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There seem to be multiple versions floating around, so I may have to hang on to the 170 minute version on the OOP Criterion DVD, until there's some sort of confirmation of the new release length.

From Wikipedia:

Ichikawa's vision of the Tokyo Olympics was controversial at the time as it was the opposite of what the Japanese government wanted and expected of the film. Ichikawa presented a film which was very much a cinematic and artistic recording of the events, more concerned with the athletes than the events, than the journalistic, historical recording that was desired by its financiers. As a result, the Japanese Olympic Committee forced Ichikawa to re-edit the picture to better suit their requirements, with the final, re-edited, version clocking in at 93 minutes rather than the original's 170 minutes.

In 2013, the official Olympic YouTube channel made an 125-minute version available in its entirety on the internet.

Will be an interesting study in who Criterion considers the Auteur here, the director or the Olympic committee

I'd bet it would have to be the IOC in the case of this set, while the earlier edition of Tokyo Olympiad was more from an arthouse/auteur perspective. Here's that 125 minute "International" version (with a thank you to Donald Richie for helping prepare it in the end credits!). It does make me curious as to which will be presented in the set - that or the 170 minute version, which was the one on the previous Criterion edition.

Mungo wrote:

domino harvey wrote:Why are they not including the commentary for Tokyo Olympiad?

I haven't listened to it, but does it have anything critical of the IOC or the Olympics on it?

Not really but I guess that it is pretty out of date by contemporary standards, regularly talking about and contrasting the on screen action to the latest Olympics at the time it was recorded, which were the 2000 Sydney Games (and a few brief mentions of modern day scandals to contrast against the 60s action). Its still extremely entertaining and informative though.

Also I hadn't noticed it earlier but it looks as if this set include films relating to the Winter Games too. Though nothing from Sochi in 2014 (or relating to last year's Rio Games either). I guess that's just because they fall outside of the "100 Years"!

Self wrote:Settles the Spine #900100 debate

Fixed

Colin, were there docs made for the recent games? Other than those made by notable names many years ago, I haven't heard of any of these

criterionsnob wrote:There seem to be multiple versions floating around, so I may have to hang on to the 170 minute version on the OOP Criterion DVD, until there's some sort of confirmation of the new release length.

For what it's worth, a 170-minute 4K restoration played at Cannes three years ago as a presentation of the IOC.

Seems like this would be the right place to present all three versions, then. I mean, it's not like they need to worry about the set being too bulky already, what's a couple alt edits?

I'm not sure if there were recent documentaries made for the latest games. Maybe it all went online? I'd assume that Bud Greenspan would have been doing them if there were!

What A Disgrace wrote:I had no idea that the director of The Burning made an Olympics documentary.

Tony Maylam seems to have had form in this sport documentary area. He directed Cup Glory in 1972 about the 100 year history of FIFA (with narration by Richard Attenborough!) And in 1987 the film Hero: The Official Film of the 1986 FIFA World Cup (aka the one with Maradona in it). Then in the early to mid 2000s he did a run of documentaries on sports cars (Porsche, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, etc), but even that seems to have had its roots in the 80s with the 1984 film The Marque of a Legend: Man's Quest For The Ultimate Sports Car (which is narrated by the recently deceased Robert Hardy!)

This answers my question of why the upcoming screening of Tokyo Olympiad at Metrograph is only 93 minutes (and playing on DCP).

There is this tidbit in Criterion's post, which gives some hope for the 170 minute version.

...the restorers sought to recreate the original version of each film...

colinr0380 wrote:I'm not sure if there were recent documentaries made for the latest games. Maybe it all went online? I'd assume that Bud Greenspan would have been doing them if there were!)

Since Greenspan died in 2010, I doubt he did films of the recent games.

Googling got me to learn that the IOC got one of the FOCAL International Awards 2017 for 'Best Archive Restoration & Preservation Project' with the submission 1912-1992: 80 years of Olympic films restored. Apparently Barcelona 1992 was the last Olympic film shot on 35mm...
Back in 2006 they found out that their audiovisual archive was deteriorating fast and started a 30.000.000 Swiss Francs restoration and digitisation project (overview here).

