The First Olympics: Athens 1896

The First Olympics: Athens 1896
by Alvin Rakoff

The First Olympics: Athens 1896
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Alex Hyde-White, Benedict Taylor, David Caruso, David Ogden Stiers, Hunt Block
Director: Alvin Rakoff
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Paul Beeson
Editor: John Grover
Producer: Charles Gary Allison
Writer: Charles Gary Allison
Producer: Larry White
Producer: William Hill
Writer: William Bast
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 237 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of The First Olympics: Athens 1896

Movie Review: An exceptional film
Summary: 5 Stars

I am so happy this film is finally available on DVD. This is a wonderful movie about the start of the modern Olympics. It is a movie that all of the family can watch and enjoy. I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in athletics, history, or the olympics. It is inspirational and for me had me cheering from time to time as I became so absorbed in the content of the movie. So sit back, relax and enjoy. The movie is long and has been cut into two parts. Both parts are equally interesting.

Summary of The First Olympics: Athens 1896

The inspiring story of a rag-tag team of amateur American athletes that stunned the sports world comes to life in this dramatization of the first modern Olympic games revived in 1896. Veteran Actor Louis Jourdan stars as Baron Pierre du Coubertin, a relentless visionary who sets out to renew the ancient Olympic games after 1500 years. Dr. William Sloane (David Ogden Stiers) is the Princeton professor who pulls together the first American team with 13 unlikely boys and a meager supply of sports equipment. Competing in events that had never been seen in the United States before the Americans went on to Athens and secured the winner's post despite almost insurmountable odds.
This television miniseries tells the story of the founding of the modern Olympics by focusing on individuals in several countries and their preparations and eventual competition in Athens in 1896. David Ogden Stiers (a familiar face to viewers of M*A*S*H reruns) portrays a Princeton classics professor whose knowledge of the ancient Olympics means he's given the task of recruiting an American team for the 1896 games. The stories of how some athletes have to be convinced to join the team may seem contrived, but they do reinforce the idea of how fragile the concept of reviving the Olympics was at the time. A young David Caruso (years before he'd swagger through the stationhouse of N.Y.P.D. Blue) portrays a cocky Boston Irishman who walks away from a Harvard scholarship to participate in track events. And if Caruso does veer perilously close to doing an extended James Cagney impression, he serves as a sturdy focal point to the American team. Once in Athens, the focus is very much on the American athletes and their surprising success, and there are some interesting and humorous touches in the plot. For instance, the fledgling American team had enlisted a local blacksmith to render an iron discus, thereby giving them an unexpected advantage when presented with the much lighter "official" discus in Athens. Even if the various plots and subplots about the athletes don't always hold up very well, the scenes of competition in Athens do provide an entertaining re-creation of the first modern Olympics. --Robert J. McNamara

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