Most avid Jordan fans and capitalism apologists are going to love this rosy-eyed look back at Nike while a few will – and should – point out that the period being glamorized isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Air (2023)
Directed by Ben Affleck, Starring Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, and Jason Bateman
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Synopsis
Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, a talent scout at fledging running shoe company Nike (remember when that’s what they were primarily known for?) who needs to land a major name within his division or potentially face elimination. When Sonny focuses his efforts on North Carolina basketball guard Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft, he faces stiff opposition within his own company, from the CEO Phil Knight (played by Ben Affleck), Jordan’s agent David Falk (played by Chris Messina), rival shoe companies Adidas and Converse, and finally having to convince the actual head honcho, Michael’s mother Deloris Jordan (played by recent EGOT winner Viola Davis) of how he’ll craft a shoe around Jordan’s potential greatness.
Timing Is Everything
Whenever you read a biography on famous players or titans of industry, there’s always the main story where the audience already knows the main beads of a person’s journey. For Michael Jordan, it’s: not making the cut for his high school team, growing a few inches before finally making it, hitting a game-winning shot at UNC his freshman year, being the 3rd pick of the draft in 1984, getting NBA rookie of the year, and so on and so on as his legend grew into championships.
Then there’s the stories that are in-between those major highlights, like: things that happened on team planes, fighting teammates, early morning workout sessions at hours that would make the birds blush. We get snippets or re-telling of those moments in interviews with the people who were involved with them or expanded retellings in documentaries like The Last Dance, though rarely are they dramatized.
Jordan going to Nike is definitely one of those stories. If you’re not a sneakerhead – like many Jordan shoe collectors are – it may seem odd dedicating a whole runtime to securing his services…but you have to imagine it like this: Nike securing his rights as a personality is like RC Cola suddenly usurping Coca Cola and Pepsi in advertising. It’s not impossible, but there’s a lot of forces going against those chances.
With that in mind, Air explores how Nike would secure Michael Jordan, eventually creating the Air Jordan brand in spite of heavy competition and historical preferences to Converse and the burgeoning Adidas (which had taken off in 80s Hip-Hop spaces). They are also tackle a number of NBA issues or norms that were broken in order to do this (like the league rules on the percentage of colors used in a shoe) with characters worried about precedents they will create going forward.
Along with this, the movie is steeped in the world of late 80s, early 90s marketing speak. And while you don’t need Big Short-style explanations to grasp them, I found myself turned off by their charm. Sure, if this film came out in the early 2000s, it would be speaking to my younger self that loved the NBA and had a much strong entrepreneurial spirit. But the film is also glorifying the process that made Jordan into a billionaire. Today, as we’re actively watching how billionaires can negatively impact us, it’s hard to ignore how feel good stories like this can distract us from recognizing the harm.
Or put another way: if everyone is focused on “Be Like Mike” as the old advertising slogan went, you’ll forget how much billionaires like Jeff Bezos and others are actively harming your day-to-day life.
Air (2023)
Credit: Amazon Studios
Or….if we were to just focus on Nike, how much their business has relied on suspect labor practices in other countries that society ignores to prop up the imagery of Michael Jordan and other Nike brand ambassadors. While Nike has “improved” their practices from the late 80s / 90s period, there are still many issues regarding their overseas labor that fails to be addressed (links to relevant articles available at the bottom of this review).
Hollywood loves bold and brash representations of capitalism, like real-life fraudster Jordan Belfour (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street), or fictional Gordon Gecko (played by Michael Douglas in Wall Street). When viewed as an examination of their issues and problematic nature, those films can display the excess without glorification as the primary takeaway. However, in a biopic like this, there’s very little room for the script and production to address those issues without skewering their intended subject.
Amoral Capitalism Aside, How Was The Movie?
Revisionist history issues will inevitably plague every biopic. Pick your favorite historically-based movie, and you’ll find at least one scene or more that isn’t quite how it happened. Take Remember The Titans…almost nothing there happened as portrayed in the movie: most of the games were blowouts, most of the schools they played were also integrated, T.C. Williams’ championship game opponent George C. Marshall was actually a mid-season game (they blew out actual opponent Andrew Lewis High 27-0), and last by not least, Gerry Battier’s injury happened DAYS after the championship game.
