ESPN 30 for 30: Pony Excess

#54
#54
"The U" was really good, but only about 3rd or 4th on my list. Documentaries designed as love stories drop the greatness down a level. They failed to mention a few key debacles of the Hurricanes, like the '86 and '93 Sugar Bowls. And it's funny how the documentary sort of lamented the arrival of Butch Davis because he didn't promote the thug-ball of the 80s and have Luther Campbell roaming the sidelines. I mean, it's not as if Davis won a championship with one of the greatest college football teams of all time or anything.

Otherwise, for me, the clear number one 30 for 30 was The Two Escobars, a truly stunning documentary that interwove a politics with some fascinating anesdotes (Drug dealers flying in famous soccer players to Colombia for high stakes games was surreal.). The Best that Never Was finishes a close second.

This one on SMU was pretty good, outlining the cheating for those who hadn't known what went on (I did), but did fall into the trap of presenting the "everybody was doing it" defense mechanism too often. Sounds like every kid who screws around in my class and wants a way out of respobility when caught.
 
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#55
#55
You guys didn't like "Run Ricky Run"? I've always liked Ricky even though he's crazy. I really loved it when a random guy who smoked pot with him bragged about taking a charge from Ricky in a pickup basketball game.
 
#57
#57
Thus the way football works.

The Ricky Williams one was my favorite. It honestly altered my opinion of him, which IMO is about the most powerful thing a documentary can do.
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#58
#58
We need to start a "Best Documentaries" thread in OT or something, because it seems like I've missing out on to good Television.
 
#60
#60
It amazed me watching the "gotcha" interview where the 3 SMU officials got confronted with the actual envelopes they mailed money in. The ego and stupidity involved was astounding. No way an attorney allows that nterview to happen today.
 
#61
#61
milohimself said:
Thus the way football works.

The Ricky Williams one was my favorite. It honestly altered my opinion of him, which IMO is about the most powerful thing a documentary can do.
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My wife went to high school with him. Said he was a very shy and quiet person back then too, but everyone really like him and said he was a good person. I think he just has some extreme anxiety type issues and the weed helped him cope.
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#62
#62
jbeard82 said:
And the jordan one is really good.Posted via VolNation Mobile
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Which was done by Ron Shelton. No coincidence that the three best in the series are two done by Academy Award quality directors and one that essentially used a Willie Morris book as a framework.
 
#65
#65
GAVol said:
It amazed me watching the "gotcha" interview where the 3 SMU officials got confronted with the actual envelopes they mailed money in. The ego and stupidity involved was astounding. No way an attorney allows that nterview to happen today.
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Why would they personally send the players a letter with money in it with a SMU letter head?
 
#67
#67
Volst53 said:
Why would they personally send the players a letter with money in it with a SMU letter head?
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Not GAVol, but that one got me too. Only guess I can give is that they were dumb enough to think that they would never get caught, so they didn't care what it was printed on.

Just my two cents.
 
#68
#68
My three favorite ones:

1) The Two Escobars: Absolutely stunning people story. Just incredible.

2) Da U. It was just a great doc.

3) June 17th, 1994. I was very young, and watching all the events of that day because of the documentary was surreal.
 
#69
#69
My three favorites.

1. The U

2. The Two Escobars

3. Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks
 
#73
#73
hatvol96 said:
Which was done by Ron Shelton. No coincidence that the three best in the series are two done by Academy Award quality directors and one that essentially used a Willie Morris book as a framework.
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The Jordan doc was neither interesting nor informative. Easily one of the worst in the series.
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#74
#74
"what were we gonna do with 2 Cadillacs?" Eric Dickerson.


I'm watching this again now and James irks me more and more.
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