By Glenn Dunks
It is a case of diminishing returns for British director Asif Kapadia and the latest of his video tape collages, Diego Maradona. As one of the few dissenting voices to his Oscar-winning Amy – more on ethical grounds than technical – but an admirer of his earlier Senna, this portrait of the superstar Argentinian footballer never reaches the narrative heights of either. While Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse proved fascinating subjects in their own ways outside of whatever one thinks of Kapadia’s grave-robbing approach to their personal lives, the athletic hero at the center here is simply far less interesting and is not well served by this style of filmmaking.
As seen in Kapadia’s film, Diego Maradona’s life is something of a selfish downfall rather than a tragic response to fame or the inevitable culmination of a career of risk like his other subjects. By the time his career flamed out in a cloud of cocaine, extra-marital affairs and larrikin boozing, he had well and truly shown the world that he was one of – if not the – greatest footballer to ever live (I personally wouldn’t know more than five players off of the top of my head, but even I had heard of his feats with a soccer ball). Yet despite the dramatic highs and lows, his story as told on screen here is frustrating.
His story is played almost like that of any number of antiheroes in film and television with whom we are meant to sympathise with and cheer for. We’re even somehow asked to laugh along at the fact that his match-winning goal at the 1986 World Cup was a cheat. Eventually the endless tales of wild exploits wear out their welcome across a sprawling 130-minute runtime.
And it’s not the footage’s fault, either. There’s a kick (pun unintended) to watching video of Maradona make chum of his rivals in oft-deteriorating or choppy VHS quality. I got the most involved in the experience of watching the movie when it showed the truly awesome sights of city streets flooded with individuals celebrating him and his achievements. I may not be a fan of the sport, but Kapadia and editor Chris King move from a swift kick in the air to pandemonium and fevered chaos on the streets and make it thrilling in ways that dramatic features about sport can rarely capture. Nothing quite so efficiently gets the very idea of Maradona’s fame across quite so easily than these moments.
But elsewhere, the storytelling is sloppy. Despite a supposed treasure trove of personal material totalling to some 500 hours, there seems to be far less of any dramatic interest or intrigue. Not that one should expect bombshell revelations – and to be sure, Maradona spent his career trying to avoid tabloid journalism and surely wasn’t going to allow his legacy to be tainted by such while he is still around to say otherwise. Yet, entire swathes of his life appear to be of surprising little interest, most prominently the son he had with a woman outside of his marriage (with whom he only connected in 2016), and his connections to mobsters. Unlike Kapadia’s earlier films, the strict reliance on archival material feels like it is limited a bigger story from being told.
Cut back to the football. That always works when there is little else to discuss. None of the interviewees that appear as narration over the video footage have much insight into the issues that presumably plagued him throughout his career like his duel Argentina/Italy relationships or his fall from grace. What’s here is ultimately a fairly average bio-doc of a very above-average sportsman. One doesn’t feel surprised by any of it – was the presence of Maradona himself on the production something a buzzkill? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t know. Either way, I found myself wanting more context, more cultural nuance, and a tighter focus on the moments that built and subsequently tore at his legacy.
Release: May still be in limited release in a few cinemas, but it just aired on HBO so you can watch it there.
Oscar chances: The branch didn’t go with Senna, so I wonder if it was a strictly once-and-done shot for Kapadia and this style of filmmaking. It’d be foolish to rule a previous winner out, though, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised by it making the 15-wide shortlist.