AIR
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Director: Ben Affleck
Screenplay: Alex Convery
Principal cast:
Matt Damon
Ben Affleck
Jason Bateman
Chris Messina
Viola Davis
Chris Tucker
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 112 mins.
Australian release date: 5 April 2023.
Movies about brands could almost have their own sub-genre listed under ‘drama’ – off the top of my head I can think of titles examining Facebook (The Social Network), Maccas (The Founder), Gucci (House of Gucci) and Apple (Steve Jobs), to name just a few. Currently streaming is a film about Nintendo (Tetris), coming up is one on the BlackBerry smartphone (titled, what else, BlackBerry) and now we have Air, covering the rise of Nike after the creation of the Air Jordan basketball shoe. Almost all of these titles celebrate the genius of the mind behind the brand and, by extension, the success of a kind of ‘survival of the fittest’ form of capitalism. What they don’t usually show is the downside of this dog-eat-dog world view. More of that later.
When a movie is directed by Ben Affleck and stars him and his old mate Matt Damon, you know you’re in good hands and likely to be in for an entertaining couple of hours and Air lives up to the promise. Throw in actors of the calibre of Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker and Marlon Wayans and you can be pretty sure of success. Set in 1984, the movie begins with a scene-setting montage of iconic images from the Eighties, accompanied by a fitting period soundtrack. We’re introduced to Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), a sports marketing executive at Nike with an eye for picking up-and-coming players from the ranks of college basketball teams, in order to sign them to his employer’s brand. At the time, Nike was in danger of going under because it was known primarily for its running shoes, not basketball shoes, and it only had 17% of the market. Vaccaro’s job was to turn the company’s fortunes around and he did it by convincing his boss, Phil Knight (Affleck), to put Nike’s entire talent budget into contracting just one player – Michael Jordan. It was a risky bet but it paid off spectacularly and the rest, as they say, is history: the Air Jordan became one of the most successful sports shoes of all time and made the company, and Jordan, millions upon millions of dollars.
Air doesn’t tell the full story of Air Jordans, however. It pretty much whitewashes Nike’s unsavoury history of anti-worker practices, antipathy to union representation, use of sweatshops, harsh treatment of staff, and so on. In fact, it makes out that the company was a paragon of employee involvement and social virtue. No, the Nike we see on screen is all happy families, with upper management willing to take on board employees’ suggestions for improvement. If you’re prepared to overlook these things, however, and go with the flow of the screenplay, there’s a lot to enjoy.
Alex Convery has written an engaging script that keeps the action moving at a fast pace; there’s some great dialogue in key two-handed scenes that always feature Damon. The performances of all involved are universally good but he virtually carries the film on his shoulders and he’s in the frame for most of its running time; you don’t get much of Vaccaro’s back-story because you get the impression that this was a man obsessed with his work. Affleck’s direction is assured and comfortable, presumably because he’s working with people he’s already familiar with (like cinematographer Robert Richardson, editor William Goldenberg and, of course, Damon) plus a highly talented pool of actors. He says, “It’s about creating a relaxed atmosphere [on set] where people can succeed. And it doesn’t hurt when you’re supposed to be the coach and the dream team shows up – you don’t have to do a whole lot of coaching.” Air is a highly enjoyable movie as long as you realise that you are not going to see a film about basketball. No, this is a film about the business of sport, and an airbrushed one at that.
Screenplay: Alex Convery
Principal cast:
Matt Damon
Ben Affleck
Jason Bateman
Chris Messina
Viola Davis
Chris Tucker
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 112 mins.
Australian release date: 5 April 2023.
Movies about brands could almost have their own sub-genre listed under ‘drama’ – off the top of my head I can think of titles examining Facebook (The Social Network), Maccas (The Founder), Gucci (House of Gucci) and Apple (Steve Jobs), to name just a few. Currently streaming is a film about Nintendo (Tetris), coming up is one on the BlackBerry smartphone (titled, what else, BlackBerry) and now we have Air, covering the rise of Nike after the creation of the Air Jordan basketball shoe. Almost all of these titles celebrate the genius of the mind behind the brand and, by extension, the success of a kind of ‘survival of the fittest’ form of capitalism. What they don’t usually show is the downside of this dog-eat-dog world view. More of that later.
When a movie is directed by Ben Affleck and stars him and his old mate Matt Damon, you know you’re in good hands and likely to be in for an entertaining couple of hours and Air lives up to the promise. Throw in actors of the calibre of Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker and Marlon Wayans and you can be pretty sure of success. Set in 1984, the movie begins with a scene-setting montage of iconic images from the Eighties, accompanied by a fitting period soundtrack. We’re introduced to Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), a sports marketing executive at Nike with an eye for picking up-and-coming players from the ranks of college basketball teams, in order to sign them to his employer’s brand. At the time, Nike was in danger of going under because it was known primarily for its running shoes, not basketball shoes, and it only had 17% of the market. Vaccaro’s job was to turn the company’s fortunes around and he did it by convincing his boss, Phil Knight (Affleck), to put Nike’s entire talent budget into contracting just one player – Michael Jordan. It was a risky bet but it paid off spectacularly and the rest, as they say, is history: the Air Jordan became one of the most successful sports shoes of all time and made the company, and Jordan, millions upon millions of dollars.
Air doesn’t tell the full story of Air Jordans, however. It pretty much whitewashes Nike’s unsavoury history of anti-worker practices, antipathy to union representation, use of sweatshops, harsh treatment of staff, and so on. In fact, it makes out that the company was a paragon of employee involvement and social virtue. No, the Nike we see on screen is all happy families, with upper management willing to take on board employees’ suggestions for improvement. If you’re prepared to overlook these things, however, and go with the flow of the screenplay, there’s a lot to enjoy.
Alex Convery has written an engaging script that keeps the action moving at a fast pace; there’s some great dialogue in key two-handed scenes that always feature Damon. The performances of all involved are universally good but he virtually carries the film on his shoulders and he’s in the frame for most of its running time; you don’t get much of Vaccaro’s back-story because you get the impression that this was a man obsessed with his work. Affleck’s direction is assured and comfortable, presumably because he’s working with people he’s already familiar with (like cinematographer Robert Richardson, editor William Goldenberg and, of course, Damon) plus a highly talented pool of actors. He says, “It’s about creating a relaxed atmosphere [on set] where people can succeed. And it doesn’t hurt when you’re supposed to be the coach and the dream team shows up – you don’t have to do a whole lot of coaching.” Air is a highly enjoyable movie as long as you realise that you are not going to see a film about basketball. No, this is a film about the business of sport, and an airbrushed one at that.
