Now synonymous with sneakerheads, hypebeasts, and sports fans everywhere, it's difficult to imagine a world without Air Jordans. That was, however, a real possibility as chronicled by the film AIR: Courting A Legend. The film saw Ben Affleck return on the director's seat, with a story that many knew about-Michael Jordan's signing with Nike told through the perspective of the people creating history.
The story begins in the mid-1980s-a time when Nike was behind Converse and adidas in terms of market share and cultural cachet. Nike's underfunded basketball division is scoping for talents to sign, with Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) at the center.
Recruited to Nike for his keen recognition of talents, Vaccaro went against the grain in proposing the company to sign the then-rookie Michael Jordan and go all out on marketing him. With a small budget, the company preferred to sign a number of players instead of betting on one what follows is the story of how Vaccaro followed his vision to the bitter (or sweet?) end.
As AIR shows, history needs to be fought for. Had Vaccaro not been able to justify what he saw in Jordan, sports history and sneaker culture would be very different. While we all know the ending, it doesn't make the journey to get there all the less intense. Vaccaro went through numerous hoops pun obviously intended to get his colleagues on board, like Nike CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), and Howard White (Chris Tucker).
To get to Jordan, Vaccaro bypassed his agent, David Falk (Chris Messina) and went straight to Jordan's mother, Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis, who delivered a noteworthy performance of a mother who believes in her son with all her heart).
Of course, beyond reaching his mother, there's the fact Jordan liked adidas or even Converse more than Nike, so what does an increasingly frustrated Vaccaro do? He enlisted the help of footwear designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) to design a sneaker line based on Jordan, as opposed to having Jordan wear Nike's existing shoes.
The rest is a story we all have heard a version of, as it has been told, retold, and chronicled everywhere. As a sports movie, is AIR formulaic? Of course. Does it lean on the tropes that the audience will surely love? It does. It is, after all, another version of the aforementioned familiar story-one that doesn't necessarily line up with the divergent account(s).
However, is it executed well? The answer is also yes. Through powerful performances by its star-studded cast, AIR manages to capture the delicate line of what-ifs in history. While it is a capitalistic story, the script (debut of writer Alex Convery) and performances also deliver a point that what gives meaning to everything is people. "A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into it," as stated by numerous characters.
Interestingly, throughout the film, Jordan was never explicitly shown. As evidenced by the film's narrative, Jordan's larger than life persona-a destined legend before being one is shown through his presence. Jordan is an idea, a mythical figure we built him up to be. This is a fact that is referenced directly in the film, with details foreshadowing Jordan's life and career.
In a compelling speech, Vaccaro told the off-screen Jordan that the one thing people like more than building an icon up is tearing them down, and this is not something that many people are able to withstand. And yet, one of the few who Vaccaro believes will be able to, is Jordan. Decades later, withstood it he did.
(alm/DIR)