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The celebrated story goes that on Christmas Day 1914, while the rest of the world tucked into their Christmas dinners and drank sherry, British and German soldiers temporarily ceased firing their rifles and met in 'no man’s land' to play a game of football. The Germans ran out 2-1 winners (nothing’s changed for England there, then!), and the soul-stirring tale was forever carved into the World War I time capsule. That simple act shared between the British and German troops during the great Christmas Truce restored a sense of humanity amongst the bloodshed and senseless killing of war. The power of sport possesses the ability to unify, empower, and bring peace in times of conflict.
Sports documentaries bring raw, unadulterated emotion to the forefront and often depict a whole host of narrative strands that make for truly compelling viewing. While most don’t portray sport in the midst of war, documentaries offer a multidimensional view of how sport can play out away from the field, court, ring, or track. Over recent years, subscribers have seen riveting Amazon Prime documentaries, some surrounding sport, from fly-on-the-wall explorations like Amazon’s own All or Nothing docuseries to independent documentaries like Diego Maradona; here are some of the best documentaries on Amazon Prime...
5 The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team
Following on from the 2018 ball-tampering scandal that shook the world of cricket, and considerably damaged the reputation and integrity of Australian Cricket in specific, The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team follows the side looking to regain respect, credibility, and pride in the aftermath of “sandpaper gate." To those Americans seeking to further their understanding of the alien game of Cricket, Prime Video provides this unembellished, 16-month perspective of a team on a downward trajectory, desperately seeking an upturn in fortunes.
4 All or Nothing: Manchester City
Narrated by acting royalty Sir Ben Kingsley, Amazon’s 2018 series All or Nothing: Manchester City offers a unique, fly-on-the-wall insight into Man City Football Club’s 2017-18 season under the stewardship of master tactician, Pep Guardiola. Amazon flexed its financial might by paying Manchester City $12.5 million to cover their August-May campaign, and it doesn’t disappoint. In an unprecedented first for an English Premier League outfit, cameras are permitted inside the dressing room and at the club’s state-of-the-art training complex to study the eye-of-a-needle precision, psychology, and training methods of one of the world’s most elite football teams.
3 All or Nothing: NFL
In 2015, Prime Video set out to bring viewers unparalleled, unseen, behind-the-scenes footage of sports teams with All or Nothing, including the NFL and, in season one's case, the Arizona Cardinals. The goings-on at most American Football teams are kept under strict confidentiality; everything from training regimes, tactical knowledge, and the personal lives of playing staff is kept under lock and key.
Prime equips us with the master key, the bolt-cutters, and the sledgehammer to crack the lock and see for ourselves the grueling demands of the professional side of the most popular sport in the States. Over five seasons, the Arizona Cardinals, LA Rams, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, and Philadelphia Eagles are all subjects of the seasons respectively, and each follows their own, unique story of the trials and tribulations of the pursuit of the sport's most coveted prize. There are many great football movies, but the five seasons of All or Nothing go behind-the-scenes in a way fiction simply can't, and is riveting as a result.
2 Diego Maradona
After the supreme success enjoyed by his 2012 documentary Senna, the documentarian Asif Kapadia turned his attention to non-American football with Diego Maradona, about one of the most exceptionally gifted sportsmen of all time, Diego Armando Maradona. The diminutive yet ethereally gifted Argentinian’s flair for the sport was prodigious, and at times unearthly (with the term 'The Hand of God' used to describe him); his ability to weave through opposition defenses, ball seemingly glued to foot, hadn’t been seen since the days of Pele.
The documentary flips the coin, and at times, delivers a damning, heartbreaking, yet accurate representation of Maradona as a deeply-troubled man off the field of play. Shrouded in fame, money, and excess, Kapadia skilfully retraces the steps of the Argentine sensation, from reaching global acclaim on the pitch to indulging in overconsumption of alcohol, cocaine, his dealings with prostitutes, and the local mafia group in Naples. The film's available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the States (where it's also streaming on Hulu), but is available to steam in the UK and elsewhere. Like one of the top documentaries of 2021, Pele, Diego Maradona chronicles fame, athleticism, and celebrity in the most uncompromising and authentic of ways.
1 Senna
Formula 1 is a sport that has a certain grandeur and sexiness, whether that be the roguish handsomeness of some of its drivers past and present, like that of James Hunt, or the daring, adrenaline-inducing nature of driving a carbon-fiber racing car at 250mph. It's also conducive to cinema, as evidenced by the success of Netflix's documentary A Life of Speed. Asif Kapadia’s Senna takes a deep dive into the whirlwind life of F1 driver, Ayrton Senna. The BAFTA-award-winning documentary explores Senna’s life and success on the racetrack, and his quiet, humble, and reserved life off it.
A true master and pioneer behind the wheel, the legendary Brazilian became world champion on three occasions, his fierce competitiveness (in particular with fellow driver and world champion Alain Prost), as well as his outspokenness against the political biases of those in charge at F1 made Senna a true stalwart of Formula 1. Perhaps the most haunting fact was that Senna had forewarned those in charge of car and track safety, which sadly and tragically foreshadowed his death at the San Marino Grand Prix. A wholesome, personal, and intimate account delivered by those closest to the Brazilian, which beautifully incorporates the Senna family’s home videos of the racing driver at his unsullied best. Amazon Prime Video has the documentary to stream in the UK and elsewhere, and has made the film available to rent in the States.