Michael Jordan: Air Time (1993 Video) User Reviews

Jordan With Rings

[view_and_review · 9/10 · 30 June 2021]

There are numerous short documentaries on Michael Jordan from various points in his career. Any documentary done before 1991 will be about Jordan's greatness sans championship ring. Any documentary after 1991, ala this documentary, chronicles Jordan's greatness plus rings.

"Air Time" goes into Jordan's first two championships, with a greater focus on his second, and his time on the Dream Team (the 1992 U. S. Olympic basketball team). Along with seeing highlights we got to see when Jordan wasn't being praised such as the book "Jordan Rules" which pokes at his likeability as a teammate, and the rumors surrounding his alleged gambling. I wouldn't say that this documentary is a hard look at Jordan's life, but it is definitely a less rosy look at Jordan than other documentaries I have seen.

Natural and interesting documentary on Jordan in the early nineties

[bob the moo · 12 March 2008]

A profile of Michael Jordan's experiences in the first few years of the nineties, particularly focusing on the championship winning season of 1991/92, the Olympic winning Dream Team and off-court events such as the media reports of a selfish and arrogant Jordan in the book "Jordan Rules", the retirement of Magic Johnson, the controversy over Jordan's alleged gambling problems.

After watching a few of the early films/documentaries made by the NBA I really had had my fill of corny corporate nonsense and approached this film with real reservations. I knew I would get clips but was hoping that the presentation would not be awful. Although not brilliant, this film is actually more of a documentary than the out-and-out promotional pieces that Playground and Come Fly With Me were. The approach taken here is to put Jordan as the "presenter" as it were, by having him talking about his season and experiences with few other contributors and no narration. It is a good call by the producers because it allows the Jordan brand to come over as much more accessible and natural and not this wooden thing that they are unsure what to do with.

Jordan himself talks with an open air and he manages to come across natural and charming, even where sometimes you do get the impression that he is being guarded about what he is saying. It helps that although the "iffy" topics are moved over quite quickly, they are not just whitewashed from the pages of history and I respected the film for that. The game footage is good as well; instead of being just a highlight reel it is used to paint a picture of the season so as well as the awesome stuff we do get the ugly as well – my particular favourite as a Knick follower being the chance to see them get down and dirty with the Bulls in the playoffs! It is a solid and engaging film then and, while not insightful or critical at any point, it is refreshingly free of smaltz or corporate polish.

Overall then an interesting and surprisingly natural documentary looking at the Bulls defence of their first title, the Dream Team and the challenges facing Jordan during that time.