The Last Dance (2020)

The story of the Chicago Bull's quest for a sixth NBA championship, The Last Dance, has been a much anticipated series by basketball, sports and documentary fans alike. Given the postponement of the current NBA season, the production was brought forward - whilst still being filmed/finalised - much to the insistence of Netflix and the NBA themselves no doubt, and for the last 5 weeks these fans have had their lack of quarantine-induced beloved B-ball itch scratched. However, perhaps a little extra time spent ironing it out would have benefitted the final product more had it been kept to it's original release date. So, thank you COVID-19 for potentially making it feel a little less complete than it could have been. Having said that, TLD, while not reaching the quality of the best episodes of ESPN's outstanding 30 for 30 series, it's still expertly crafted, addictive and undeniably entertaining.

The title famously refers to Bull's head coach, Phil Jackson, calling the team's 1997-98 season and run at achieving an unprecedented second Three-peat of championships “The Last Dance”, mainly due to then GM, Jerry Krause famously himself saying Phil, in no way, would be coaching the Bulls after that season. Superstars of the team, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen amongst others, expressed that they would not play for the Bulls after the season if Jackson didn't coach. Sounds a little petty in that way, but the complications of Krause's and the relationships with other personal and not too mention terms such as legacy and millions of dollars involved, it basically was more complicated. Most of which is explored here, but who you believe and the facts are all up in the air. What TLD at least tries to document is a team, a player, an era and a dynasty that changed everything about professional sports and in particular, basketball worldwide. Most of the major players in the Bull's organisation at that time are involved and interviewed, but Krause himself had already passed before production, so he is relegated to archive footage – something that you can't help lend itself to the documentary being little more bias than it should, after all, the man isn't there to respond, defend or give insight into anything in hindsight like everybody else has the opportunity too.

Michael Jordan, the Bulls, the NBA and ESPN converged in 1997 and allowed a camera crew to follow them around practice, games and on the road as they tried to achieve that sixth title in their “last” season together. Apparently the deal maker was that Michael himself had final call on when this footage was used. Sitting on it for almost two decades (!), rumour has it that he finally allowed the film to be turned into a feature length documentary series after Lebron James – a player often compared to Michael as the greatest ever, achieved something that had never been done before (and something Jordan could never claim to have done) and came back in a Finals series from 3-1 games down in a best of 7 to win the title. Read into that what you will, but if true, after you watch TLD, you wouldn't be surprised if it was. Spread over 10 almost hour long episodes the series covers Jordan's life, entrance into the league (and his eventual dominance), the team chemistry in the front office, on the court and beyond and also focuses on several other key figures including, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr.

The last two episodes are potentially the best. The game is showcased beautifully as the Bulls make their way through the 1998 playoffs and finals – the last season the documentary takes it's name sake from. It's in these episodes Director Daniel Hehir explores the actual games more directly with less talking heads and the series is better for it in my personal opinion and I do wish there was more sections like this from the start, but I understand there is a lot of ground and off the court narratives to cover, but a little more on the teams they faced would have been welcomed. For example, besides the episodes dedicated to showing the Pistons and Knicks in the early 90's literally beating them up – which in turn creates the important narrative of Jordan and the team developing their toughness, only Indiana and Utah in the final season's playoffs are really given decent highlights. Not much light is shed of the challenge and opposing viewpoints of playing against this team that would have added substance. The Bulls being this good made other teams play better and everybody wanted to beat them. Everybody. The lack of certain superstar opponents putting their hands up to contribute to the doc solidifies this. In contrast, the Phoenix and Seattle Finals series are relegated to only 10 minute summaries but understandably the focus is on the 6th championship, and yes again, there's a lot to get through.