Accurately depict any of those situations, and the movie feels completely different. It wouldn’t necessarily take away the impact of the race conversation (which I think is underrated), but it might change the emotional stakes to the whole affair, making it feel less dramatic.
The core bones of Air are accurate: Sonny Vaccaro did contact Deloris Jordan to get the ball rolling and make his pitch for Nike. There was intense competition from Adidas and Converse and Michael Jordan would eventually sign with Nike after he pressed for 1% of the sales from every shoe.
It’s the “how we got there” that feels like revisionist history, given everything we know about Michael Jordan now. It’s not that people didn’t expect him to be a good player, but the movie attempts to portray Vaccaro as some sort of prophet that saw what no one else saw, which simply wasn’t the case.
Credit: Amazon Studios
If these realizations don’t derail the proceedings, then the cast gathered for this film won’t disappoint. Matt Damon is sufficiently electric as Vaccaro, making you believe how much he was counting on Jordan to lift their company and solidify them in the basketball world. Viola Davis is rock solid as Deloris Jordan, advocating for her son’s economic future and pushing for the unprecedented stock shares that made them into the billionaires they are today. Damon and Davis have to volley back and forth the most throughout the film (as Michael Jordan isn’t really a present figure in the proceedings until the end) as they are the primary deal brokers. Those moments are some of the strongest in the films, even with the aforementioned issues above, as they get past dollar signs and dive into the beliefs both characters have about themselves and also about Jordan himself.
Rounding out the cast for Nike is Chris Tucker as former Maryland player and Nike Basketball representative Howard White, who was instrumental in connecting Sonny and Deloris. Jason Bateman acts as the marketing VP Rob Strasser, who thinks Sonny’s plan is out there, but eventually becomes one of his ardent supporters. Lastly, Ben Affleck casts himself as Nike CEO Phil Knight, who has similar issues with the plan as Rob does, but also comes around to the plan by movie’s end. These trio works pretty well together as they operate around Damon’s performance, as see the plan unfold, the shoe being developed / prototyped, and finally the sales pitch to Michael himself where all 4 Nike characters get a chance to shine.
Credit: Amazon Studios
In the Jordan camp, Chris Messina plays Jordan’s agent Peter Falk and since Jordan isn’t actually in the film (more on that in a second), between himself and Deloris, they end up representing his interests. That’s in large part to an odd decision to cast an actor as Michael Jordan…but only show the back of his head. Now, it’s true that his parents were more instrumental in having him sign the deal so his actual involvement would have been limited to degree. Also, casting someone who may or may not look close to the real thing could be jarring. However, it seems odd to talk so much about an integral member of the deal and create this weird dichotomy. Sonny even has a moment during the pitch where he talks directly to Michael and rather than get his reaction, we get interspersed moments from his career to come. It’s an effective scene to be sure, but it’s hampered by this critical decision.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Air does a great job of tapping into the late 80s / mid-90s nostalgia that audience members will undoubtedly crave when thinking about the career of Michael Jordan. However the biopic’s structure leaves it firmly rooted in a space that can’t contextualize or critique what impact its subject matter has had outside of praise.
NBA fans who already enjoy and scour every piece of content surrounding the league, especially its most famous player, will most likely have seen this on day one. However, if you’re not a big basketball fan and critique-less portrayals of capitalism aren’t your thing, I would avoid this film.
Score: 5 out of 10
Additional Reading
This review isn’t meant as an attack or endorsement of Nike, you’re welcome to make that conclusion on your own. But figured it may help to include a few articles on how they are currently doing, particularly with their ethics records on shoe manufacturing.
Discourse Magazine on China working conditions
Washington Post on Nike Forced Labor
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Love Nerd Union? Consider supporting us over on Patreon. You’ll get access to early access articles, commercial-free video essays, online discussions and more. Plus, you will be directly responsible for supporting journalism in a field that’s currently being overwhelmed by clickbait focused sites. Supporting us keeps the lights on but it also sets a standard to sites in our field about fair wage practices, citing sources, debunking unconfirmed sources, and helps us investigate stories better.