History Faculty

This classic episode of the U.S. Army's The Big Picture television series takes viewers on a captivating journey of the Olympic games. Every four years, this event of breathtaking excitement, color, and pageantry takes place in the world of sports in the greatest of all athletics and competitions.

Recreating that athlete and the fabulous world of the Ancient Olympics using computer graphics, dramatic reconstruction, and forensic science, this film features boxing matches, chariot races, and spectacular action to show how the athlete could have battled for glory 2,500 years ago. 50 min.

Most athletes who dope get away with it. It's estimated that up to a third of the athletes that we'll watch at the Olympics, will be dopers.

The Olympic Games take on new life and henceforth allow the participation of all people, irrespective of their sex or race. Today, the Olympic Games are the most-watched sporting event in the world. 26 min.

To mark the Olympics' 2004 return to its birthplace of Athens, this two-part documentary tells the 'real' story of the original games.

The powerful story of how a revolutionary boxing experiment produced Teofilo Stevenson and a legacy of Cuban success at the Olympic Games.

Revisiting what the world's biggest stars were like in their early years before they experienced glory at the Olympic Games. More than 40 episodes available.

A look back at the legacy of hosting the Olympic Games from the perspective of the young lives, spectators, and athletes impacted most.

A compilation of films from across the century:
A monumental undertaking, 100 YEARS OF OLYMPIC FILMS: 1912–2012 chronicles a century of athletic achievement, featuring films by Kon Ichikawa, Carlos Saura, Leni Riefenstahl, and Miloš Forman.

In 2016 USA Gymnastics was rocked by the revelation that national team doctor Larry Nassar had been abusing young athletes for decades.

The film engagingly captures a range of sports, illustrating the mass scale of the event as well as the more personal achievements of individual athletes, such as Swedish javelin competitor Eric Lemming. 8 min.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES HELD AT CHAMONIX IN 1924 chronicles the first full-scale Olympic Winter Games. In the film, the atmosphere is down to earth and relaxed, communicating the exuberance of winter sports.

A short tribute to the origins of the Olympic Games shot in 1924. This film is a brief series of tableaux, with athletes posing against a dark stage background and performing the ritual movements of the traditional sports and events.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN PARIS, 1924 provides exhaustive and engrossing coverage of all the main sports on view. The exploits of Johnny Weissmuller (USA) and Paavo Nurmi (Finland) in Paris turned them into international sports heroes, and the coverage of the tennis tournament includes footage of such legendary players as Jean Borotra (France), René Lacoste (France), and Helen Wills (USA).

THE WHITE STADIUM (Das Weisse Stadion), the film of the II Olympic Winter Games St. Moritz 1928 in Switzerland, holds particular interest because it was directed by Arnold Fanck, a geologist turned filmmaker known for his sumptuous outdoor cinematography and his aesthete's eye for filming natural landscapes. On a technical level, THE WHITE STADIUM exemplifies the rapid progress in Olympic films where cameras and montage are concerned.

Made by Istituto Luce, the Italian film company controlled by Benito Mussolini since 1925, THE IX OLYMPIAD IN AMSTERDAM may, understandably, highlight Italian participants, but it is the first Olympic documentary that describes the techniques of certain events with useful particulars

Though shorter than the Italian film covering the same 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the intimacy on display in this Dutch film is more rewarding and less perfunctory.

With the help of specialists and images from Léni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film, ‘Olympia’, we see what really went on behind the scenes and investigate the secret negotiations and compromises made by the International Olympic Committee to bring the Olympics to Berlin. Full film.

Brief sketches of the important events of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. 10 min 36 sec.

First part of Riefenstahl's full length film. Subsequent parts also available in the Internet Archive. Film also available in O'Neil.

This film, like Leni Riefenstahl's infamous OLYMPIA, was produced by Adolf Hitler's Reichsfilmkammer. YOUTH OF THE WORLD, a celebration of the 1936 Winter Games, may forgo narration, but its visuals throb with kinetic energy and visual poetry.

The lives of the other 17 American black athletes who competed alongside Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and who are often forgotten by history.

