FUN LITTLE SIDE NOTE: Tonya would often skate to movie soundtracks, which proved difficult to use in this movie. Example, when she did the Triple Axle for the first time, she was skating to the theme of 1989's Batman.
Yeah she was figure skating for the masses/mainstream that's why she picked popular music. People who really liked her had no idea about figure skating. Nancy was always the better skater but not nearly as mainstream.
It's important to keep in mind that this film was very kind to Tonya. There's evidence, even from her own statements in interviews in 2017, that she wasn't as innocent as portrayed in this film. There's no doubt that Tonya had a really hard life and suffered abuse. However, it's important to keep in mind that Nancy Kerrigan was the real victim in this scenario.
Abuse or no abuse, it should be noted that once you become you have full autonomy of your actions. People failed address how while that they use their bad environment to justify why they are the way they are, it doesn’t change what you’ve done. We are all given a mouth, eyes, ears, and limbs for a reason. You can either choose to use them for good or for bad.
That's not the ultimate point of the film. Even if she knew everything, why does she STILL have a life sentence, even after this movie? But Jeff could serve 8 months, change his name and disappear? We want a villain, that's the point.
@@etherealtb6021 Despite the convenient story proposed by this movie Tonya knew. She knew. The profound lack of sportsmanship to be involved in the assault of a competitor (even if it was "just" supposed to be a death threat letter) does not absolve her. Neither would serving a jail sentence. Tonya could have changed her name and learned to be an office manager or something in a podunk town somewhere. But she could never EVER go back to athletics because of the choices she made and the company she kept.
Take this film with a pinch of salt. This was a film from the perspective of Tonya who also helped work on the film. The general reception was that the film didn't portray her completely truthfully, something to which Margot even admitted.
@@Isabella-tu9fb The movie itself says that everyone in it is telling a doctored version of the story. Ron looks right into the camera and says it. There's a title card at the beginning that says it's all contradictory.
I think you could see it both ways. One where the creators failed to see what an awful person Tonya was in real life. Or you can view it as people saying there’s different perspectives. As everybody is the hero in their own story, while others view them as the villain. Therefore, you start to hear some unreliability to what someone says.
Oksana Baiul, all of eighteen years old, won the gold in Lillehammer in 1994. Harding and Kerrigan effectively cancelled each other out, and the drama surrounding the pair didn't help. What a year it was.
What sucks for Oksana Baiul is that despite her winning the gold medal, she was just a footnote to the crazy Nancy/Tonya circus. And from what I remember, Oksana had a really rough upbringing herself.
@@christopherwebb3517 Yes. And in addition to Kerrigan, she was also skating with an injury. Just a couple of days before her gold-winning skate she collided with another skater during a warmup session, slicing a leg open. It's a miracle that she was still able to go on.
@@izzonj She also stood awkwardly on the podium as the technicians scrambled for an uncomfortable amount of time, trying to find the recording of the Ukraine anthem for Baiul's win. Many have remarked that Kerrigan's attitude and poise were lacking at that time.
Sometimes I think if it weren't for Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri' maybe both Sebastian Stan (Jeff Gilooly) and Paul Walter Hauser (Shawn Eckardt aka. Stingray from Cobra Kai) would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor that year for 'I,Tonya'.
When I first saw Tonya on TV I was impressed with the speed and power she had on the ice. Her artistry was passible. Her style was kind of like Elaine Zayak. Tonya was surrounded all her life with some very toxic people. She had the chance to get away from that crowd, but chose to stay with them. Paul Wylie once said, "The U.S. Figure Skating Team had a dinner to congratulate the medal winners who would be going to the Olympics, and it was a chance for us all to talk and get to know each other. Tonya never bothered to show up, and preferred to drink beer and shoot pool with her buddies. We didn't judge her, and held a hand out to her, but she chose to ignore us."
This reminds me of a famous old movie - RASHOMON. In that movie, a murder is committed. BUT each witness gives different details, to paint themselves in a better or sympathetic light. The "truth" is never revealed. Even knowing the plot, it's worth watching. Add it to the pile of recommendations.
This movie goes even further, being a dramatic re-enactment of events that much of the audience (if they're old enough) has a pre-existing impression or understanding of-which was in turn created by media coverage with a questionable commitment to the truth vs. ratings and sensationalism. It's Rashomon on steroids and crystal meth.
the difference being that in Rashomon everyone admits to be responsible for the "bad deed" to some degree, because their real actions would be deemed even more dishonorable.
Allison Janney won an Oscar for her performance in this BRILLIANT film. It was her first time being nominated by The Academy and she deserved every single moment of that recognition.
