-
Directing
-
Content
Starring: Tonya Harding, Connie Chung, Scott Hamilton
Director: Nanette Burstein
Running Time: 76 mins
The Price Of Gold is an American documentary about the controversial 1994 incident surrounding figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and the chaotic media frenzy that ensued as both geared up for that year’s Winter Olympics.
The infamous incident surrounding Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan is a well-known and still utterly fascinating story, and one you’ll likely be familiar with having either followed the event at the time or having seen the excellent I, Tonya starring Margot Robbie.
The Price Of Gold was one of the main inspirations for I, Tonya, and this documentary is no bit less enthralling than the award-winning theatrical adaptation that came after.
With a heavier focus on the controversy and media frenzy around Harding following the Nancy Kerrigan incident, this documentary isn’t necessarily the window into Harding’s life that I, Tonya is, but it’s a brilliantly detailed and fantastically balanced look at an incident that still divides opinion to this day.
Featuring interviews from a number of personalities involved in the figure skating world, the investigation of the incident, and Tonya Harding herself, you get as wide a perspective on what really happened as possible. Of course, so much of the story and its legacy is a war of words, and the film makes that plainly clear as it gives fair time to both sides of the story throughout.
One area in which The Price Of Gold is particularly insightful lies in the fact that we learn a lot more about Nancy Kerrigan, who was almost a fringe character in I, Tonya despite her significance in Harding’s rise and fall. Kerrigan doesn’t appear as an interviewee here like Harding, but the film pays due attention to her story, which is arguably just as fascinating as Harding’s.
Though a stylistically orthodox documentary made up of interviews and archive footage, The Price Of Gold tells its fascinating story in brilliantly detailed but also succinct fashion. It also doesn’t seek to make grandiose points about the state of the media, classism and more in the modern day, but inserts those themes subtly throughout to keep you thinking after the credits have rolled.
In the end, The Price Of Gold tells a fascinating story from the world of sports that will forever remain irresistibly intriguing, doing so with objectivity, fairness and brilliant detail. Though more focused in its scope than I, Tonya, it’s no less enthralling, and that’s why I’m giving it an 8.1 overall.