If you just look at the above link to Tokyo Olympiad you'll see a good handful of the official Olympic films are up on Youtube, with the ones shot on film seemingly all in HD.

Hi-res look at the packaging:

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HitchcockLang wrote:

colinr0380 wrote:I'm not sure if there were recent documentaries made for the latest games. Maybe it all went online? I'd assume that Bud Greenspan would have been doing them if there were!)

Since Greenspan died in 2010, I doubt he did films of the recent games.

That would explain it!

This would be the ultimate Olympics set if they also included opening and closing ceremonies with the parade of nations.

Also, looks like we're not getting Antwerp 1920, Lake Placid 1932, and Los Angeles 1932.

jmj713 wrote:Hi-res look at the packaging:

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Tokyo 1964 is split onto two discs in that image (assuming DVDs are pictured), so perhaps we are getting multiple cuts.

Edit: Never mind. Tokyo 1964 contains two different films:
Tokyo Olympiad (dir. Kon Ichikawa)
Sensation of the Century (prod. Taguchi Suketaro, supervisor Nobumasa Kawamoto)

Happy I unloaded my Tokyo Olympiad disc last year. Would love to get this but just don’t have even $200 to drop on it.

This is a rare release in that it by itself the 10% discount during a sale would make 80% the cost of the BN membership a worthwhile investment!

Already planning to pick up a copy at full retail from a museum gift shoppe instead

Ahhh. Would be nice to see Tokyo Olympiad come out as a stand alone release. I don't know how interested I would be to see Olympiads from 84 on since they're still pretty fresh in the mind considering the overexposure the Olympics gets nowadays.

oldsheperd wrote:Ahhh. Would be nice to see Tokyo Olympiad come out as a stand alone release..

As the person who bought your copy of Tokyo Olympiad, I've no complaints in this situation!

Well, I wasn't expecting this (we thought the phantom pages were just going to be a Filmstruck theme). I wonder then if they might do something similar with all of the short films they've been amassing as well.

They've certainly been bringing back the OOP titles this year! Tokyo Olympiad - which the IOC owns the rights to alongside Toho. Also - Riefenstahl's Olympia was a Laserdisc title (were there any special features on there?). Perhaps they just wanted to get those films back, but had to take on the entire project!

I suppose on disc supplements might still be to come, but even without them - the supplement really is that lengthy book - and I wonder how long Cowie had to spend on this project. I'm sure the book will fill in nicely as the supplement host - as there's probably not too much one can say about alot of these films outside of what will be covered in the book.

Still though, getting Olympia + Tokyo Olympiad and all of these other films to go along with it - for what will assuredly be $180 at BN (I paid Oldsheperd $50 just for Tokyo Olympiad - which is now going for about $100) is a great bargain.

From the enlarged image - Tokyo 1964 is on two discs. I can't find any information on Sensation of the Century though, so perhaps thats only whats on part two.

I wonder what the Criterion branding will be - if it will have a sticker like Zatoichi, or if the not-pictured side of the box will have the traditional spine# / info.

criterionsnob wrote:There is this tidbit in Criterion's post, which gives some hope for the 170 minute version.

...the restorers sought to recreate the original version of each film...

Even with this, I assume we're not getting the uncut Olympia?

Minkin wrote:From the enlarged image - Tokyo 1964 is on two discs. I can't find any information on Sensation of the Century though, so perhaps thats only whats on part two.

Where the film is mentioned at all, it's more commonly referred to by its Japanese title Seiki no kando. It was commissioned after Kōno Ichirō (the Deputy Prime Minister and minister without portfolio with special responsibility for sports) expressed his vehement objections to Ichikawa's film, which he reportedly thought was "terrible." It's a pretty long movie in itself (155 minutes), so I think we're just getting one film on each disc, with the original cut of Tokyo Olympiad on the first. But who knows, maybe they'll include the 93-minute cut on the second disc alongside Sensation of the Century—Criterion has certainly put more than 248 minutes on a single Blu before.

Minkin wrote:I wonder what the Criterion branding will be - if it will have a sticker like Zatoichi, or if the not-pictured side of the box will have the traditional spine# / info.

Where will we put the outer sticker?! Ahhhh!