The guy that plays Shawn is in another Olympics movie called Richard Jewell about the guy that is wrongly accused of the 1996 Olympics bombing. It is a super underrated movie and like I,Tonya explores how the media can unfairly portray and sensationalize the news.
They show Tonya denying that she called to find out Nancy Kerrigan's schedule when in fact she's admitted this in interviews which pretty much confirms she was in on it.
@@JackCraft-tm9hj Tanya knew nothing about the whacking!! and did not know what they were going to do!!... THE TRUTH is Her Ex- Jeff & Shawn planned the whole thing.... BUT SHE Did help obstruct the investigation and prosecution & was in on wanting Nancy Threatened ..... but had nothing to do or knew about the attach itself! I do think Tanya was wronged... she could've done jail time made an apology and gone back to skating instead of being persecuted for the rest of her life and banned from the world of skating. ..
@@86forever Oh stop. You are so deluded because you are a fan of her skating. Her own sports governing body had an independent investigation done that found she very likely knew Nancy was going to be attacked at the least, yet she did nothing to stop it. I suspect she was even involved in the planning. She was an odious person surrounded by odious people. Imagine what type of person, what type of sportswoman, would be so jealous and hating that she would threaten her competitor. She couldn't beat her fairly on the ice so she decided to try and end Nancy's career. The fact Tonya still has fan girls defending her is utterly pathetic. Why don't you get some integrity and honor?
@@JackCraft-tm9hj I never said I was a fan!!! was also alive during that time and remember watching the whole thing happen! i've also done my own research Google is free.. so is UA-cam!!... She was in on the threats to Nancy and on Hindering the prosecution.. but never wanted her hurt!!.. She knew something was up a few months before because she heard them talking about taking "Someone" out and told them no that she could skate ... but look at her background and how she grew up.. (Not making an excuse) but she probably afraid of what ultimately ended up happening Yes I think she was unfairly persecuted by the Olympics & the media.... CLEARLY I'm not the only ne in this whole comment section who think so?!
@@JackCraft-tm9hj Im not defending her but if all the abuse shown in the movie is true i still feel really sorry for her i mean come on with a mother like that what fucking chance did she have
I was cheering for Tonya...back when it happened. She ended up doing Penthouse...i remember one of the cooks showing off the Penthouse magazine of her. I never did look as was too shy of a kid.
Can't help but think 18:03 in an alternate universe what if the headline was "Olympic Figure Skater & National Champion Dies At The Hand Of Ex Husband". Also fun (depends on who you ask) fact the Ladies Short Program ratings numbers surpassed the numbers of the Super Bowl that year.
Growing up a working class kid in Portland in the early '90s, Tonya Harding's f*** you attitude made her our hero. I remember getting to see her practice at the mall skating rink and being so excited. And I remember being bitterly disappointed to find out she was involved in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
aw. that's sad. Hey, the business/corporate world operates on warfare and removing the competition by any means necessary. On the world stage, why expect something different from unpaid olympic athletes.
Go Canada Go!!!! You should check out some video's of the real Tonya Harding skating. Unfortunately she didn't really have anything going for her but her skating.
This story was HUUUUUGE. I was in high school when it happened. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE watched the Olympics that year just to see who would win. Nancy with her bandages and standing ovation and when she got the silver she looked FURIOUS!! It was a huge media spectacle. That’s a story I’ll remember for the rest of my life ! It was nuts !
I remember being in 4th grade when it happened and my best friend and her family got me hooked on the figure skating. I watched it happen in real time back before dvr and real time rewind. Everyone was speculating about what happened
Same, I was in Junior High when it happened, I remember it being all over the magazines, the news, etc. The ratings for Olympic iceskaking skyrocketed, and it was all anyone talked about.
That film was disgusting! The reporter played by Olivia Wilde? Like Richard Jewell, she died fairly young. In the film, she was portrayed as trading sexual favors to an FBI agent for information, which really upset her friends and family who are still alive, and former colleagues who stated that she was not the type to do anything like that. So, in this quest to tell the story of a man falsely accused, Clint Eastwood apparently had no qualms about portraying a woman who isn't even alive to defend herself as a whore with zero integrity!
I think it's very hard to know what Tonya's mother is really thinking. I've met people like her - people with the capacity for enormous cruelty and hardness, who don't even believe that they are being cruel. Some people are just not capable of displaying kindness or compassion, and they deal with their own stresses by expelling them onto others. Equally, there are people who know EXACTLY what they are doing, and do it on purpose. Both kinds of person can be expert at presenting themselves in neutral or sympathetic lights. In the movie, the mother is always saying that what she did TO Tonya, was FOR Tonya. She might even believe that completly.
