Skip to main content

Movie Review: Eddie the Eagle *Spoiler Free*

If you remember the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada, you may also remember Eddie the Eagle Edwards, Britain's only entrant in the ski jump event. You didn't particularly need to be an avid watcher of the whole games because Eddie made quite an impression at the time as someone who had no chance of winning but whose enthusiasm and determination was quite infectious.

The movie, Eddie the Eagle is very loosely based on Eddie's life and the events leading up to the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Although a very enjoyable film don't be fooled into thinking this is how it all actually happened. The real Eddie the Eagle was warned by the studio that probably only about 10 to 15 percent of it is based on real events.

For example, Hugh Jackman's character, Bronson Peary, the disgraced and washed up US ski jumper, is a complete fabrication.

The real Eddie was mostly self taught with the help of a few short lived coaches along the way. Which makes his story even more remarkable but probably more difficult to tell in a movie that's just over two hours long.

That aside, Hugh's character kind of plays the voice of reason and is the straight man (in a broken kind of way) to Eddie's enthusiastic 'madness' and determination. Once they form an alliance you're kind of hoping they both do well.

Whilst Hugh plays Bronson very convincingly the real star is Taron Egerton who perfectly captures (for me at least) how I remember the real Eddie Edwards, along with Tom and Jack Costello, who both play childhood versions of Eddie.

At no time in this film did I ever feel sorry for Eddie. Even when various people tell him he doesn't have what it takes. I think this is partly because I already knew he achieved his dream but at the same time, all three actors really convey Eddie's determination, even when things are against him.

There's obvious comparisons here with the movie Cool Runnings, based on the Jamaican Bob Sled team (who I was surprised to learn first competed at the same Olympics).  However I think Eddie's personal story is more relate-able, particularly because he chose such a dangerous sport.

Though, in this interview with Eddie, that he gave to CBC at the time, you get the impression that he didn't find the actual jumps intimidating at all (no more than any of his competitors). In the interview Eddie confirms that his goal was to simply compete in an Olympics and, even though he didn't win any medals, he still held the British record for ski jumping.

For me the film has one minor misstep in that Eddie's moment at the Olympic Games is momentarily pushed aside for another important moment - which I won't spoil here. I felt that event could have been better placed as it momentarily stops the entire celebratory tone (you'll know it when it happens). It's not a big misstep but it is Eddie's film and it's been building to the public embracing Eddie at Calgary from the very beginning.

Overall Eddie the Eagle is a fun film that succeeds in capturing the spirit of what the real Eddie was hoping to achieve. Even pushing it just a little further in Eddie's wish to be taken seriously as an athlete and not just a novelty.

Interestingly Eddie, in the film, is right. The 1988 Winter Olympics was his only chance to realize his dream. Although he achieved British records for ski jumping his performance was no where near as good as his nearest rivals, resulting in the qualifying bar for future Olympics being raised considerably. Although he tried to qualify for successive Olympic games after 1988 he was never good enough to make the team.

Comments

  1. This is said to be the 'Comedy Of The Year' in the TV promo I think. Did it have funny moments? I saw the trailer at the movies, and it looked good. I don't remember the real life character at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It wouldn't be a comedy if it didn't have funny moments. Kathy and I really enjoyed it. It's both funny and inspiring even though it's not particularly accurate to Eddie's actual life story and process in getting to the Olympics. Doesn't matter if you have no interest in ski jumping. It's more about the characters than the sport.

      Delete
  2. I love ski jumping actually, watching it that is, and most of the winter sports too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...

TV Series Review: Humans (2015-2018, 3 Seasons) *No Spoilers*

Colin Morgan, Katherine Parkinson, Ivanno Jeremiah, Gemma Chan, and Emily Berrington in Humans (2015) W hile it may seem late to be reviewing Humans now, nearly seven years after the show wrapped, the only thing that's really aged about it is the opening titles... and even then, not that much. I think I caught the first season on Netflix back in 2015, and then kind of dropped off waiting for a new season to appear. As of writing this, all three seasons are on Amazon Prime. Humans is set in a parallel world that looks much like ours except humanoid robot helpers, that look just like real humans, called 'Synths', are now common place. Season one begins at the point where the first synths go from being subservient machines to gaining consciousness, and explores not only how humanity reacts to that but how the synths react to humanity's perceptions as well. Initially it follows a group of OG synths, already given consciousness by their creator, and just trying to survive i...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Resident Dragon: Checking In with My Daily Gag Cartoon/Comic About a Fire Dragon Living in the Suburbs

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

TV Series Review: Star Wars: Andor - Season 2 (2025, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...