Since I finally have Amazon Prime, I have wanted to watch the "All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur" documentary, and I am glad I did. This documentary chronicles Spurs' rather entertaining 2019-2020 season, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This documentary bears a number of striking similarities to the Matchday: FC Barcelona documentary I have reviewed earlier this year in its quality production and matchday camera work.
This Spurs documentary focuses on the first team, coaching staff, and Chairman Daniel Levy, with little time for thoughts from the supporters. Within that focus, the majority of the documentary centers on Spurs manager Jose Mourinho. The first episode of the documentary was about the firing of manager Mauricio Pochettino and hiring of Mourinho early in the season. From then on, the viewer is able to see how Jose motivates the squad through his team talks, as well as his tactics during training and before/during matches. I think the documentary made a good choice in devoting much of the documentary time on Mourinho as he is one of those figures in football who is genuinely interesting and entertaining, and I would have loved to pick his brain on certain footballing topics.
The documentary also focuses some time on Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy and he talks about what he wants to do with the club. He discusses some of the decisions he has made throughout the season, and the viewer gets to see some of the discussions in the board meetings. In the back of my mind, I felt like anytime Daniel Levy is on my screen, there is a conscious effort to portray him as a normal, easy-going person, despite media reports that he is a difficult person to work for and to work with.
In filming for the documentary, there was the addition of 'hidden' cameras in places such as Tottenham's home locker room, Mourinho's office, and the dining room where the team eats and socializes. These cameras captured some of the more intense moments in the documentary, including Mourinho's outbursts and arguments between players. The mounted cameras that captured all this action helped to make the documentary feel more real.
I also want to make a quick note about the narration of the documentary. Tom Hardy was a good narrator. His lines were brief, and he was not all over the place like John Malcovich's narration of the Barcelona documentary was.
Lastly, I want to talk about the Tottenham players featured in the documentary. I was particularly interested in the transfer saga surrounding Christian Eriksen and his move to Inter in January, as well as the development of Tottenham academy player Japhet Tanganga. Other than that, many of the conversations between players (outside of matchday) was mundane stuff, such as talking about their favorite chocolate bars. This documentary also gave me a negative opinion of Dele Alli. Although he is a talented footballer, I found him to be a whiny, spoiled kid who does not know how to do anything other than play football.
My overall thoughts about "All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur" is that it is a compelling documentary that was successful in showing suitable access into the club, as well as developing narratives that carry throughout the documentary. This Spurs documentary went further with its access than the FC Barcelona documentary ever did, and the Barcelona documentary feels lazy by comparison. However, I still do not think the Spurs documentary is as good as "Sunderland Till' I Die", which was just amazing television at times. Regardless, "All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur" is a recommendation to watch from me.
No comments:
Post a Comment