1994 Winter Olympics Gift Set: Highlights of Overall Games and Figure Skating Competition and Exhibition [VHS]

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VHS Movie Reviews of 1994 Winter Olympics Gift Set: Highlights of Overall Games and Figure Skating Competition and Exhibition [VHS]

Movie Review: Competitive, but Controversial
Summary: 4 Stars

The 1994 Winter Olympics Highlights tape contains segments of the most prominent events. It includes Tommy Moe's (USA) gold medal downhill run, as well as Picabo Street's (USA) silver medal downhill run. You can watch highlight clips of Sweden defeating Canada in a shoot-out in men's hockey. There's also footage of Dan Jansen (USA) and Bonnie Blair (USA) in their speed skating events. Although the other two tapes of this gift set are solely devoted to figure skating, this overall highlights tape does include some coverage of the figure skating events, including highlight clips and performance excerpts.

The 1994 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Competition Highlight tape begins with an excerpt of Tonya Harding's (USA) technical program, and next comes the complete technical program of Nancy Kerrigan that put her into first place, with the free skate yet to come. The tape includes Nancy Kerrigan's complete free skate, shown with her receiving a standing ovation. Last, there's the complete free skate of Oksana Bayul (UKR) to a medley of Broadway show tunes. On the day before the free skate, Oksana had been injured in practice by another skater, but she pulls out all the stops in her free skate to win the gold medal in come-from-behind fashion.

The pairs event featured the reigning world champions from Canada, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, against two Russian pairs that had been reinstated to amateur status from the professional ranks. The first pair, Yekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov (RUS), had won the Olympic gold medal back in 1988, while the second pair, Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev (RUS), had won the Olympic gold medal more recently in 1992. It was a clash of styles: Brasseur and Eisler (B&E) were exciting, Gordeyeva and Grinkov (G&G) were elegant, and Mishkutenok and Dmitriev (M&D) were passionate.

The controversy in the pairs event began with the technical program, as many people thought that M&D should have been in first place instead of G&G. 1992 Olympic men's silver medalist, Paul Wylie, commented, "I love G&G, but I was surprised when they were put first. I didn't understand it." M&D had skated a fine technical program, and it's unfortunate that only a few highlight clips have been provided on this tape.

An excerpt of M&D's free skate is next. Peter Carruthers, 1984 Olympic pairs silver medalist, said, "As far as being interesting and passionate, Mishkutenok and Dmitriev have something that nobody else has, a controlled abandonment." This is followed by the complete free skate of G&G, and finally an excerpt of B&E's free skate. G&G made a number of obvious errors in their free skate, including (1.) at 32s into the routine, Gordeeva used an improper left back inside takeoff edge during the split triple twist that should have been an outside edge; (2.) at 33s, Gordeeva demonstrated poor aesthetics during the split portion of the split triple twist, with both of her knees bent at ninety degrees; (3.) at 1m 00s, Gordeeva was leaned forward on the landing of her throw double axel, riding up onto the toepick; (4.) the pair became unmistakably out-of-sync near the end of their side by side spins, which begin at 1m 09s; (5.) at 2m 27s, Grinkov made a very sloppy landing on a double flip during a jump sequence, while Gordeeva swerved during her check position on the landing, going from a right back outside edge over to an improper inside edge and then back to an outside edge, in order to maintain her balance; (6.) at 3m 54s, Gordeeva used an improper left toepick assist during a loop in a jump sequence. (7.) during the same sequence, Grinkov singled what was intended to be a double Salchow at 3m 56s; (8.) at 4m 31s, Gordeeva had a break in her free leg during the exit from the last lift. As with the technical program, many people could not understand why G&G's marks in the free skate were so high. On the overall highlights tape described earlier, the host summed up the event by saying, "The judges gave the gold to G&G, with M&D winning the silver, and bronze to the Canadians." The crowd gave the only standing ovation of the night to M&D. Tamara Moskvina, coach of M&D, replied: "Some pairs get the marks, others get the renown."

The men's portion of the competition tape includes an excerpt of Brian Boitano's (USA) technical program, including an outstanding tano triple lutz. There's also excerpts of Victor Petrenko (UKR) and Kurt Browning's (CAN) technical programs. You'll get to see the complete free skates of bronze medalist Philippe Candeloro (FRA), silver medalist Elvis Stojko (CAN) and gold medalist Aleksei Urmanov (RUS).

The ice dancing competition includes bronze medalists Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's (GBR) complete original dance with two perfect marks. There's an excerpt of silver medalists Maya Usova and Alexandr Zhulin's (RUS) free dance, and the complete free dance by gold medalists Oksana Gritshuck and Yevgeny Platov (RUS).

The final tape in the gift set is the 1994 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Exhibition Highlights. It includes performances by Philippe Candeloro, Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko (FIN), Surya Bonaly (FRA), Victor Petrenko, M&D, B&E, Aleksei Urmanov, Nancy Kerrigan, G&G, Oksana Bayul, an encore of Oksana Bayul with Victor Petrenko, and Torvill and Dean in a reprise of "Bolero."

There are a few disappointments with this tape. I would have liked to have had Oksana Bayul's complete technical program, as well as the complete technical program and free skate of M&D. It's unfortunate that these fine competitive performances were so heavily edited. Therefore, I'm only giving this item four stars.

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