Movie: Eddie the Eagle

I recall the story of Eddie the Eagle when it happened in the late 1980s. I’ve never watched the Olympics, well, apart from a little in 2012, so I just remember him being tabloid fodder. My memory is of someone making a fool of himself.The real story, I find, is quite different. It’s about a man who is determined to give it a go, despite all the odds. In the case of Eddie wanting to be an Olympian, needing glasses, coming from a working class family and having broken legs as a child didn’t help. But all this man seemingly wanted was to compete with the best, even with zero experience of ski jumping when he started. In fact, he’d had two years or practice when he qualified for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.We know the film isn’t true to the story; he didn’t have a coach, he did have a brother that never appeared in the film version and he’d been learning his sport for just under two years, rather than a year. But it does depict his traits of a successful sportsperson, which I greatly admire. Including the genius former ski jumper as a coach sure added to the magic and it became a bit more of a buddy movie from then on n.The film includes a former Olympian, now a drunk working at the practice slopes in Germany where Eddie takes himself to learn and eventually persuades him to coach him. The part about Eddie having no money, 'borrowing' his mum's car to go to Germany and wait on tables to in order to feed himself appears true.I love the back story of how Eddie Edwards just dreamt of competing in the Olympics from a young age, even if it isn’t true. It’s a truly heart-warming film, especially as we wait for his plaster dad (Keith Allen) who wants him to take up the trade instead, to take him seriously, which he pretends not to even when he is loved by millions on live TV.I'm so glad they turned the story into positive, well-made film.8/10