DN:FILM Diego Maradona
In director Asif Kapadia’s latest film, DIEGO MARADONA, he recollects the 1980s era when the eponymous Argentine was the world’s most radiant soccer star. Using a steady stream of grainy images of sun-kissed athletic brilliance, Kapadia shows off the Maradona’s unrivaled grit, grace and beauty, highlighting his intensity on the field; his languid ease off of it; his terrific mane of hair; and his seemingly unstoppable smile. But as Kapadia’s story unfolds, its echoes of mythology and religion become apparent, and its soaring god is eventually brought down to earth, grounded by an archetypical combination of hubris and temptation and by the mercurial nature of fame; one simple, lingering shot of the later Maradona, that smile now absent, is particularly haunting. It’s a blast of a film, a rare sports bio that is exhilarating, contemplative and provocative; while hitting its marks as a historical document, both inspiring and cautionary.
The doc roughly follows the period from Maradona’s arrival to play for Naples in 1984, after previously playing for Barcelona; his arrival kicks off a period of remarkable dominance by the once-inferior club, as well as a successful time for the Argentine national team. Kapadia explores the idea of there having been two characters in the run-up to this moment: Diego, the poor kid from a backwater village in Argentina; and Maradona, the 1,000-watt superstar construct who gave no quarter and could reveal no weakness. As the doc develops, the two iterations are pitted against each other—all but literally in one particular, critical moment around the 1990 World Cup—and their inability to reconcile is fundamental to Kapadia’s interpretation of how Maradona’s career played out.
"Diego Maradona" is the third in a trilogy that Kapadia has described as being about child geniuses and fame—after 2010’s “Senna,” about Formula 1 phenom Aryton Senna, and 2015’s Academy Award-winning “Amy,“ about tragic, brilliant singer Amy Winehouse—that essentially takes the fundamental elements of a genre story—here’s what happens when a kid turns into a world-class driver; here’s what happens as a kid turns into a world-class pop star—and uses them for the foundation to explore the themes of ambition and genius being swallowed up by the cultural and economic demands of fame. If these aren’t stories rife with happy endings, they are incredible ones, told with a rigorous adherence to an effective set of rules, including a commitment to using archival material and no talking heads. The effect is powerful in each film and in aggregate; the trilogy genuinely working as one, an extended, frequently heartbreaking rumination on the so-frequent outcomes of outsized youthful brilliance.
In Select Theaters. Airs on HBO October 1st