The Price of Gold
- Episode aired Jan 16, 2014
- TV-G
- 1h 18m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
The Kerrigan - Harding incident that rocked the Olympic and sports world.The Kerrigan - Harding incident that rocked the Olympic and sports world.The Kerrigan - Harding incident that rocked the Olympic and sports world.
- Awards
- 1 win
Photos
Oksana Baiul
- Self
- (archive footage)
Mahlon Bradley
- Self
- (archive footage)
Shawn Eckardt
- Self
- (archive footage)
Peggy Fleming
- Self
- (archive footage)
Jeff Gillooly
- Self
- (archive footage)
Lavona Golden
- Self
- (archive footage)
Dorothy Hamill
- Self
- (archive footage)
Sonja Henie
- Self
- (archive footage)
Nancy Kerrigan
- Self
- (archive footage)
Larry King
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsFeatures ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (1953)
Featured review
Skating on thin ice
Fascinating retrospective documentary on the infamous attack on US figure-skater Nancy Kerrigan in the run-up to the 1992 Olympics, allegedly planned by rival skater Tonya Harding and her entourage. In the end, Harding pleaded guilty to knowledge after the fact, not beforehand, which act effectively kept her out of prison but also finished her ice-skating career at age 24 and become remembered ever since as the trailer-trash tomboy who would do anything to improve her gold medal chances.
Of course the premise is easily set up as the statuesque, clean-living Kerrigan is contrasted with the mousy, street-hardened Harding, although in truth they weren't that far apart in social class. Using loads of archive footage, the film skilfully builds up to the Olympic final, where Harding singly under-performed but ironically Kerrigan was surprisingly pipped to the gold herself.
It's a shame of course that Kerrigan chose not to participate in this film, after all, she was the victim, all the stranger when her husband and manager does in her place, but I suppose that left more time for Harding to fill the space, trying ever harder as it goes on to vindicate herself, even after a so-called childhood-friend comes down off the fence near the end to find her guilty too.
The film doesn't make the final judgement on Tonya Harding, leaving it to the viewer in the end to make up their own mind. Personally I find it hard to believe that Harding herself was behind such a hare-brained plot and probably got sucked in by her user-loser husband and his crowd, but sometimes she overplays her hand, especially when she tries to portray herself as the victim and significantly makes no modern-day apology to Kerrigan for what happened to her.
Sport truly is stranger than fiction I guess, the irony for both is that their own names will forever be linked together over the sabotage-plot that went wrong, with Harding in particular sharing the damning infamy of the likes of Ben Johnson, Mike Tyson and Hansie Cronje. Whether she deserves this vilification is for the viewer to decide, a task this well-balanced documentary makes more difficult than you'd imagine,
Of course the premise is easily set up as the statuesque, clean-living Kerrigan is contrasted with the mousy, street-hardened Harding, although in truth they weren't that far apart in social class. Using loads of archive footage, the film skilfully builds up to the Olympic final, where Harding singly under-performed but ironically Kerrigan was surprisingly pipped to the gold herself.
It's a shame of course that Kerrigan chose not to participate in this film, after all, she was the victim, all the stranger when her husband and manager does in her place, but I suppose that left more time for Harding to fill the space, trying ever harder as it goes on to vindicate herself, even after a so-called childhood-friend comes down off the fence near the end to find her guilty too.
The film doesn't make the final judgement on Tonya Harding, leaving it to the viewer in the end to make up their own mind. Personally I find it hard to believe that Harding herself was behind such a hare-brained plot and probably got sucked in by her user-loser husband and his crowd, but sometimes she overplays her hand, especially when she tries to portray herself as the victim and significantly makes no modern-day apology to Kerrigan for what happened to her.
Sport truly is stranger than fiction I guess, the irony for both is that their own names will forever be linked together over the sabotage-plot that went wrong, with Harding in particular sharing the damning infamy of the likes of Ben Johnson, Mike Tyson and Hansie Cronje. Whether she deserves this vilification is for the viewer to decide, a task this well-balanced documentary makes more difficult than you'd imagine,
helpful•31
- Lejink
- Mar 4, 2014
Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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