The Disney Channel (Sun., Nov. 27, 9 p.m. ET)
B+
The work of celebrated Olympic chronicler Bud Greenspan has always struck an elusively familiar tone for me. Watching this retrospective of the most recent Winter Games in Norway, I finally figured it out. Stick Charlton Heston in the footage somewhere—perhaps in a luge outfit—and this film is a lot like those Hollywood biblical epics of the '50s. Greenspan is magisterial at presenting sports as modern mythology. Among the stories from Lillehammer that Greenspan chooses to highlight in this documentary, the most moving are those of Ukrainian figure skater Oksana Baiul and American speed skater Dan Jansen.
The second half of this spectacular but overinflated saga will be broadcast in February.
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