Critical assessment of The Game of Her Life

The Game of Her Life is a documentary based on the Canadian national woman’s hockey team as they prepare for the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan. The head coach, Danièle Sauvageau trained, encouraged, and developed this national women’s team to become the first ever Canadian Women’s hockey team in the Winter Olympics. 

The main objective of this documentary is to reveal the dedication put in by the coaches and athletes during their journey of becoming part of the Olympics, as well as to replay one of the most memorable moments in Canadian women’s hockey. Although the team fell short of winning the gold medal, their team spirit showed through. The attitudes of the coaches and athletes remained positive through their lose and they were proud to have received a silver medal. The team was extremely grateful and expressed their gratitude for all the love and support from family, friends, and Canadian fans. This documentary allows the audience to see Canadian spirit in action, one of the most powerful gestures one could receive in a time like that. The film not only provides some insight to the journey towards the Winter Olympics, it also incorporates the love and support provided by Canadian citizens, a potential inspiration to others.

To keep the audience engaged, the producer makes good use of material recorded by outside sources, including varieties of live action, interviews, and scene locations. Although the documentary was filmed in 1998, the use of different scene locations keeps the observer engaged such as interchanging between the rinks of different provinces and countries, as well as including home towns and families of specific athletes. The Game of Her Life includes aspects of the personal lives of some athletes and how much they had to sacrifice in order to train and if lucky enough, to be a part of the Olympic team. By interchanging between the players personal lives and their lives as an athlete, the viewer can better understand the commitment put in by these women to try to fulfill their dreams of playing professional hockey. The filmmaker also included many interviews and live action coverage in the documentary, providing better expression of the real story, the real struggles and victories of these women. It allows the true feelings and emotions of the individuals to be revealed allowing the observer to grasp the true objective of this documentary. 

Another positive aspect of this film is the addition of interaction between participants engaged in conversation not specifically set up for the documentary. It includes many scenes of coaches and players interacting, athletes interacting with each other, as well as players interacting with friends and family. One particular scene that possessed such interactions and stood out was when the coaches had told chosen players they had made the team. It was footage directly from that day and the girls expressed so much happiness, some even tears of joy. The moment shared between the coaches and the player receiving the outstanding news was very heart felt and most definitely a memorable moment in their lives and the film. Other important conversations and the complimentary observed actions were between the athletes and their friends and family. The video included footage of the personal lives of athletes such as introducing their families, home towns, as well as aspects of their childhood and how they started out playing this Canadian game. One example of this involved Hayley Wickenheiser and her parents in one particular scene. They introduced her parents who in turn told Hayley’s childhood journey through hockey and shared with viewers their love and support for their daughter and the passion she holds for hockey especially her dream to become a part of this Olympic team. By including these particular scenes, the observer is able to feel as if they were present during this event, being able to capture the real story being told.

A third and positive aspect of this documentary is that the film maker accompanies the images with sounds that does not originally come from anything that we see within the frame. This includes providing narration for the film and adding music to specific scenes. In this case, the filmmaker includes a female narrator. The decision of providing a female narrator adds to the theme of the film, proving a point that females are taking a step towards equality and showing off their newly formed accomplishment of playing in the Olympics along side the male athletes. The narration of the documentary also allows the viewer to follow what has, is and will happen in the movie. It provides a proper transition to oncoming scenes and it most definitely allows for a more clear understanding of the story being portrayed. The film maker also include music to particular scenes, one example being during the footage of the gold medal game of the Olympics between Canada and USA. Music adds emotion and symbolism to documentaries and aids in telling the story. The filmmaker has added intense or complementary music throughout the film. The transition to more extreme music provides new energy to the program and sets the mood to evoke a more empathetic sense of emotion. Accompanying the image with narration and music can allow the story to easily unfold in the minds of the audience and enable them to further engage in the film. 

By including varieties of live action and previously recored scenes as well a music to enhance essential moments one can conclude that the documentary is well done. These aspects contribute positively to the making of The Game of Her Life which in turn is effective in portraying the life and journey of these Canadian female coaches and athletes.

References

The Game of Her life. [July 6, 2012]. Youtube. Retrieved March 29, 2013, 

from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLISmopEpmI

By: Lauren Mood

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