Sometime around the 90 minute-mark in AIR (2023), actor Matt Damon delivers a seminal truth about the relationship that celebrity endorsers share with the products they endorse. Damon plays the character of Nike talent scout Sonny Vaccaro in the film. By virtue of his position in the firm, Vaccaro tells his prospective client: “A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. Then it has meaning. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness. We need you in these shoes not so that you have meaning in your life, but so that we have meaning in ours.”
The man Vaccaro is making his pitch to is Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest athlete of all time. AIR is the story of how Nike landed Jordan, ahead of rival sneaker firms Adidas and Converse back in 1984, when the now NBA legend was still a rookie.
Directed by Ben Affleck, actor and Damon’s long-time associate in the movie business, AIR, details the events that led Nike, then only a fledgling firm in comparison to their far bigger rivals, to successfully pitch their brand to Jordan. The Jordan-Nike relationship has since gone on to become one of the most lucrative partnerships ever between superstar athlete and corporate firm.
On the face of it, the obvious question is what could be so fascinating about a storyline that basically revolves around a sneaker deal. After all, AIR isn’t a story about power struggle. It isn’t Succession, the family drama, whose latest season has everyone’s attention. It is not a story about the mafiosi and drug lords, the kind of films that Martin Scorsese has cemented his legacy with. It isn’t even a superhero film set in the Marvel universe, where visual effects conjure all kinds of implausible action sequences playing out on screen. It isn’t a courtroom drama and neither is it a whodunnit.
And yet AIR is riveting. It is a quintessential sports film, very much like Remember The Titans (2000) or The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), where the underdog (read Nike) outwits its competitors to land the ultimate prize (Jordan). The drama isn’t built up around which brand Jordan decided to go with, for that is already known. Instead, the filmmakers do a splendid job in creating suspense around what made Jordan join the Nike universe.
At a little under two hours, AIR, has a perfect running time. There are some fine moments, including a laugh-out-loud yet heated exchange between David Falk, Jordan’s agent, and Vaccaro over the phone. The scene showcasing the first-look of the shoe Nike plans to pitch to Jordan is also gooseflesh-inducing, as is the history behind who actually came up with the term ‘Air Jordan’.
There are a few cameos, like the one played by Affleck himself as he steps into the shoes of Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike. Affleck delivers the quirky traits of Knight’s personality to perfection. Viola Davis, playing Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan, also packs quite a punch. The conversation she has with Vaccaro, informing him that Jordan will indeed sign with Nike, but with the kicker that her son wants a stake in shoe sales, shows Davis reveal her acting chops and how.
But AIR actually belongs to Damon. He is everything from intense, funny, to vulnerable and desolate. When he pitches the sneaker to Jordan, his urgency, his passion is real. When he feels that Nike won’t give into Deloris Jordan’s demands, one feels his sense of defeat, that he gave it his best, but finished on the losing side. When he gets the deal done, the sense of euphoria extends to the viewer too.
The biggest takeaway from the movie, though, is recognizing Jordan’s role in empowering the African-American athlete and his role in shaping popular culture. While ‘player empowerment’ is a buzz phrase in the modern NBA, the truth is that Jordan was one of the early pioneers of bringing corporate America to its knees so as to get him to sign for them. His signature sneaker shoe deal with Nike paved the way for several other basketball stars after him to strike similar bargains. Sneakers, thanks to MJ, became an extension of the basketball player’s personality, a style statement on the court.
AIR doesn’t give us a frontal view of Jordan. The movie only shows him from behind, never revealing the face of the man playing Jordan. The reason for this, as Affleck revealed during the film’s promotions, was that, “I thought he was too majestic for anyone to imitate. Jordan is too big.”
Jordan is indeed too big. His shoes are proving gargantuan to step into, with his sneaker sales still outselling the next best name in the game several times over. And this is when he last laced up a pair of Nike sneakers in a competitive NBA game 20 years ago. His legend has come true in every which way Vaccaro articulates it in the film to close the deal with Jordan. Vaccaro’s clincher goes: “Everyone at this table will be forgotten as soon as our time over here is up. Except for you. You are going to be remembered forever because some things are eternal. You are Michael Jordan, and your story is going to make us want to fly.”
AIR releases on Amazon Prime Video on May 12, 2023.
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