Twelve years had passed since the last edition of the Olympic Games when nations finally came together again, in the wake of World War II, to carry on the Olympic tradition at the V Olympic Winter Games St. Moritz 1948. The tone of André Michel's FIGHT WITHOUT HATE is thus not surprisingly upbeat. Featuring enthusiastic commentary, outstanding camera work, and slick editing, the film proves that an exhilarating new era was under way in the Winter Olympic Games.

The official film of the Games of the XIV Olympiad London 1948 is the first in color and seeks to comprise both the winter and summer events from that year. The coverage of the sports cannot be faulted, as cinematographer Stanley Sayer marshaled his team of cameramen with a keen eye and deft precision.

Director Tancred Ibsen's penchant for depicting rustic life shines through in the bucolic scenes at the start of THE VI OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES, OSLO 1952. In addition to the exciting scenes of competition (Winter sports are followed with almost rabid fervor in Scandinavia), Ibsen records a sense of community spirit shared among the competitors.

Part one of Director Hannu Leminen's account of the Olympic Games Helsinki 1952, with its fierce patriotism and its sense of a nation welcoming the world, is redolent of the period, coming as it did only twelve years after the end of Finland's war with the Soviet Union, and seven years after the end of World War II. WHERE THE WORLD MEETS focuses on the opening ceremony and track & field events.

Part two of Director Hannu Leminen's account of the Olympic Games Helsinki 1952, with its fierce patriotism and its sense of a nation welcoming the world, is redolent of the period, coming as it did only twelve years after the end of Finland's war with the Soviet Union, and seven years after the end of World War II. Leminen spends GOLD AND GLORY covering non-track-and-field sports, while competitors from across the globe are seen socializing with ease, traversing the language barrier with smiles and gestures, and strengthening the impression of sports as a unifying stimulus for peace.

Given that the weather during the Olympic Summer Games in 1952 was miserable, with frequent bouts of rain, this fifty-minute color film is able to capture something more of the enthusiastic mood of the Finnish crowds.

ALAIN MIMOUN, a short film made about the titular long-distance runner, is a jewel of a documentary, enhanced by a wonderfully laid-back jazz score by Alain Goraguer.

This short film covers the equestrian segment of the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Of the two feature endeavors made around the Games of the XVI Olympiad in 1956, THE MELBOURNE RENDEZ-VOUS, directed by René Lucot, excels. Its tone is more observant and more inquiring than that of most Olympic films. Shooting in Agfacolor, Lucot and his crew focus on the human aspect of the Melbourne Games, in a quirky manner that prefigures Kon Ichikawa's TOKYO OLYMPIAD, to be made eight years later.

Directed by the documentarist Peter Whitchurch, was commissioned by the Organizing Committee for these Olympic Games. Historically, the film points to some encouraging situations in international affairs, with Hungary taking part in the Games in the immediate wake of the ill-fated uprising in Budapest, and East and West Germany sending a combined team.

The cinematography is by none other than Aldo Scavarda, who would film L'AVVENTURA for Michelangelo Antonioni three and a half years later. Director Giorgio Ferroni knows how to film the key disciplines, even if they are far removed from his specialties, the sword- and-sandal and pulp fiction genres. The music, by the prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino (OTHELLO and CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT), audaciously uses jazz piano to accompany the ice hockey matches, bringing a lyrical mood to a sport that in other Olympic Games documentaries is portrayed in ferocious terms.

Highlights of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California.

This documentary of the VIII Olympic Winter Games Squaw Valley 1960, directed by Austrian sports journalist and sometime screen actor Heribert Meisel, is the first known visual record of an edition of the Winter Games in the United States. A West German-U.S. coproduction, PEOPLE, HOPES, MEDALS accentuates the novel and romantic aspects of these Games.

The first Olympic film to be nominated for an Academy Award, celebrates the architecture and atmosphere of Rome while utilizing telephoto lenses to bring the action closer to the audience than ever before.

Joy and good humor pervades Theo Hörmann's documentary record of the 1964 Games in Austria. Shot in Agfacolor, it nurtures a folkloric image of Tyrol, with its quaint mountain farms and obligatory yodeling. Hörmann deploys shots from a helicopter to present the landscape of Tyrol but also to show the skills of the athletes.