On the flip side, this is where TLD gets muddled beyond it's already (welcomed, yet) maddening in parts jumping timelines, and the lack of actual “team” and game focus is countered by moments when you think you'd like to hear (already focal point) Jordan weigh in on a particular topic or moment, but we don't end up cutting to him, astride his armchair in present day, whiskey and cigar at the ready to give insights like he does so often throughout. It makes you wonder. Hehir claims Jordan did not request any moment, answer or comment to be taken out, but if you believe that, it would be foolish. Perhaps it is more our young filmmaker terrified of upsetting his film's all powerful centrepiece with the final product, that he did it for him before asking – or didn't ask. Given that his (Jordan's) production company (infamously) had a hand in producing the documentary, this was always going to be unlikely even if he felt it didn't paint a nice picture of him personally a lot of the time, because throughout, you at least *feel* the man is being honest and owns plenty of his flaws, despite sternly never apologising for them. He comes close towards the end of episode 7 when the focus really is on his behaviour towards his teammates specifically and is shown calling “that's a break” before leaving his chair and letting any emotions get the better of him. Honesty aside, it should be noted, Jordan stays on topic and never once shows any emotion, even when talking about his murdered Father. Unless you count patronising an emotion? - which he does often when questioned or shown video of specific contemporaries in the game.

So then, is The Last Dance about Michael Jordan? Is it about the six championship runs of the famed 90's Chicago Bulls, the team and the Dynasty? Unfortunately, it doesn't lean fully either way. It has great moments for both columns, but it suffers because of it. The irony is that throughout the marketing campaign, TLD was touted as a documentary about THE BULLS and their runs, but its' inevitably Jordan heavy, and most people have been referring to it as “the Jordan doc”. I would take a film on either, but over 10 hours, Hehir isn't quite sure which it is and I would say a lot of people he approached and declined to interview saw it coming. That and the hate for Jordan from a lot of his opponents is still raw. In end you have 10 episodes of varying insight and subject matter with some standing out more than others. Which means some can be enjoyed on their own as a re-watch, which is most likely how I would revisit it. As the time line jumps around so rapidly also, it's probably inconsequential not watching it in chronological order any way with the exception of the bookends of the first and last few episodes as they do complement themselves well.

As a man, his ultra-competitiveness is so off the charts, it borders on disorder (when questioned by a reporter in the past if he had a gambling problem, his response is; “I don't have a gambling problem, I have a competitive problem). This is shown many times throughout including twice when he acknowledges when Charles Barkley and Karl Malone won their season MVP trophies over him, it was his fuel to beat them in the Finals the year they won respectively. An individual accolade he couldn't abide see going to anyone but himself. In Jordan's eyes the idea of a contemporary in his tenure was ludicrous. His treatment of teammates and opponents is shown quite brutally in the many hours of behind the scenes footage shot during the Bulls seasons. In any other workplace other than professional sports, a lot of what Jordan does and says to the determent of said people would be classed as bullying, and any business worth it's moral salt, would have a strict policy on such behaviour. But Michael is Michael, the greatest basketball player to ever lace up professionally and much of his tirades, insults and “motivation” is shrugged off as MJ being MJ (and “The one thing about Michael Jordan was, he never asked me to something that he didn't fucking do”). The difference is his talent is god like, his mental toughness insurmountable and confidence beyond normal levels. It's his world, you just live in it.

I kind of understand too, from his perspective, his fame is an un-relatable gigantic bubble leading up to and after the 1992 Barcelona (Dream Team) Olympics, and his talent lauded upon and proven on the court time and time again – making his confidence and self awareness through the roof. He's the first to tell you nobody is better than him. Not surprising you can't see the intimidation you bring onto others. But Jordan *does* see it; at the time and in hindsight, he acknowledges his past behaviour and actions in quite refreshing, surprising and honest ways. This obviously doesn't change the fact that he comes off as the world's biggest arsehole many times in the documentary, but at least he owns it. So, if you need further proof you must dominate and belittle people to get to the top, and yes sometimes to take them to another level themselves, watch The Last Dance. Jordan comes off as some sort of non-violent, modern Al Capone. He has the public eating out of his hand through charming intimidation. He was abusive, but charismatic and draws lines with his temperament, until he decides you need to be killed. And he did his killing on the basketball court, or in the case of his own team, in a practice facility.

Basketball fan or not, the documentary stands as a muscular, very slickly produced and edited entertaining look into an icon and an amazing era of a sport not put on film in such a quantity before, but loses points in the end for not being a definitive account of either. The team's legacy is solidified, but Jordan's greatness remains a mystery, as his psyche, training and motivation are not really explored beyond he was just born with it all and worked hard. For a man who commands such interest it just wasn't quite enough in that regard, but it remains just a very watchable version of events as opposed to an education of them.

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