These are 2 promotional/press DVDs of “1OO YEARS OF OLYMPIC GLORY.”  Total running time is 180 minutes (each DVD is 90 minutes).   It was produced in 1996 by Turner Home Entertainment and originally aired on PBS.  It was written and produced and directed by Bud Greenspan.

Both DVDs are stamped with basic information and come inside plain jewel cases. The DVDs are sealed.  Each DVD is in mint condition and was never played.

See my other items for more Bud Greenspan and Olympics DVDs.   

Originally produced for PBS, these DVDs document  the last 100 years of the Olympics. Directed by Olympic expert Bud Greenspan, it showcases some of the greatest U.S. athletes of the century. Running a full three hours, it provides a look at some of the most exciting events, historic finishes, and finest examples of dedication in the modern history of the Games.

Courage is the theme of this engrossing special on the history of the modern Olympic Games, from the beginnings in Athens in 1896 to the centennial in Atlanta this summer. Writer-producer Bud Greenspan is fascinated by the heroic endurance of athletes who surmount pain in order to compete. We see not only great gold medalists such as sprinters and long jumpers Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, and distance runner Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, but also John Stephen Akhwari, the Tanzanian runner who completed the 1968 marathon with a broken foot. Olympians are mortal: Soviet gymnast Lyudmila Turishcheva, who is as prissy and dowdy as she was in 1972, is still annoyed with her dazzling teammate Olga Korbut.

100 Years of Olympic Glory" happens to be a terrific piece of film making. Greenspan elevates this work far above the level of typical sports-clip jobs by deftly striking a fine balance between sports accomplishments and human drama, by subtly unifying the film's disparate segments and finding a rhythm that makes the three hours fly by without seeming rushed or shallow.  Once  Greenspan hits 1896, the start of the games' modern era, his performance is essentially flawless. Greenspan's structural approach here is to interweave well-known stories with lesser-known ones, long stories with short ones and tales of remarkable athletic achievement with those that illuminate character. Thus, the incredible track victories of Czech runner Emil Zatopek also set up the story about the unique friendship between Zatopek and his French competitor, Alain Mimoun. Naim Suleymanoglu's weightlifting triumphs include the story of how they led to improved treatment of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria.

The quest of Italian platform-diving ace Klaus Dibiasi for wins in successive Olympic games is also a story about the unending cycle of older champions eventually giving way to younger ones. And Greenspan astutely concludes his film with astounding, inspiring stories of athletes who overcame extraordinary obstacles: Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto in 1976, Canadian rower Silken Laumann in 1992, German equestrian Konrad Frieherr von Wagenheim in 1936 and Tanzanian marathoner John Stephen Akhwari in 1968. If this is puffery, I'll take all I can get.