An epic study of athletes struggling to excel against their own bodies and against each other. Kon Ichikawa used 164 cameramen and over 100 cameras to show the humanity of the competitors-- the tears of the Japanese women volleyball champions, the bellow of the hammer throwers, the pain of the collapsed marathon runner and the solitude of the loser, finishing his lap, picking up his sweats and leaving the field. Available in O'Neil.

Architect Kenzo Tange was one of the post-war leaders of the modern movement in Japan. The style of this movement includes structural elements being exposed on the outside of buildings, a lack of exterior design, and the use of construction materials. 25 min 47 sec.

A short amateur film distributed by Society of Amateur Cinematographers (SAC) about the Tokyo summer Olympics of 1964. 29 min 25 sec.

Fists of Freedom examines one of the 20th century’s most memorable moments — the dramatic “Black Power” demonstration of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the victory stand at the 1968 Summer games in Mexico City. 1 hr.

The story of the collision of sport and politics at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Amidst the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and large-scale protests in North America and Europe, Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ Black Power salute on the awards podium became an icon of the civil rights movement that still resonates, 50 years later. Narrated by Serena Williams. 1 hr 11 min.

Mexican former Olympic swimmer Alberto Isaac's record of the Mexico City Olympic Games is a celebration not of national achievement (very few national anthems are heard during the film), but of individual heroism. This thoughtful and comprehensive film bristles with offbeat moments, such as underwater shots of the violence and cheating during the water polo matches. The film also yields iconic images, like Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos, on the winners' podium for the 200 meters, their heads bowed, raising clenched, black-gloved fists to the sky in a dramatic gesture of black power and, as Smith has said, of frustration.

Humanitarian Peter Norman, a white Australian sprinter, is also on the podium when two black athletes make an iconic gesture at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Film website. 2hr.

Plagued by the perception of pre-war Nazi Germany, the precise and modern design of Otl Aicher helped rebrand Germany's image in the world. 4 min 45 sec.

Tells the story of the Munich Massacre where eleven Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage and subsequently executed. This striking documentary retells the story with personal interviews from those related to the murdered athletes and documents the building of a memorial 44 years later. Official PBS page.

Available in O'Neil.
This is the shocking and incredibly true story of the brutal massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by a team of extreme Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich.

Official film. 167 min.
Masahiro Shinoda's interest in sports and experience as an athlete, he was a long-distance runner, made him an ideal choice to direct the official film of the XI Olympic Winter Games Sapporo 1972. His work is marked by its gravitas, and this can be felt in the opening Torch Relay sequence. Few Olympic films can boast such aesthetically pleasing images as this one. Shinoda takes full advan- tage of the 'Scope format, and of the superb equipment at his disposal. Allied to this is a subtle use of sound and silence, filtering out all extraneous noise when required.

In this 1980 episode of Tony Brown's Journal, Tony Brown discusses the proposed boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Russia with Wilma Rudolph and Darrell Pace.

At the Winter Olympics of 1980, after two tense weeks amidst growing Cold War fears, the U.S. Olympic hockey team found themselves playing improbably against the legendary unbeatable Soviet... 1hr.

1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games
This 284-minute record of the 1984 Games set the tone for his nine Olympic films to come.

This docudrama focuses on the life and accomplishments of Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie, who won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. The revered athlete appears as himself, as do his parents, though scenes of his early years are dramatized and depict the aspiring young runner.

The Nagano Winter Games
Greenspan's method does lead to some repetition, but there is something so engaging about the filmmaker's passion for sports that makes all his documentaries compelling. One feels that his ideals match those of the Olympic Games.

Against the backdrop of China's rush to the Olympics, our program examines the unique features of what's been affectionately termed the "Bird's Nest" stadium, following its design, engineering, and construction up until the ultimate test, where we'll find out if this ambitious project comes together as planned.

A documentary shot over the course of five years telling five stories in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Over 3,500 young athletes from around the world have gathered in Nanjing for the Youth Olympic Games. With Beijing 2008 in the rearview mirror, and China's bid for the 2022 Winter...

