Salute

[Celini]

Very very poor execution about some remarkable people; their stories deserve to be told by a professional filmmaker.

6/10 (I am judging it as a documentary, so don't get me started as I would have to write few paragraphs about it and I doubt that'd be worth it!)

[jcolombi]

I would also give this a 6/10

I thought it dragged on a bit to much!

[stuartboy]

Utter drivel!
What a pointless and tedious film. Thank goodness it didn't stretch to the 120 mins that IMDB stated. The actual story is fascinating and well worth being told and it is about some very worthwhile people. This however was dull, dull, dull. I wouldn't even bother watching it on TV even if it was half as long as it was. What a waste of a golden film-making opportunity. How they thought they could spin out a sequence of talking heads, some grainy film footage and a still photograph which was shown over and over again I do not know.
I do think what those guys did was historical and helped to change the human race. They deserve better than this poor excuse for cinema.
I did confirm that this was going to be a documentary and not a drama so didn't even bother asking any +1. Good decision as I would have been embarrassed.

A paltry 2/10 (and one of these is due to sympathy to their cause).

[alythonian]

Having previously studied the Black Power movement I found this fascinating and a completely different angle on the story from any I've previously been presented with.
Yes it was grainy old footage and a lot of talking heads, I found it totally enthralling. Clearly my co-audience in Edinburgh didn't agree with about a 20% walk out of those attending.
I am making the assumption given it was an Australian production and the surnames of the producer and director that it was made by Peter Norman's family? It was made in 2008 and I'm guessing being released again now to coincide with the London Olympics?
Yes, it wasn't the best made documentary ever but I can forgive it that. A wee bit of editing would have been helpful as it was about 10-15 minutes over-long in my opinion.

Still, a testament to the three men.

I am so glad I saw this.

8/10 from me.

[Beate]

I wasn't bored once during this and thought it was a cracking documentary about a part of history that is probably under-documented. I wouldn't have thought how powerful it could be just to wear a human rights badge at the Olympics and what repercussions it could have. That white American guy was typical of a lot of people who don't understand why some people simply have to stand up for their beliefs. Yes of course they might have been more successful and wealthier if they hadn't done it but that's mostly the case if you walk the path of least resistance.

So I was ready to give this an 8/10.

However, I came out of this and thought "Hang on a minute - what about the two black guys? What happened to them?" They seemed to be looking just fine in the interviews but their story was only hinted at with a remark about "having to wash cars as being destitute" and one simply astonishing throwaway remark about "my first wife commited suicide as she couldn't take the abuse from people any longer". I mean WHAT? Why not focus on stuff like that? Instead we get long eulogies on Peter Norman who, granted, seemed a decent chap, and I am guessing the writer/director being someone called Matt Norman (relative?) might have something to do with it.

There's a screening tomorrow afternoon + Q&A with Tommie Smith and I'd love to ask him a few questions - if I didn't have to work that is.

7/10

P.S. We too had about 4 walkouts - all of them were black incidentally.

[Celini]

yeah the writer/director/editing guy is the nephew of Peter Norman; this was a tribute to his uncle, he never went deep and never explained what happened post 68 to any of protagonists and the repercussions.
again this was more a home movie than a documentary!

[weirdfilms33]

I too thought it was unfocused and really needed to tell the stories of the two black runners - they were the ones who were struggling and who gave the actual salute. The documentary music was also uninspiring. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. Nevertheless, it started really well with some great archive footage and managed to hold my attention. 6/10

[David]

Yep pretty much with the consensus here. Great story that could have been told a lot better and although Norman's stance was an interesting perspective, it was slightly ridiculous to marginalise the two black athletes and then threw in lines about how Carlos's wife killed herself. That's an incredible tragedy and it really should have been followed up so that we could understand how it affected their personal lives.

https://moviefilmreviews.wordpress.com/ ... ew-salute/

[Diane65]

I'm with alythonian and Beate on this. I was so moved by what the three men stood for and did get quite emotional towards the end. 7/10

[stuartboy]

I'm guessing the real haters here never even bothered to go and see it.
Of those that did, looks like I am in a minority. Again. Lol.

Could have been so much better.