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Abstract
This article invites historians to reconsider the nature of sport, which is here defined as essentially aesthetic. The sporting aesthetic, however, is a by-product of competition as athletes struggle to outperform their rivals and to overcome their own limitations. It is argued here that these aesthetic qualities have been captured in two documentaries by the Danish film-maker J⊘rgen Leth – Stars and Water Carriers (1974) and A Sunday in Hell (1976) covering the 1973 Giro d'Italia and the 1976 Paris-Roubaix cycle races respectively. Leth's films effectively challenged contemporary Marxist views that sport was simply a banal distraction or a means of legitimizing the capitalist system. Their power, it is suggested, lies in their depiction of grand, heroic themes that echo classical myth and legend. Indeed, sport's enduring popularity may reside in its capacity to offer a glimpse of an mythological universe that has been marginalized by modernity.
Notes
1. Verner M⊘ller, ‘What is sport: Outline to a redefinition’, in Verner M⊘ller and John Nauright, eds, The essence of sport (Odense, 2003), pp. 11–33.
2. Pierre de Coubertin, Olympism – selected writings (Lausanne, 2000), p. 556. De Coubertin elaborates on this relationship elsewhere, as he emphasizes that sport is ‘a passionate movement of the spirit that can range from “games to heroism”. Picture this basic principle, and you will come to see the athletes whose excesses you criticize and censure today as an elite who radiate energy, people who are far more idealistic (and therefore, necessary for the public) than those who claim to stick to simple physical education to guarantee the future. These educators are people whose faith is flat, a faith that, left to its own, will have no followers in the near future, and no altars after that’ (ibid., p. 576).
3. Pierre de Coubertin, Olympism – selected writings (Lausanne, 2000), p. 556. De Coubertin elaborates on this relationship elsewhere, as he emphasizes that sport is ‘a passionate movement of the spirit that can range from “games to heroism”. Picture this basic principle, and you will come to see the athletes whose excesses you criticize and censure today as an elite who radiate energy, people who are far more idealistic (and therefore, necessary for the public) than those who claim to stick to simple physical education to guarantee the future. These educators are people whose faith is flat, a faith that, left to its own, will have no followers in the near future, and no altars after that’ (ibid., p. 565).
4. Pierre de Coubertin, Olympism – selected writings (Lausanne, 2000), p. 556. De Coubertin elaborates on this relationship elsewhere, as he emphasizes that sport is ‘a passionate movement of the spirit that can range from “games to heroism”. Picture this basic principle, and you will come to see the athletes whose excesses you criticize and censure today as an elite who radiate energy, people who are far more idealistic (and therefore, necessary for the public) than those who claim to stick to simple physical education to guarantee the future. These educators are people whose faith is flat, a faith that, left to its own, will have no followers in the near future, and no altars after that’ (ibid., p. 565).
5. M⊘ller, ‘What is sport’, p. 24. See also Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, In praise of athletic beauty (Cambridge and London, 2006).
6. Hans Keller, ‘Sport and art – the concept of mastery’, in H.T.A. Whiting and D. W. Masterson, eds., Readings in the aesthetics of sport (London, 1974), p. 90.
7. In my analysis I have used the original Danish versions of the films: Stjernerne og vandbærerne (Stars and water carriers) and En forårsdag i Helvede (A Sunday in Hell). Both films are available in English versions.
8. For a detailed introduction to Leth see M. Hjort and I. Bondebjerg, The Danish directors (Bristol, 2001).
9. The Danish Film Institute (DFI) is publishing six DVD box sets of J⊘rgen Leth's films. Two sets are released at present: ‘The Antropological Films’ and ‘Sports Films’. The latter contains the two cycling films analysed in this paper.
10. Leth's introduction in Verner M⊘ller, Dopingdjævlen – analyse af en hed debat [The doping devil] (Copenhagen, 1999). The English translation of the book (without Leth's introduction) is available online at http://www.doping.au.dk/en/resources/books, accessed 2 March 2009.
