White Rock & Olympic Spirit

A ski jumper in a blue suit is airborne above a snowy ramp, with a large crowd in a stadium below and a cityscape surrounded by mountains in the background. The scene captures the moment of flight during a ski jumping event.

British documentary filmmaker and producer Tony Maylam reinvigorated the sports documentary genre with White Rock, an idiosyncratic and utterly engaging account of the XII Olympic Winter Games Innsbruck 1976. He did so by placing music front and center, and by using Hollywood star James Coburn as a "guide for the uninitiated."

From the opening scenes of Coburn preparing to hurtle down the course in a four-man bobsled, Maylam's film sets an altogether non-conformist tone. Coburn involves himself fearlessly in several disciplines, including the luge, ice hockey, and the biathlon. He also discusses the art of waxing skis prior to competition and the finer points of figure skating.

English keyboardist Rick Wakeman provides the film with a rousing score that helped it to run for several months in cinemas. It's a documentary that communicates the glamour and intensity of winter sports.

The film screens with:

Olympic Spirit (1980, United Kingdom, 27 min)
Directed by Drummond Challis and Tony Maylam

For their short film on the XIII Olympic Winter Games Lake Placid 1980, directors Drummond Challis and Tony Maylam assumed the challenge of making a documentary without any offscreen commentary, relying on music to sustain the flow of images.

Part of our "Olympic Visions" series. Courtesy of the International Olympic Committee.