Now before we launch into the story of Michael Jordan, Nike, American basketball and the shoe that conquered the world, I should confess a conflict of interest. Or rather, a conflict involving a lack of interest.
I know next to nothing about the history of basketball, or American sport in general, which seems to be far more closely connected to big business than athletic achievement.
Photo: Screenshot
I also neither know nor care about the growth of the basketball shoe over the years. Shoes are things you wear till they wear out then you buy another set, is my attitude.
So, I clearly know nothing about the events covered in Air, other than what they choose to tell me. And we open on Sonny Vaccaro – a deliberately pudgy Matt Damon – rather on the back foot.
His job is growing the basketball side of shoe-manufacturer Nike.
Nike’s main competition is Converse, who have also cornered the market on big name basketball players to promote their product.
There’s another firm, Adidas, doing the same thing. Nike is currently running a poor third in the competition.
Sonny’s boss is Rob Strasser - Jason Bateman – who’s putting pressure on Sonny. We need big names, he says.
But they’ve only got a certain amount of money to buy three reasonable-sized names. And the other problem is the Nike shoe is hardly an industry leader at the moment.
But Sonny has an idea. Rather than buying three B-listers, why not shoot the pool on one A-lister? Or rather, one potential A-lister.
Sonny takes the idea right to the top. That’s right, he takes it to Phil Knight himself.
You may not be surprised to learn that I’d never actually heard of Phil Knight until he turned up here, played by Ben Affleck.
It would certainly come as a surprise to Ben, who also directed and produced Air. Ben – and his old mate Matt Damon – have clearly obsessed over every detail of this story since 1984, when they were sports-mad teenagers.
But for me – not an American sports-mad teenager – it was harder to get into Air than the usual sports story.
American sport isn’t just about the result on the day. It’s about statistics, who’s the greatest player that week, that year, the Greatest Of All Time? How much are they worth? How much did they make from endorsements?
The answer to many of these questions – to Ben and Matt, certainly, and possibly the rest of America – is one name. Michael Jordan.
Even I’d heard of Michael Jordan – though I may have struggled to remember the shoe – Nike’s Air Jordan. But I have no idea quite how famous Jordan was in early 1984, when Nike put everything on him to sell their new footwear.
Was he a complete rookie outsider – Jonah Lomu before he joined the All Blacks? Or was he already a household name, and worth the king’s ransom Sonny, Phil and Rob are prepared to gamble?
Viola Davis has a nice bit as Michael Jordan’s savvy Mum, who’s obviously famous to the fans as the power behind his eventual world-beating fame. But for me, the film was full of a lot of “if you say so” moments.
It looks good though, and the music’s fun, in an American MTV sort of way.
If you know anything about the rise of Nike, of Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan shoe, there’s probably a lot more for you in Air than there was for me.
I do like all the actors and Affleck is turning into a very able director.
