The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russians flock to film on '72 Olympics gold
Tale of controversial Soviet basketball win vs. U.S. sparks fervor.
MOSCOW — Russia’s going crazy for the Olympics. The 1972 Olympics.
Even as the Russian team faces up to being barred from next month’s Winter Games for doping offenses, audiences are flocking to see a movie about Soviet glory on the Olympic basketball court 46 years ago.
“Going Vertical” tells the story of the Soviet Union team that won gold in 1972, becom- ing the first basketball team in history ever to beat the United States at the Olympics.
It’s a tale of Cold War rivalry, inspiring speeches and some- thing very familiar to Russian sports fans after recent scandals: a gold medal decided by officials.
After pulling in crowds throughout the holiday season, last week “Going Vertical” became the highest-earning Russian movie ever in domestic cinemas, with $32.5 million in takings, according to a government-backed statis- tics service.
At a screening in central Moscow on Thursday, audi- ence members whooped and applauded as Alexander Belov sank the winning Soviet basket to beat the U.S. 51-50, and then cheered again when the orig- inal 1972 footage was played alongside the credits.
“I was crying tears of joy,” cinemagoer Nina Parshikova said. To the millions of Russians who consider their coun- try unfairly persecuted over doping allegations, even the Cold War can seem a simpler time. Audience member Yegor Druzhinin said: “Now politics plays more of a role. Then it was sport.”
Actor Kuzma Saprykin used his childhood basketball expe- rience to play Ivan Edeshko, who threw what Russians still call the “golden pass” for the Soviets’ winning basket.
“I didn’t think there would actually be this kind of colos- sal success,” he told The Asso- ciated Press. “It’s surprising when people send me vid- eos, how at practically every screening people are clapping, with some kind of patri- otism and spirit awakening in people.”
In Russia, the game has similar significance to the U.S. “Miracle on Ice,” its defeat of the Soviet hockey team at the 1980 Olympics.
The U.S. remembers the 1972 basketball gold medal game very differently: as a robbery.
The last three seconds of the final were replayed twice after the Soviet team protested its signal for a timeout had been ignored, and the U.S. players twice celebrated victory before being told to play again. On the third and final play, Soviet player Edeshko threw a fullcourt pass for Belov to score a last-second layup.
The result prompted days of wrangling among officials from both nations and the international basketball federation. That’s left out of the movie, as is the U.S. players’ decision to reject their silver medals, which still lie unclaimed with the International Olympic Committee.
The script also suggests the Soviets were facing top U.S. pros, when in fact the U.S. fielded college players, including future NBA stars like threetime All-Star Doug Collins and Tom McMillen, later a congressman. The Soviet team, while technically amateurs under the then-current Olympic rules, was effectively composed of full-time pro players several years older than most of the Americans.
“Going Vertical” plays up its Cold War rivalry, portraying the U.S. team and fans as brash, overconfident rule-breakers, though ultimately courageous. The movie also takes some digs at the Soviet system’s rationed health-care and the cultural divides among what would later become independent countries. Edeshko says it’s a “just and honest” view.
Some family members of deceased players have objected to the way it portrays the team. Belov, who scored the winning basket, spends much of the movie balancing romance with news he’s terminally ill. However, his widow told Russian media outlet Meduza that the real Belov, who died of a rare cancer in 1978 aged 26, was single and healthy in 1972.
The upcoming soccer World Cup in Russia provides more fodder for sports movies, with a biography of Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin in the pipeline, as well as a fictionalized story of a modern-day coach.