6: Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot and critically wounded in a Los Angeles hotel after winning the California primary.
- August 20: Russia invades Czechoslovakia and Warsaw Pact forces crush that country’s more liberal regime.
- James Earl Ray is indicted in the King murder and sentenced to 99 years.
If you love movies, you’ll want to download The Cold War Watchlist. With 11 categories and 74 movies, there’s plenty to keep you busy. Click here to sign up and get your free download.
1972 Summer – Without Limits; Visions of Eight; Munich; One Day in September
Without Limits follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to Oregon University — where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman — later, to the Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash.
Visions of Eight is an official Olympics film that brings together eight filmmakers from various countries, each of whom focused on a different event or theme. They include the pile vault, the 100 meters, the decathlon, weightlifters, female athletes, and “the losers”. The result is a thoughtful and kaleidoscopic view of the Games in Munich, an occasion marked by a terrorist attack that left eleven Israeli athletes and coaches dead. Visions of Eight is not shareable on a playlist, but you can watch the trailer here.
Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinians at the 1972 Olympics. The Israeli government recruits a team of secret agents to track down and assassinate those responsible. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
One Day in September — a new kind of thriller – is an Oscar winning documentary chronicling the same tragedy as the film Munich. It combines archival news footage and contemporary interviews to re-create the sports moment at the same time that it seeks to explain why the death of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches during the 1972 Olympics was such a human and moral catastrophe.
The year in context:
- February 17: President Nixon makes an unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and meets with Mao Zedong.
- March 24: Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland in a bid for peace.
- May 15: Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur H. Bremer at a Laurel, Maryland, political rally.
- June 17: Five men are apprehended by police in an attempt to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate complex. It’s the start of the Watergate scandal.
- June 29: The US Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional.
- September 5: Eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invade Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed.
- December: Nixon orders “Christmas bombing” of North Vietnam.
1976 Winter – White Rock
White Rock is a documentary film that captures the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Visually stunning, the documentary combines breathtaking footage of various winter sports backed by James Coburn’s gripping narration. It aims to feel less like a documentary and more like a feature film.
The year in context:
- April 2: Prince Sihanouk steps down and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot becomes prime minister (and virtual dictator) of Cambodia.
- July 3: The US Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment.
- July 4: The United States celebrates its Bicentennial
- July 4: Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda’s Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in the raid.
- November: A 19-month civil war ends in Lebanon after threatening to escalate.
- November 2: Jimmy Carter is elected President of the United States.
1980 Winter – Miracle
Full disclosure: I absolutely loved the 1980 Winter Olympics. Watch Miracle and you’ll know why. Miracle tells the true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 US Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad.
The year in context:
- January 29: Six US embassy aides escape from Iran with Canadian help. For a fictionalized version of this escape, check out the movie trailer for Argo here.
- April 7: The US breaks diplomatic ties with Iran.
- April 25: Eight US servicemen are killed and five are injured as a helicopter and cargo plane collide in an abortive desert raid to rescue American hostages in Tehran.
- June 30: The US Supreme Court upholds limits on federal aid for abortions.
- September 17: Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ousted Nicaraguan ruler, and two of his aides are assassinated in Paraguayan capital of Asunció.
- September 19: The 8 year Iran-Iraq War begins. Iraqi troops hold 90 square miles of Iran after an invasion.
- November 4: Ronald Reagan is elected president of the US in a Republican sweep.
- December 4: Three US nuns and a lay worker are found shot in El Salvador.
1980 Summer – Personal Best
Personal Best is the story of the intertwined lives and loves of three highly-ranked athletes striving for the national team. It isn’t about the actual 1980 Olympic contest because the United States boycotted the games in what seemed to be a direct response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Seen from this perspective, it appeared to many to be an overreaction by a naive president. Actually, though, America’s relationship with the Soviet Union had been declining for some time as President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy unraveled. You can read all about it here. (See 1980 Winter for the “year in context.”)
If you love movies, you’ll want to download The Cold War Watchlist. With 11 categories and 74 movies, there’s plenty to keep you busy. Click here to sign up and get your free download.
1984 Summer – Days of Glory
16 Days of Glory is a documentary that captures the grandeur and spirit of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The film showcases the most memorable moments and athletes of that year’s Games, including the likes of Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton. Many comments that I’ve read just rave about this work. I wasn’t able to find a trailer for the playlist, so instead, I put a link to the entire 4 hour film in the playlist. It’s free on YouTube.
The year in context:
- January 3: Syria frees a captured US Navy pilot, Lieutenant Robert C. Goodman, Jr.
- February 7: President Reagan orders the withdrawal of US Marines from the Beirut international peacekeeping force.
- February 9: Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, is named the new leader of the Soviet Union.
- April 10: Congress rebukes President Reagan on use of federal funds for mining Nicaraguan harbors
- May 7: The Soviet Union withdraws from the summer Olympic games in the US, and other Eastern bloc nations follow their lead.
- May 11: José Napoleón Duarte, a moderate, is elected president of El Salvador.
- October 31: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ia assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 are killed in anti-Sikh riots; Indira’s son Rajiv succeeds her.
- November 7: President Reagan is re-elected in a landslide with 59% of the vote.
- December 3: Toxic gas leaks from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000.
1988 Winter – Cool Runnings
Cool Runnings is a very funny and entertaining movie, but it’s also a tale of sheer determination and unyielding spirit. The film tells the incredible true story of the first Jamaican bobsled team to compete in the Winter Olympics.
The year in context:
- January 2: The US and Canada reach a free trade agreement, NAFTA.
- March 11: Robert C. McFarlane, former National Security Adviser, pleads guilty in the Iran-Contra case.
- July 11: Terrorists kill nine tourists on an Aegean cruise.
- July 17: The Democratic convention nominates Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts for President and Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen for Vice President.
- August 15: The Republican convention nominates George Bush for President and Indiana Senator Dan Quayle for Vice President.
- November 8: Republicans sweep 40 states in the US presidential election, and Bush beats Dukakis
- December 1: Benazir Bhutto is the first Islamic woman prime minister who is chosen to lead Pakistan.
- December 21: Pan-Am 747 explodes from a terrorist bomb and crashes in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on ground.
1988 Summer – Foxcatcher; 9.79*
Foxcatcher follows the true story of Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz and his brother Dave as they become entangled with eccentric millionaire John du Pont, whose obsession with coaching an Olympic-winning team leads to unforeseen and deadly consequences. This film is #1 on some Olympic movie lists, but I prefer my sports movies to be a bit more uplifting. You’ve been warned.
9.79* is the story of the 1988 Seoul Olympics 100-meter final, a race that changed the sport forever. Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson shattered records but was later disqualified for doping. (See 1988 Winter for the “year in context.”)
Outliers – Fictional Representations of the Olympic Games
Downhill Racer is a gripping portrayal of just how high the stakes of competitive sports can go. Robert Redford plays an arrogant but talented skier named Chappellet aiming for Olympic glory and Gene Hackman plays his rough-and-tough coach Claire who continually pushes Chappellet to the brink.
In The Cutting Edge, a temperamental figure skater and an arrogant former hockey player attempt to win the Olympic Gold Medal as a figure skating pairs team.
If you love movies, you’ll want to download The Cold War Watchlist. With 11 categories and 74 movies, there’s plenty to keep you busy. Click here to sign up and get your free download.
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Photograph: 1954 Olympics (public domain)
*All events except equestrian were held in Melbourne in November and December. The equestrian events were held in Stockholm in June.
