Sport, Film and National Culture, edited by Seán Crosson, provides fourteen contributions to the discussion of how sport has been used within film as a tool to promote national culture. As Crosson notes in his introduction, “[S]port films are rarely primarily about sport” (3). He argues that sport films typically lack global impact but make up for this at the national level. Be that as this may, filmography featuring sport can help promote national cultures on a global level—if nothing else, educating and providing insight of a particular national culture to a global audience.The book is split into three parts: “Sport, Cinema, and National Culture in the USA,” “The European Experience,” and “Beyond Hollywood and Europe.” With ten out of the fourteen chapters focusing on American and European case studies, it does feel Western and Global North heavy. Crosson acknowledges this to a point in the introduction while mentioning India, Australia, and China (8). He also appears to classify Ireland as falling outside the European category. If this was the intention, then the justification for it should have been provided. If not, then greater clarity here would have been beneficial.The first part of the book, focusing on the United States, is the strongest. Throughout these four chapters, the reader is guided through explorations in changing attitudes toward American football (Chapter 1), the sexualization of America (Chapter 2), the journey of Black civil rights (Chapter 3), and then sexuality (Chapter 4). These chapters as a section provide the reader with an analysis of different matters, which America has navigated through up to the present day, and the part film has played in developing and communicating these issues. Gina Daddario's chapter, in particular, provides the reader with a fascinating analysis of how modern-day films such as Battle of the Sexes can be used to reimagine events and people's lives.The second part, focusing on Europe, provides chapters on films from Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain. The chapters focusing on soccer and the Third Reich and cricket in Great Britain are particularly strong in the critical analysis provided. Rebeccah Dawson's analysis of The Big Game demonstrates how even a film that is not rich in explicit propaganda was still used as a tool by the Nazis to promote and normalize the “picture of a sublime, utopian German nation to the world,” combining two powerful and preferred tools of film and sport (124).The third and final part of the book provides chapters focusing on New Zealand, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Taiwan. With the modern-day political tension surrounding Taiwan, Ting-Ying Lin's chapter on how effective modern film has been in reconstructing Taiwanese national identity is an important read for any scholar assessing contemporary identity struggles. Like Stephen Glynn's chapter on cricket and British national identity, Micheal W. Thomas's chapter regarding Ethiopia draws reference to how the synthesis of sport and film provides an opportunity for previously subjugated nations to assert sporting dominance over their past rulers.It is a credit to Crosson as editor and the contributors that a variety of approaches are used across the book in providing analysis in each chapter, which keeps the reader engaged and avoids a universal formulaic approach to each chapter. Moreover, the filmographies are not limited to cinematic feature films. Rather, in some chapters, film includes short recordings of events. This book achieves what it sets out to do—help the reader consider and understand how sport can be used in film to configure and inform a variety of national cultures. In doing so, the book contributes to sociology, anthropology, media, and cultural studies and should be of interest to sports historians as well as scholars beyond the sport history field.
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Nov 2, 2023
Raju Patel + 3
Open Access
