Usain Bolt’s story is a perfect one: three Olympic games, and gold medals in all the sprints (100m, 200m, 4 x 100m) every time. The Jamaican is an inspirational figure – the clean athlete who has run far faster than the dopers. We just have to hope that Russian hackers won’t dispel the myth and that his victories will never become tarnished by doping allegations. As matters stand, he is the ultimate Olympic hero, the runner almost everybody wants to see win, especially when he is competing against the twice-banned American, Justin Gatlin.
This documentary is a mixed affair. At times, it is an exercise in hero worship. “No one in the history of humanity has run as fast as Usain Bolt,” a voiceover tells us in portentous fashion. Various sporting celebrities (from Serena Williams to Pele) speak on camera about their admiration of Bolt. We are treated to many of Bolt’s victories and plenty of shots of him in his bow and arrow pose.
Directors Gabe Turner and Benjamin Turner also made In the Hands of the Gods, the entertaining doc about five English freestyle footballers on a quest to meet Maradona. At its best, I Am Bolt has some of the earlier film’s freewheeling charm. The film is at its strongest when it goes behind the scenes, showing Bolt goofing around in hotel rooms, doing his own ironing, trying to win bets for throwing the javelin, or training with his very laidback and sagacious coach, Glen Mills.
The early scenes from the World Championship in 2015, when he wasn’t at full fitness and seems sick with apprehension, are also revealing. At times, I Am Bolt makes for very rousing viewing. However, there is a dispiriting sense here that the filmmakers don’t have full control of their own movie. There are managers and agents helping call the shots. Certain subjects are skirted over.
The directors only refer very fleetingly to the drugs scandals that continue to dog the sport. Nor do they look in any depth at Bolt’s status within Jamaican society or at the Jamaican sprinting programme from which Bolt emerged.
Dir. Gabe Turner, Benjamin Turner, 105 mins, featuring: Usain Bolt, Glen Mills
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