Yeah I find her behavior extremely confusing. It's interesting that she fights for Tonya to succeed. The question is WHY she wants her to succeed, and whether there's real love there.
I remember the 94 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway and all the drama between Harding and Kerrigan, watching it all unfold. Those two became the side show and an embarrassment to both the US and the Olympics. Harding was a very troubled girl with a overdriving mother and got hitched up with a bad boyfriend. Kerrigan was not by any means an innocent victim. Kerrigan by her own admission at the time stated that her only reason for going to the Olympics was to win so she could get a lucrative contract with Disney. She went to the Olympics for money. She got Silver. The deal with Disney was Gold. Disney gave her a scaled down contract because Disney could play off the fiasco at the Olympics for marketing. Kerrigan stayed at the Olympics just long enough to participate in the award ceremony. She was in Florida to sign the contract by the end of the next day. Kerrigan was highly criticized in the press for bailing on the Olympics with a lot of negative comments about her absence during the closing ceremonies. Kerrigan's contract didn't last more than a season or two with Disney and then she disappeared. Harding tried to compete but it turned into a very sad joke with her crying all over the ice every time she made a mistake. As great as the 94 Olympics were, these two left a very bad stain on the memory of those Olympics.
Nancy also didn't do herself any favors being caught on a live mike calling the Disney parade "the most corny thing" she's ever done & how she hated it.
I am from the same town as Tonya. I used to see her occasionally at the “Dodge Saloon” which is a dancing type country bar in our hometown. The thing that stood out most is how much shorter she is than everyone else. I am amazed she ever wanted to be a fighter/boxer.
as others have said it is very important to not form your opinion on events as they were depicted in film. if interested just use them as a jumping off point to learn more about these stories
Magot Robbie (at the verge of her take off) and Tina Fey in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It was Tina's passion project. Tina Fey's dad was a small town newspaper editor. She dedicated the film to him. Imagine Tina Fey reaching out to Margot Robbie "Can you help me out on my person project?"
This story was international news in 1994. I grew up in Britain and this story was all over our news. I think this movie is very kind to Tonya Harding. There's no doubt that she suffered terrible abuse from her mother and ex husband but there's definitely a lot of evidence that she wasn't as innocent in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan as this movie suggests.
Wow! I grew up in the States. I'm a little surprised it was such big news in Britain. Interesting to know. I live in Portugal now (retired) and it's interesting to see what is covered here and what is covered in the US. Anyway, I remember WELL the drama around this whole event. I also remember well how close the competition was between Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. I thought that Oksana did deserve the gold - her skating was incredibly beautiful.
@@i_love_rescue_animals I'm sure it wasn't covered anywhere near as much as it was in the US but it was definitely a big story here that everybody knew about and was definitely the subject of some schoolyard discussions for me and water cooler talk for my parents generation.
I was already an adult when all of this happened and to this day I'm not sure whether she was involved or not. What I do come away with is once again seeing your kind heart. That made it worth watching.
You’re so sweet. While this might be Tonya’s story, it isn’t necessarily the truth. Tonya had a horrible mother and a tough life, but she likely did know about the attack. Nancy was definitely the better skater. Nancy’s knee thankfully wasn’t broken. She was too injured to skate at Nationals, but they allowed her to go to the Olympics anyway-
Nancy was NOT the better skater. She had the style the judges liked better. I watched the entire senior careers of both ladies. Tonya had an athletic style, more like Kurt Browning. Nancy had beautiful, elegant lines. Both were great at their respective styles and it should've been judged on who did the best on a particular day.
She was absolutely the better skater. Nancy did better in both performances and in consistency of technical tricks 2 years straight before the olympics.
@@dlpheonix How to tell me you didn't really follow skating without trying me you didn't. Nancy famously BOMBED the entire season before the 1994 Olympics. She should've won Worlds in 1993, but got 5th because she got 9th in her LP! I saw her at an event that season and was surprised I could feel her terror rows back from the ice. She hated competing and always messed up something. She never had a 100% clean program. Some people do.
Nancy was the consensus top American- She medaled in Albertville, and was expected to win Nationals before the attack to qualify to be one of the two spots in the Olympics. Artistry is a HUGE component in Women’s figure skating and ended up being what lost Nancy the gold at the Olympics, when Oksana edged her out with her ballerina-like skate to Swan Lake, despite a two toe landing on one of her jumps- while Tonya had athletic talent, she was missing a huge artistry component. So, yes- Nancy was better at the time.
