Visions of Eight

Stan Margulies produced this documentary chronicle of the 1972 Munich Olympics. The film allows eight world-class directors free reign to chose a particular Olympic event and put together an impressionistic directorial expression of the event. As a result, the eight vignettes are of variable quality. Yuri Ozerov charts the beginning of the Games; John Schlesinger depicts the running of the marathon race; Arthur Penn examines the pole vault; Kon Ichikawa deconstructs the 100-yard dash; Milos Foreman applies his dry humor to the decathlon; Claude Lelouch effectively studies the losers; Mai Zetterling takes on weight-lifting; and Michael Pfleghar directs a tribute to women in the Olympics.