Larry Bird and Magic Johnson:
A Courtship of Rivals
I watched Magic Johnson and Larry Bird: A Courtship of Rivals. The main idea of this documentary is the rivalry that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson shared from the time they were in college until they retired from the NBA. Throughout the film, you get an inside look at their perspectives of each other and the famous rivalry. The film starts with how they got to be who they are and where they ended up and ends with where they are now.
The scene that stuck out most to me was when Magic was talking about when he was diagnosed with HIV. When Larry Bird called magic, the camera went between shots of magic and larry and their side of the story. When magic tears up talking about how larry called him, the camera stays focused on magic. By keeping the camera on Magic as he was tearing up, it emphasizes to the audience the impact this diagnosis had on Magic, and his family, and his career. As the camera stays focused on magic crying, he isn’t saying anything. Once magic starts to talk about how much it means to him that larry called him, you see pictures from the very first game they played in against each other in college throughout their NBA career. The pictures you see are of them battling physically during the game. The pictures help emphasize the importance larry's phone call has because for at least a decade, they’ve disliked each other to the point where they literally tried to hurt each other during games because they were so competitive against one another. However, as you’re seeing these pictures about their rivalry, Magic is talking about how their friendship has evolved and when it came down to something as serious as Magic being diagnosed with HIV, it seems like they were never enemies on or off the court and the way the scene was shot and edited did a good job of showing that. Outside of this particular scene I noticed that throughout the documentary, they followed the rule of thirds and the 180 rule. When they were interviewing Magic and he was on the screen, he was always on the left side of the screen talking into the right side of the frame and Larry was on the right side talking into the left side of the frame as if they were sitting next to each other. To me, what really made this film was having Magic Johnson and Larry Bird themselves being in the film. It still would have been a good film if there was only videos of them playing along with authors of the Boston Globe and books written about their rivalry but hearing Larry Bird himself talking about his thoughts and feelings about Magic and same with Magic really makes a difference in the film. The other thing that made the film was having other teammates from the Celtics and Lakers who played with Larry and Magic tell their side of the rivalry and what Magic and Larry were like in practices and games.
I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone whether or not you are a basketball fan or not. Even if you have no idea who Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are, I would still recommend this film. Not only do you learn about them as basketball players, but you learn about the development of their friendship and how no matter how competitive you are, who wins or loses on the court, none of it matters unless you have your true friends by your side. Even in this case where they were enemies for the longest time, when it came down to it, Larry was there for Magic and Magic was there for Larry.
Survive and Advance
For my second documentary review, I watched Survive and Advance which was an ESPN 30 for 30 episodes. Survive and Advance tells the story of the 1983 NC State Men's basketball team and the overview of their season that ended with an NCAA National Championship. For the previous 3 years, they hadn’t made it past the first round of the tournament when they even made the tourney. The documentary takes you along the ride and describes game by game their journey to an NCAA Championship.
One of my favorite shots of the whole movie was towards the end when Dereck Whittenburg was in the dark gym looking up at their championship banner thinking back at his time playing for Coach Jim Valvano. It was dark in the gym and the camera was below Whittenburg looking up at him which gives you a sense of the power and emotion that he is feeling when looking back on what he and his team accomplished.
The majority of the documentary is interviews of the players from the ‘83 team and in between the interviews is B-roll with game footage and video of Jim Valvano speaking to different audiences whether it was the ESPYs or just a press conference after a game. The interviews were all done following the rule of thirds and making sure the person being interviewed was looking into the frame. Another thing that I noticed was the person whole was being interviewed took up a good amount of the frame and there wasn’t a lot of empty space. Because of this, the camera was focused on the person a lot closer which instills a feeling of intensity. Shooting the interviews this way really helped to tell the stories of each game that ended up coming down to a final shot which is a very intense feeling.
Doing interviews on my own makes me realize how important it is to make sure that the shot looks good and fits the film that you’re making. One thing I really noticed in this documentary was the lighting. Each person who did an interview had lights on their eyes and also lights separating them from the background which helps you focus on the person and what they’re saying rather than the background behind them. Another thing that I really liked was the B-roll that was chosen. Not only was it relevant to what was being said but a lot of it also helped tell the story. In particular, I really liked the videos of Coach Valvano speaking at press conferences and to larger audiences as well. These videos helped the audience understand who he was as a person and how he could impact his players and coaches in the short time that he did.
I would definitely recommend this film to anyone even if they’re not basketball fans. I say this because the life lessons and messages that Coach Valvano shares and gets across to his team and staff are relevant to anyone. Cinematically speaking, this film is very well made in terms of the use of B-roll and how they shot the interviews.