Anything Alex Gibney has done so far with documentaries has been outstanding, and while at this point it almost seems like he’s producing an impossible quantity of content, the quality hasn’t suffered one bit. I was able to catch a screening of The Last Gladiators at a special event put on by a sports radio, which meant it was packed with dudes in hockey jerseys looking to get an autograph from Chris Neil, the former NHLer and primary subject of the doc, who was in attendance to answer questions from the audience following the screening. Of course, this would have been awkward if any of them had grasped the sadness of the situation NHL enforcers tend to find themselves in once their short careers inevitably come to an end.
The documentary does a nice job avoiding added emphasis on the health problems athletes and hockey players in particular endure in retirement. It does so in subtle ways such as focusing on Neil’s hands from the opening moments, but doesn’t dwell on this, which feels appropriate. Maybe this makes Gibney a hypocrite since he criticized Kathryn Bigelow for remaining neutral about torture, but I found Gibney’s neutrality (and possible hypocrisy) in this doc an admirable way of handling a sensitive issue involving real human stories and situations.
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