Eddie the Eagle
Cast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Iris Berben, Jim Broadbent
Director: Dexter Fletcher (2011)
The world loves an underdog, as well as a good clown. Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards was both. He was an unlikely Olympian, but he had a dream to compete at the highest levels and ski jumping was his ticket to prove himself an Olympian for Great Britain. This is a must see movie full of fine acting and a fun story. The truth is strangerthan fiction.
In this biographical film, Egerton plays Michael “Eddie” Edwards, who in 1988 became the first man to represent Great Britain in an Olympic ski jumping competition since 1928.
After years of trying and failing to make it to the Olympics — summer and winter — in various other sports and disciplines, Eddie realizes his only shot might be ski jumping. But first you need to learn how to do it, so he moves to West Germany to self-train and promptly injures himself on his first attempt on the big hill. Eventually he connects with Bronson Peary (Jackman) an alcoholic American former ski-jump champion who agrees to train him.
Unimpressed, the great Britain Olympic committee does everything it can to prevent Eddie from making the team, but his tenacity eventually gets him a spot for Calgary ‘88. There, he endears himself to the world not so much with his performance — he finished last on both hills — but with his arm-flapping antics that even the grumpy Bronson can’t resist.
Opinion/Review: The interplay between Egerton and Jackman serves as the backbone to the film, which has as much comedy as it does drama. Walken doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but he’s terrific as always, and the smartly paced training montages as well as the final scene on the mountain will likely leave you grinning ear to ear.
Fun Facts: Van Halen is among the bands featured on the film’s soundtrack. … Released in the United Kingdom in early 2016, it went on to be the highest-grossing film released in the U.K. that year. … Edwards went on to become a professional stunt jumper, setting a world record for jumping over six buses.
