AIR : Tuesday 11th April 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'AIR' earlier this week, and this American biographical sports drama film is Co-Produced, Directed and stars Ben Affleck whose previous film making credits take in 'Gone Baby Gone' in 2007, 'The Town' in 2010, 'Argo' in 2012 and 'Live by Night' in 2016. This film saw its World Premier screening as the Closing Night film of SXSW in mid-March recently, has so far garnered generally positive reviews, was released Stateside last week too and has grossed to date US$35M off the back of a circa US$80M production budget. It was originally slated for release on Amazon Prime Video before Amazon Studios decided to release the film theatrically following strong results from test screenings.

Here then, it is 1984 and the Nike, Inc. business sits looking down the barrel of bankruptcy due to is declining footwear sales, with the company capturing just 17% of the American sports footwear sales market, compared to Converse and the dominant player in the market Adidas. Recognising the financial strife they are in, Marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), together with co-founder and CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), task Nike's basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon, who also Co-Produces here) to come up with a new pitch for a shoeline based on current American sports, believing that basketball's days are numbered. While considering other basketball players chosen in the 1984 NBA draft, Nike's executives think third pick Michael Jordan is off limits, being both a fan of Adidas and too expensive for the basketball division's meagre budget of US$250K, which it aims to spread amongst three or four players, whereas Jordan is rumoured to have been offered US$250K plus a brand new red Mercedes 380 SL by Adidas, with Converse being his second pick. 

One evening while feeling down but not defeated, Vaccaro is sat at home with his TV dinner watching highlights of a Jordan game together with a TV commercial by Arthur Ashe for his Head tennis rackets. Seeing the eighteen year old Michael Jordan from a different perspective he is convinced that Nike should pursue the player that he now considers to be a once in a generation talent with both Jordan and Nike building off one another. With his new found enthusiasm he first pitches the idea to Strasser and then Knight who dismiss the notion as wildly too expensive to blow their entire budget on just one player, and besides the Board would never agree to it. 

Vaccaro heads to LA to meet his friend George Raveling (Marlon Wayans), who coached Jordan in the 1984 Summer Olympic tournament in Los Angeles and asks for his support in courting the star. Vaccaro then drives to the Jordan household in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he turns up unannounced. He tells Michael's mother Deloris (Viola Davis) that Nike would give Jordan all the attention that he would not get from his preferred brands Adidas and Converse and begins to recite the opening lines that each of those companies would greet them with. He also asks Deloris to ask a pointed question to the Board members when she meets with those two companies, and to carefully and cautiously gauge their responses and reactions.

After receiving a very angry call from Jordan's agent David Falk (Chris Messina) about visiting his client's family, Vaccaro learns that the Jordans have still scheduled a meeting at Nike's Beaverton, Oregon HQ the following Monday. Vaccaro and Strasser start preparing their pitch while tasking shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) to work through the remaining week and weekend to prepare a single prototype, which Moore names 'Air Jordan' after Nike's Air Sole was deemed inappropriate. In the meantime, Knight reluctantly accepts to assign the basketball division's entire US$250K budget to hire Jordan. 

Monday arrives and the Jordan's pull up at Nike's HQ to be met by Vaccaro. He ushers them up to the Boardroom where they are warmly welcomed by Strasser, Moore, and Howard White (Chris Tucker) with Knight deliberately arriving seven minutes late. Vaccaro can sense that Deloris and Michael are non-plussed by the meeting, so he breaks off a video presentation and makes an off-the-cuff impassioned speech on how he sees Michael's future unfolding with Nike, the good times and the bad, and how long after the Nike executives in the room with him that day are gone and forgotten, his legacy will live on. Vaccaro's speech turns the meeting around but he subsequently learns that Adidas matched the US$250K offer while adding a red Mercedes 380SL into the mix, and he believes the deal is done and dusted with Adidas. 

However, he later receives a call from Deloris, who states that Michael will sign with Nike for US$250K, plus that he earns a percentage of every Air Jordan sold anywhere in the world. Vaccaro believes the company's CEO and Board would not accept such a bonus proposal, which sets a precedent. Once Knight is told he calmly shrugs and says that if it is necessary to ensure the endorsement, then accept the terms, saying to himself how much can it be worth, they sold US$3M in shoes last year! Vaccaro calls back Deloris to tell her that Nike will accept her terms and then speaks with Michael welcoming him to Nike. He then goes out into the open plan office and loudly announces 'we signed Jordan'. 

The closing credits reveal various milestones in Michael Jordan's stellar basketball career, how Phil Knight has so far given away US$2B of his personal fortune to philanthropic causes, how David Falk sold his agency for US$100M, how Peter Moore designed the Jumpman logo for the Air Jordan shoe, and how the Air Jordan shoe sold US$162M in the year following its launch and how today sales are upwards of US$4B and Jordan has earned US$400M from residuals. 

'Air' is a notable return to form for Director Ben Affleck since his last misstep with 'Live By Night', for which he can be forgiven on the strength of this gem of a film about a struggling underdog company whose courage of its convictions ultimately wins the day, and well and truly turns the fortunes of Nike around turning it into the one of the most recognised brands and successful companies in the world. The script moves the film along at a steady pace, the ensemble cast are spot-on with their performances, the recreation of the mid-1980's is a slam-dunk and the music score took me right back there to my early twenties. My only criticism is that Michael Jordan as a character in this film is only ever seen from the back of his head, or his hands caressing the prototype Air Jordan shoe, or as the real life Michael Jordan in archival footage as the end credits roll. This film is less about the sport and more about the marketing guys working tirelessly to sign MJ and the advertising strength that his name will bring to brand Nike - and on that level 'Air' delivers, and the rest, as they say, is history!

'Air' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-