On May 12, the digital release of Ben Affleck's new film 'Air: Big Jump' took place. The Amazon Studios film about the signing of a revolutionary contract between Nike and the great basketball player Michael Jordan seems to be the first clear candida...
Ben Affleck returns to the director's chair after a 7-year absence. His last film, 'Live by Night,' was, to put it mildly, not great. After that obvious misstep, Affleck's plans included a 'Batman' adaptation within the DC cinematic universe, starring himself (a favorite pastime), but it never made it to filming. He later admitted he gave up the project out of fear of 'drinking himself to death.' The actor's alcohol addiction and the appointment of James Gunn as head of DC Studios finally buried 'Batman,' leaving Ben Affleck only the opportunity to appear one last time as the Dark Knight in the 'Aquaman' sequel and 'The Flash.'
The third 'Guardians of the Galaxy' is currently in theaters (including unofficial Russian ones) — a farewell gift from James Gunn to Marvel fans before fully diving into work on the cinematic univer
Open materialIn 2022, it became known that the former Bruce Wayne was returning to directing and was working on a project under the working title 'Air Jordan.' The script for the film was written by debutant Alex Convery back in 2021, but it was shelved until Ben Affleck and Matt Damon made some changes to the text and started work on the film, in which each of them also took a role.
What's the Plot?
It's 1984. The majority of the basketball shoe market is owned by Converse (54%), Adidas holds second place with 29%, while Nike has only 17%. The corporation with the 'swoosh' on the logo has, of course, already made a name for itself worldwide, but it was associated exclusively with running shoes. The company's basketball division is going through far from its best times. It is here that the main character works — scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), whose job is to find young and promising athletes with whom the corporation can sign a contract.
The funding is so meager that employees don't even consider the top athletes. The department has to split the allocated $250,000 among several mid-list players in whom Vaccaro sees no particular potential. One night, while reviewing game footage, Sonny has an epiphany that Nike needs none other than Michael Jordan (number 3 on the list) — an 18-year-old player who hasn't even set foot on an NBA court yet.
The scout tries to convince the corporation's CEO, Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), to take a risk and put the entire budget into a single player who, by the way, has already decided to sign a contract with Adidas. Sonny is assisted in securing the contract by marketer Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), future vice president of the Jordan brand Howard White (Chris Tucker), and designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), who developed the legendary Air Jordan 1 sneakers and the famous Jumpman logo. However, signing Jordan is not so easy, and it's not even about the money. To convince Michael, one must first prove to his mother Deloris (Viola Davis) that Nike can offer something worthy of her son. And we all know how it ended — it's history now.
Just Do It
'Air: Big Jump' ('Air'), perhaps, turned out to be the safest option for Ben Affleck as a return. A very American film about an American corporation that signed a contract with a great American player symbolizing the American dream (in one of its incarnations). Naturally, the film will contend for an 'Oscar,' because that's what they love there. At the very least, Viola Davis as the mother who stood behind Jordan and always believed in her son's success can count on a nomination. Affleck said he discussed the script with Michael before filming, and when the casting of Deloris came up, the basketball player said she should be played by Davis. In the end, she appeared on screen alongside her husband Julius Tennon, who played James Jordan — the star's father.
The film turned out to be very delicate and, perhaps, a bit sterile. The creators approached all topics with maximum caution so as not to offend or upset anyone. There are no losers in 'Air,' as everyone came out a winner, which creates a feeling of no conflict for almost two hours. Damon's character didn't face any particular difficulties on the path to closing the deal, because essentially he just said that he saw talent in the basketball player, convinced everyone around him, and turned out to be right. That's all. But what wins over the viewer is not the tension being built up, because everyone knows where the plot will end up, so there is no intrigue at all. What wins over the viewer is the story of an ordinary employee — a man over 40 of non-athletic build, thanks to whom a revolutionary thing happened in the world of sportswear.
'Air' is not a film about the legendary Michael Jordan at all. The basketball player is always somewhere on the periphery, and Damian Young, who played him, doesn't even show his face here, limited to the back of his head, hands, and a bit of voice. Thus, the creators did not burden either the actor or the viewers with an extra factor that distracts from the story, since the plot is about something else entirely. It is about a landmark precedent set by Nike regarding an individual, because with this contract, the team that worked on its conclusion put the athlete's individuality above their own brand for the first time.
Jordan is undoubtedly a great athlete, one of the best in the world of basketball, and the corporation with the 'swoosh' emphasized this greatness by creating sneakers, and later an entire brand, for one person. And this is probably one of the main things in the film that the creators wanted to show.
In modern reality, many facts look, of course, quite amusing. A multi-million dollar company allocates $250,000 for three star players, when the board of directors obviously has a bit more money in their pockets. Just look at Phil Knight's 'grape' colored Porsche 911 Turbo, who says that achieving this color requires 17 layers of paint. And the fact that today players receive multi-million dollar contracts with brands (LeBron signed a seven-year, $90 million contract with Nike at 18) completely devalues that quarter of a million. But if that deal hadn't been made back then, who knows what the world of athletic footwear would be like now. Although 'sneakers are just sneakers until someone puts them on,' even if those sneakers are Air Jordans.
There I s N o F inish L ine
Perhaps if another director had taken on 'Air,' the film could have turned out more daring and action-packed, but Ben Affleck is not afraid of the chosen style of storytelling. The director fills the film with poignant dialogues between characters, amusing banter between Sonny Vaccaro and Jordan's agent David Falk (Chris Messina), as well as archival inserts featuring the basketball player himself and elements reflecting the era. He audiovisually conveys the atmosphere of the 80s. The project features references to Orwell, 'Rocky,' 'Ghostbusters,' and 'Knight Rider,' and popular brands like Kodak, MTV, 7-Eleven, and Apple constantly appear on screen. Not to mention the song about the American dream, 'Born in the U.S.A.' by Bruce Springsteen, which is not only discussed by the characters but also concludes the film.
The cast, including the already mentioned Viola Davis, Matt Damon with a prosthetic belly, Jason Bateman, and Chris Tucker in the role of a charismatic talker, looks simply amazing. And Affleck himself plays quite well. So, in symbiosis with the film's motivational attitude, excellent atmosphere, and the actors' performances, the film goes down quite easily. Damon's and Davis's monologues can certainly give the viewer chills and make them think, at least briefly, about what they need to do in life on the path to success.
Of course, many will find 'Air' a completely unfamiliar film, because such business stories simply do not exist in Russia. The American mentality permeates the film (hence its $51 million in US earnings out of a total $88 million), so expecting something universal from it is clearly not worth it. Such success seems always possible somewhere 'over there,' while we adhere to completely different politics and values.
We, perhaps, are more inclined to make films about something else (and not always successfully), but sometimes it is still useful to immerse oneself in another culture and observe what opportunities are open to a person regardless of where they live. And as a bonus, we are offered a glimpse into an interesting piece of the history of a corporation like Nike, whose slogans today are capable of motivating anyone to succeed.
What's the Verdict?
'Air: Big Jump' turned out to be a charming and delicate business biopic about people who understand that history is unlikely to remember their names, unlike Michael Jordan's. It's about the colossal work they did to snatch a young talent from competitors. And about the fact that you should always strive for your dream, especially if something inside you is screaming about it. Only, contrary to Vaccaro's words, director Ben Affleck and screenwriter Alex Convery, along with the creative team, have immortalized the names of these 'ordinary' employees in history (if we don't count that they did it themselves, but many people simply didn't know about it). So the scout was wrong about that, but perhaps it's the most pleasant mistake of his career.
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