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1960-01-01
N/A
12 min
A Sport Is Born is a 1960 documentary short directed by Richard Winik. It discusses the development of the sport of parachuting at the airport in Orange, Mass. Includes views of the pupils who are being instructed, pointing out the fundamentals of parachuting, and shows jumps being made by students, instructors, and outstanding jumpers. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
This was part of Paramount Studio's "Sport's Illustrated" series and combines some documentary style footage with a series of airborne and ground angles to show us these parachutists jumping from heights in excess of 2,500 ft over Massachusetts sand - after they have been schooled for three hours on the health and safety elements - especially learning how to land! Though the narration does try it's best, the gentle gliding of these chutes as they come into land doesn't really convey very much of the exhilaration of the free-fall stages of their jumps. Even the helmet camera and their baton swap doesn't really give us much of an impression of the speed of their fall - even when they start above 7,000 ft. The slightly jovial score doesn't really help either. It's worth a watch, but a touch underwhelming.
