I’ve just been watching the 1968 Official Olympics film and it was quite an eye opener in many ways.
I don’t remember the 1966 world cup but I do vaguely remember some of the 68 olympics, the first south American games and it was held in Mexico. I can remember as a boy going to see World Cups and Olympics at the cinema, unlike home it was all in colour.
For me it’s probably the greatest olympics ever. Some records were totally smashed and some by todays standards seem very pedestrian (the marathon winning time was 2 hours 20 minutes). On the field the greatest achievement of this or any other games was probably Bob Beamons long jump. He never seemed as if he was going to land. He beat the world record by over half a metre and jumped so far it was beyond the measuring device. His record stood for another 23 years!
Ironically for an event that came together in ‘peace and unity’ it was ‘off’ the field that saw the most iconic image, perhaps the most iconic image in sport. Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and bronze in the 200m and wore black leather gloves on the podium in support of black power (provided for them by Australian silver medallist Peter Norman). The film makes no comment and only briefly shows Smiths clenched fist. Smith and Carlos received life bans from the Olympic committee and Norman never represented his country again. When he died Smith and Carlos were pall bearers at his funeral.
The film itself is odd to say the least. There is no crowd noise during the events, no commentary and the sounds of the athletes footfalls are dubbed on after with a music sound track reminiscent of a BBC nature documentary. There is one bizarre and no doubt ‘arty’ sequence of the starter having his podium pushed over the cinder track in close up several times, it reminded me of a Terence Davies film. There are also a lot of close ups of female athletes backsides.
Other notable moments for me were the mens 100m (“notice that all the competitors are black” – I think one was Mexican, but anyhow he certainly wasn’t ‘white’ and that was evidently enough), Dick Fosbury’s unique high jump and an injured Tanzanian athlete finishing the marathon an hour late.
Any team event winners did that odd 60s celebration where they stand alone and jump up and down waving their arms before patting their team mates on the back. Any event involving the soviet union and an eastern bloc country usually ended in a fight. The best example of this is the football final which was utterly butchered by the American commentator. The ref is an umpire and goals are points. The finalists are Hungary and Bulgaria and there is a bad foul which results in four players being sent off although the exact reasons aren’t made clear. If you only watch one clip of this make it 51:23 when a Bulgarian player throws the ball at the refs head. Utterly priceless.
It was the first olympics that was dope tested and the first ever banned athlete was a Finnish pentathlete kicked out for being drunk.
For me there are some noticeable omissions. There is no boxing (George Foreman won the mens heavyweight gold and Chris Finnegan won the middleweight for GB) and there are strangely no mile races.
It has strong undertones of sexism and racism and appears to be American biased (the only male track event is the legendary Al Oerta) but it’s worth a watch and makes me want to dig out a few more old world cups and olympics,
Don’t forget 51:23 🙂
Close-ups of female backsides might well have started there, but continues to this day. Have you ever seen coverage of beach volleyball? I feel like Moosey should pop by and let us know his thoughts.
Love the tracking shots for the finish of the steeplechase. Proper Chariots Of Fire moments.
I was at Junior school when the 1968 Mexico Olympics took place. The day after Bob Beamon’s world record long jump, my form teacher, Mr. Relf, took us all into the playground and measured out the distance. We then took it in turns to see how we compared to Bob’s effort. I also remember Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium wearing black gloves, although I was too young to appreciate the significance.
It’s my favourite Olympics too. If an enterprising Sky Channel were to put all existing footage that is available on during this year’s Olympics, like they did a few years ago with old General Elections, I wouldn’t watch a second of the 2024 one.
1968 is the ‘psychedelic Olympics’ where even the filming of Hemery’s race from a weird angle (the clip shown on every Grandstand/Sportsnight throughout the 1970s) has a strange dreamy quality about it… more Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In than snooker from the Crucible.
The whole event has the best posters, the best music (alongside 1964) and, when delving online to find out about it before, the Olympic village and shots from outside the stadium look the most futuristic anything has (to this day…) ever looked.
Every Olympics since, certainly post-1972, has looked tame and worse, bland, in comparison, but then we can’t be surprised that the best time to be alive also had the best Olympics!!! Kinda goes with the territory. See: ‘Best World Cup’.
I will definitely be watching this film.
The best world cup is of course famously the last one. And in some respects that is usually true. But the 68 olympics just seemed so utterly timeless. Take the USA sprinters, in a time before ear rings, necklaces and nails the men in particular seemed such absolute specimens of prowess. They just look wonderful and will never age.
Nah 1964 better because Lynn Davies won the Long Jump.
Best World Cup is either 1966 or 1970, with an outside bet on 1958.
Just seen the film, thanks for posting it. It’s so influenced by Goal, the best football film, and its artistic nature (weird incidental music, long gaps of silence, little if any commentary, sound effects), far from a sporting mood, is what makes it so much better than modern-day equivalents. I do not want to hear any interviews and in this film, made in the 60s, there are precisely didley squat.
Sad reflection on pretty much every Olympics since 1968, and especially now… how many adverts did you count? I reckon there were about five, all relevant to a piece of machinery vital to a sport, in the whole film. FIVE!!!! IN THE WHOLE FILM!!!! That’s what has lessened such events since, you can’t move for adverts. It’s sad. The Golden Age? It definitely went that away. Twelve months later Murdoch turned The Sun into a tabloid. All downhill from there.
Sport in 2024 is best served on the radio, because you can’t see it.
Oh yeah, and pubic hair, does anyone under 40 know that people used to have pubic hair? There were so many beautiful people in that film, I think I need a lie down. In 2024, you usually only see about one beautiful person a month! Seriously, where did they go? Did the Tories ban beautiful people when I wasn’t looking?
And Mary Rand won the woman’s. There’s a line of pennies set in the pavement outside wells cathedral that mark the distance.
I thought it was in Tokyo 😉
Pretty sure that the official 1964 and 1968 films were shot by an American film maker called Bud Greenspan who.I briefly got to meet when he came to Hong Kong for a special screening of the 68 film just ahead of the Seoul Games
Aside from Bob Beaman’s record breaking leap (may well still be an Olympic Record). the other standout moment from Mexico 1968 was the 400m race after which Tommie Smith and John Carlos did their famous Black Power salute
The guy who gets forgotten in all of the subsequent hoo-hah was Aussie silver medalist, Peter Norman, whose subsequent treatment at the hands of Athletics Australia was pretty disgraceful.
Terrific doco about PN’s story called Salute for anyone who’s interested. While not on YT, there are several other shorter films about this man who was in his own quiet way just much a hero as TS and JC
I thought Tommie Smith and John Carlos were dancing to Black Lace’s Superman?
Mexico City’s rarified air has a lot to do with it. Lots of the records set in 1968 lasted a long, long time. No Australian has run faster than Peter Norman. Beamon’s leap is still the Olympic record.
I have to agree with Billy Ray Cyrus’s daughter. Peter Norman is my favourite Olympian.
That’s true. In the mens 100m 7 of the 8 finalists went under the old Olympic record.
Was going to mention that. There are also I believe some women’s world records from the 80s that still stand, mainly by East Germans, something to do with the special wurst diet they were on I believe.
Far too young for the 68 Olympics, but I’m honour bound to point out that Mexico isn’t in South America.
The first, and so far only, South American Olympics were held in Brazil in 2016. 1968 was the first Olympics held in Latin America.
Apols for the pedantry, shouldn’t detract from what is an enjoyable thread.
Mexico 1968 was the first time I ever heard of The Barron Knights…