11. For examples on this school of thought see for instance Jean-Marie Brohm's Sport – a prison of measured time (Worcester, MA, 1978), Paul Hoch's Rip off the big game – the exploitation of sport by the power elite (New York, 1972) or Bero Rigauer's Sport and work (New York, 1981).
12. Keith Keller, ‘Film review: Stjernerne og vandbærerne’ [‘Stars and Water Carriers’] BT, 2 March 1974.
13. Leif Petersen. ‘Film review: Stjernerne og vandbærerne’ [‘Stars and Water Carriers’], Kosmorama, 20 (121) (1974), p. 234.
14. Oluf Gandrup. ‘Filmens og sportens dobbeltkarakter’ (‘The double character of film and sport’), MacGuffin 8 (35/36) (1980), p. 22.
15. Oluf Gandrup. ‘Filmens og sportens dobbeltkarakter’ (‘The double character of film and sport’), MacGuffin 8 (35/36) (1980), p. 43.
16. Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a theory of practice (Cambridge, 1977), p. 159.
17. Cited in Jens Frederik Kragholm, ‘J⊘rgen Leth – et interview’ [‘J⊘rgen Leth – an interview’], pp. 20-31, in Film-uv, no. 15 (1973), p. 26.
18. Thus Gino Bartali had two nicknames: ‘The Iron Man’, due to his strength, and ‘The Cycling Monk’, due to his religious convictions. The climber Federico Bahamontes became known as ‘The Eagle of Toledo’; the Italians simply called their champion Fausto Coppi ‘Il Campionissimo’, the champion of champions. Due to his abilities in the time trials, Jacques Anquetil was called ‘Monsieur Chrono’; Eddy Merckx, who ‘devoured’ his rivals one after one with his enormous appetite for victory, was called ‘The Cannibal’. The reckless and anarchist racer Claudio Chiappucci received the nickname ‘The Little Devil’, while Laurent Fignon with his characteristic spectacles was called ‘The Professor’, and Miguel Indurain, who never showed any emotions, was nicknamed ‘The Man with the Stone Face’. As an addition to their civil names, the prominent racers thus receive names which are indicative of their role and characteristics, and which make them recognizable and easier to place in the historical-mythological order.
19. Stars and Water Carriers. Both quotations are from the chapter: ‘En smertens vej’ [‘A Road of Pain’].
20. J⊘rgen Leth, Det er ligesom noget i en dr⊘m [‘Like something in a dream’] (Copenhagen, 1976), p. 70.
21. V. Hohler, ‘The Beauty of Motion’, in H.T.A. Whiting and D.W. Masterson, eds, Readings in the aesthetics of sport (London, 1974), pp. 49–56; and Gumbrecht, In praise of athletic beauty.
22. Anders Leifer, Også i dag oplevede jeg noget … Samtaler med J⊘rgen Leth [‘Again today I had an experience … Conversations with J⊘rgen Leth’] (Copenhagen, 1999), p. 258.
23. Henrik Jul Hansen, ‘Dagbog fra et forår i helvede’ [‘Diary from A Sunday in Hell’], Levende billeder 2 (4) (1976), pp. 19–21, 36–7.
24. ‘It is the most beautiful of all races’, as both Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have said. ‘It is disgusting’, as Bernard Hinault has said. Quoted in J⊘rgen Leth, Den gule tr⊘je i de h⊘je bjerge. En personlig beretning over 25 år om Tour de France [‘The yellow jersey in the high mountains. A personal account over 25 years on the Tour de France’] (Copenhagen, 1995), p. 192.
25. Max Weber, The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (New York, 1905/1958).
26. Luc Ferry, Man made God – The meaning of life (Chicago and London, 2002), p. 121.
27. Luc Ferry, Man made God – The meaning of life (Chicago and London, 2002), p. 121–2.