The events of the 1998 Nagano Games were recorded by director Bud Greenspan, and have transmitted to future generations as one of the IOC's official Olympic films. It is interesting to ask, however, what kind of existence did the director try to capture in the film, and what kind of visual lines did he employ for the ends? The purpose of this paper is to capture and clarify the Olympic philosophy, known as “Olympism, ” as expressed by Greenspan in his film with specific reference to the idea of “being” and “visual lines.”
The main subject of this study was “Nagano '98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory” (1998). This film consists of eight stories featuring seven main athletes appeared in the Nagano Games. It is possible to bring the real nature of his visual line into relief by using the following types of analysis:
(1) an exploration of the diverse visual lines used to record the stories—cameramen, editors, or director;
(2) an investigation of the kinds of object these visual lines portrayed—athletes' performances, the way of life of the main athletes, the culture and environment of the host city, and so on;
(3) an exploration of for whom these visual lines were captured—athletes, producers, IOC, NOCs, sponsors, the audience or “Big Brother.”
In conclusion, it can be said that the being and visual lines filmed by Greenspan were stories of athletes as heroes: that is, as idealistic and humanistic beings. Nevertheless, there is room for doubt whether this type of record could authentically be captured by the term “Olympism.”
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