This chronicle of the XXI Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 would be Bud Greenspan’s last before his death in 2010. His time-honored approach to these films was by this point familiar, and here he brings a valedictory flourish to his suite of ten Olympic documentaries.

Olympic Winter Games (21st : 2010 : Vancouver, B.C.)
The epic rivalry between half-pipe legends Kevin Pearce and Shaun White is documented in this exhilarating ride into the world of extreme snowboarding.
Available at Social Work Library.

26 short documentaries.

Snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffers a traumatic brain injury while training for the 2010 Winter Olympics. His family stands by his side as he struggles through rehab, but they object when he expresses his desire to return to his favourite sport.

Sustainability is increasingly a consideration in the design of sports facilities. This film shows how these concerns influences architecture for the 2012 London Olympics and the 2... 26 min 4 sec.

2012 Olympic Games in London

This program reports on the mood prevailing among a disenchanted cross-section of Londoners during the months leading up to the "Grumpylimpics," as some observers dubbed the long-anticipated but quietly begrudged event.

In August 2004, nine days before the opening of the Athens Olympics, Panorama revealed how some Olympic "agents" were offering to pay members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in an attempt to get IOC votes in the race to hold the 2012 games.
Not available online.

The story of two women and their journey to the highest stage in swimming - the 2012 London Olympics. The young star, Missy Franklin, is just beginning her career and is saddled with mile-high expectations; the veteran, Kara Lynn Joyce, is trying to rediscover the juice that took her to the previous two Olympics. Official page.

Powerful manifesto that explores how the Olympic values are relevant in our modern society. A film by Breno Silveira. 1hr. 27 min.

Following the sprinting legend as he prepares to go for gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Competing in the 100m and 200m races, Bolt attempts to make history by winning these events for a record third time.

When Bryan sets out to uncover the truth about doping in sports, a chance meeting with a Russian scientist transforms his story from a personal experiment into a geopolitical thriller. 2hr.

A unique look at photographing the Olympic Games, from the photographer’s perspective, including many iconic Olympic moments.

For the first time ever, experience the work of a nation as it hosts the world and puts on a show like never before. 52 min.

“Running in North Korea” captures the journey of two Olympians as they travel to Pyongyang to participate in the 2019 Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon and meet fellow Olympians from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Follow three of the world’s top gymnasts - Morgan Hurd (USA), Angelina Melnikova (Russia), Chen Yile (China) - as they balance life as teenagers with dreams of winning gold at Tokyo 2020. All Around gymnastics documentary series offers unique access to the every day lives of artistic gymnasts.

In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, sports teams and athletes are helping their nation to heal.

Over the course of 13 days in February, Olympic teams from countries around the world compete in winter sports, and this film captures much of the excit…

A talented yet jaded gymnast meets a new girl at his old gym, and they gradually begin to fall in love as they train hard for the nationals.

Stuck-up figure skating whiz Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) is denied a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics after a fall. As Kate drives off partner after partner, her coach, Anton (Roy Dotrice), must quickly find her a new one in order to be ready for the next Olympics. Enter arrogant former Olympic hockey…

Biopic about the three-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer.

A smug and overly self-assured downhill skier, David Chappellet (Robert Redford), joins the American ski team and quickly makes waves with his arrogant behavior and even flashier maneuvers on the slopes, falling into conflict with the team's coach (Gene Hackman). A rivalry also develops between Davi…

Cut from the Olympic ski team, British athlete Michael "Eddie" Edwards travels to Germany to test his skills at ski jumping. Fate leads him to Bronson Peary, a former ski jumper who now works as a snowplow driver. Impressed by Edwards' spirit and determination, Peary agrees to train the young underd…

When wealthy John du Pont (Steve Carell) invites Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) to move to his estate and help form a wrestling team for the 1988 Olympics, Mark sees a way to step out of the shadow of his charismatic brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). However, du Pont begins to lead Mark …

Based on the Hugh Atkinson novel and adapted to the screen by Erich Segal. The plot concerned four marathon competitors at a fictitious Olympic Games in Rome.

