Notes

Gold You can do more than you think

https://gomovie.show/genres/family/D70q4RG9


Fictional sports films usually follow a clear dramaturgical structure, at the end of which there is the overcoming of all obstacles. The victory in the decisive game or race then usually goes hand-in-hand with success off the field. Documentary filmmakers like Pepe Danquart ("Hell Tour", "At the Limit") who dare to take on athlete portraits, on the other hand, have to face the simple truth that the triumph is not a reliable outcome in their story. Michael Hammon circumvents this problem in his wonderfully misleadingly titled documentary "Gold - You Can Do More Than You Think" by focusing on deprivation on the way to victory or defeat. His triple portrait of disabled athletes on the way to Paralympics 2012 convinces with strong images, but at the same time disappoints with deficiencies in the narration and structure.




The Australian Kurt Fearnley was born with stunted legs, he moves in his arms and collects medals in the wheelchair marathon. Kirsten Bruhn suffered a serious motorcycle accident while on vacation in Greece, which left her paraplegic - ten years later a meteoric rise in Paralympic swimming began. And Henry Wanyoike woke up one morning in his house near the small Kenyan town of Kikuyu and lost his eyesight as a result of a minor stroke. At the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, the long-distance runner had to drag his sick and exhausted "guide", who shows blind people the way in the running disciplines, to the finish for the last of 5000 meters.




In a project like "Gold - you can do more than you think" - co-financed by the DGUV, the German statutory accident insurance - one can assume that it is not pity for the physically disabled protagonists, but admiration for their perseverance and their athletic In other words, disabled athletes should be perceived as athletes and not as disabled people. Paradoxically, however, "gold" works much better in those areas where everyday life, hope, frustration, and Makes fighting a physical ailment an issue.




Michael Hammon often shows strong images: Kurt takes his father on a trip through the hills behind the farm, he pushes himself on his arms through tall grass and muddy rivulets. The father neither stops nor offers his help, he treats his son as normal. In an impressive montage, Hammon contrasts the high-tech systems in Kirsten's swimming pool with the outdoor training that Henry once leads past a peacefully grazing giraffe. Even if these scenes seem a little too intentionally trimmed towards a message and a desired effect, such impressions of the protagonists' different life states ultimately make the documentation worth seeing.




However, the individual strong elements are not combined into a really comprehensible structured dramaturgy. Sometimes Hammon jumps back and forth with his story without motivation. Above all, the targeted climax of the film, the Paralympics in London, seems to have been glued on, as the director suddenly changes from the everyday life of the protagonists to the competitions on the Thames. He didn't want to show a success story in the traditional sense, that's understandable - but then there is actually no compelling reason to make the games so prominently the climax of the film.

<img width="443" src="https://media.senscritique.com/media/000019237122/source_big/Jungle_Cruise.jpg" />




Conclusion: &quot;Gold&quot; shows impressive images from the lives of impressive people. Between everyday life with a disability and sport, between sobriety and pathos, however, director Michael Hammon does not always really want to decide where the focus of his story should be.


Website: https://gomovie.show/genres/family/D70q4RG9