The story of Cassius Clay, who became Muhammed Ali and the most charismatic heavyweight champion of our time. Tracing his meteoric rise from his Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight at Rome in 1960, his conversion to Islam, his refusal to serve in the Vietnam war, to his triumphant return to the ring. Features a host of special appearances.

Comedy film starring Adam Carolla and Heather Juergensen. It was directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Carolla plays a once-promising boxer, now a middle-aged construction worker, who attempts to join the U.S. Olympic boxing team.

In 1991, talented figure skater Tonya Harding becomes the first American woman to complete a triple axel during a competition. In 1994, her world comes crashing down when her ex-husband conspires to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic hopeful, in a poorly conceived attack that forces the young w…

Sequel to the 1944 picture National Velvet.

American-Greek romance comedy-drama film. Set in 1896.

The life of Jappeloup de Luze, the French show jumping horse who won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea.

In this stirring biographical drama, young Native American Jim Thorpe (Burt Lancaster) pursues his dreams of athletic stardom. Mentored by a devoted coach (Charles Bickford), Thorpe succeeds at track before becoming a renowned football hero and an Olympic athlete.

The story of the 1976 U.S. women's relay swim team that upset East Germany in the final race at the Montreal Olympics.

Access in O'Neil. Based on the true story of the most famous team in the history of American sports: the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Follow from the team's selection process to the ultimate victory over Finland for the gold.

It's the 1972 Olympics and PLO terrorists have just kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner to lead a team of undercover agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one.
Available at O'Neil.

Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci trains as a child (Leslie Weiner) and wins three gold medals as a teen (Johann Carlo) at the 1976 Olympics.

Available in O'Neil.
This is the shocking and incredibly true story of the brutal massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by a team of extreme Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Young sprinter Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway) is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner (Patrice Donnelly). At first the two women form a friendship as Tory and her coach (Scott Glenn) help Chris with her training. Gradually, Tory…

Based on the life of athlete Steve Prefontaine, who rose from running for recreation in his home town of Coos Bay, Oregon, to competing in the Munich Olympics.

As a boy, Louis "Louie" Zamperini is always in trouble, but with the help of his older brother, he turns his life around and channels his energy into running, later qualifying for the 1936 Olympics. When World War II breaks out, Louie enlists in the military.

Arriving in Tokyo two days before the Olympic Games, Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) struggles to find accommodations due to the number of tourists.

Before Steve Prefontaine (Billy Crudup) makes it to the 1972 Olympics in Munich, he is an unlikely track star at the University of Oregon. At school, after Steve initially clashes with coach Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland) over his style of front-running -- running the race at maximum speed from b…

T-Rex: Her Fight for Gold is the coming-of-age story of boxing phenom Claressa Shields, who was just 17 years old when she won the Olympic gold medal for women’s boxing in 2012. Now with a record of 69-1, she is ranked number one in the world heading into her second Olympic competition, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.

Teenage pingpong players Ariel Hsing, Michael Landers and Lily Zhang prepare to compete in the Olympic trials.

Sprinter Wilma Rudolph (Shirley Jo Finney) overcomes childhood illness to win three gold medals in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Bullied as a child and misunderstood by his adoptive father (Michael Murphy), Greg Louganis (Mario Lopez) nevertheless trains hard as a diver and eventually wins Olympic gold. But his victories do not make his personal life any easier. He endures a tumultuous relationship with his lover/manager Tom Barrett (Jeff Meek), from whom he contracts HIV. Tom dies of AIDS, and Louganis resolves to come out publicly as a homosexual athlete before going on to win still more medals in the 1988 Olympics.

1924 Paris Games.
Story of two English runners that were both driven by different means to win the Olympics. One used his faith in God, and the other his hatred of Anti-Semitism. Special Edition features include: additional scenes, interviews, featurettes, and more. 124 min.
Available at O'Neil.

As a boy, Louis "Louie" Zamperini is always in trouble, but with the help of his older brother, he turns his life around and channels his energy into running, later qualifying for the 1936 Olympics. When World War II breaks out, Louie enlists in the military.