This story was a media frenzy back then. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing about it. It seemed like the entire world wanted Nancy Kerrigan to win the gold but Oksana Baul came out of nowhere, stole the show and won people's hearts. Kerrigan took the silver.
You might also like "My Sergei". About the 1988 and 1994 olympic pairs champion sergei grinkov, who died of heart disease at 28 in 1995, made by his wife and partner Ekaterina Gordeeva
I LOVED watching Tonya skate back in the day! She had modern fun music and her jumps were so powerful. I felt like Tonya didn’t need to do all that because I thought she could easily beat Nancy. I didn’t know the judges had a grudge against her. Everyone thought Nancy would win Gold but she got silver and the gold went to 16 yr old Oksana Baiul from Ukraine.
The ice skating rink behind Connie Chung in the real telecast is Clakamast Town Center in East Portland. I'd go stake there a lot as a child. I remember when the Olympic telecast happened. All the cooks in the faculty club kitchen brought in portable TV"s to not miss it while we prepared private dinner service.
Not American but i remember well the Tonya/Nancy drama in '94, right before the OG. It was unreal, everyone was talking about it. Remember me and my sister rooting for Nancy and Oksana Baiul (who won the gold) during the Olympics.
I remember the day the attack happened like it was last week. Nancy screaming, "WHY? WHY?" is burned into my memory forever. Good movie! I watched this for the first time a couple years ago.
This movie portrayed her in a very kind light, flaws and all. The only reason that we know her name right now is because of what they did to Nancy Kerrigan, and she was hardly covered in the movie. Harding may claim to be 'innocent' of the attack, but she was involved in everything else that led to the attack and that makes her just as guilty as anyone else involved. It's very sad that she had such a hard life, especially as a child at the hands of her mother. But she's not the innocent victim in the attack that made her name 'infamous'.
With this story, I recommend looking into documentaries and articles about it. There's no doubt that Tonya had a hard life, it is tragic. She does deserve some pity, especially when it comes to her childhood and marriage. However, as others have said, this is one of the more biased accounts of the story. I think the movie made attempts to appear unbiased, but by the end, they failed in that endeavour.
You need to watch real documentaries about this. Hard to believe it happened. But I loved to watch skating back in the 80’s and 90’s and this story dominated the sport when it happened.
I always thought Amy Adams looked more like Tonya than Margot did but since Margot’s company produced the movie of course she would star in it. Margot is great but Amy would have been more convincing.
I heard about the whole Tonya/Nancy thing so much in middle school, especially the flack Tonya got (well deserved ofc) after being from around the area I was living in (Portland area). Felt so horrible for Nancy, but this movie did shine a light on where Tonya was coming from. You mentioned Tonya suffering all sorts of abuse from her mother, and then the boyfriend.. well, from another abused kid.. it's what we know.. it's what we think we deserve.. and also we don't initially know that that's not how love works.. that's our normal. It takes some time for us to realize (if they do) that the abusive nature and toxicity is something to cut out of our lives. I still get flack for cutting ties with both my parents. Why? 'Cuz people only hear of what I did, and what good respectful daughter would do something like that to her parents? Well, the toxic & abusive type of behavior she had enough of and finally realized they were never going to see/treat her as anything differently. It took a long time to get there, but I finally learned that even from family, I deserve better.
I remember years ago (maybe a year or two after the incident) the minor league baseball team here (the Jacksonville Suns) invited /paid Tonya Harding to make an appearance at a game and the promotional give away were these little mini baseball bats for “Tonya Harding bat night”. From the local newspaper story she wasn’t told about the promotion until she was at the baseball game and was pretty mad about being deceived. To her credit she still came to the field and waved at everyone.
Fun Fact: Margot Robbie trained extensively, and was able to do a LOT of her own skating, but to get the more advanced skating moves seen in the movie, the production hired skaters Anna Malkova and Heidi Munger as skating doubles.
The Tonya Harding thing happened way before I was born, so I didn’t know anything about the attack till this movie. This movie is great, but I want to know more about what happened cause the movie is definitely biased.
The Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding drama was all over tabloid television back in 1994. It was the era of the afternoon talk show and this story fit right into the format. As far as this movie is concerned, Margot Robbie turned in a splendid performance. The thing that sometimes gets lost with Margot because of all the focus on her beauty is how excellent of an actress she is. Also, superb in this movie is Allison Janney as Tanya's mother, who definitely even more so than Tanya is made out to be the villain here.
Ya, it’s a great film too. I knew it might be a little rough for Cass… I was expecting the record for how many times she said “oh my gosh” in a movie to happen, pretty sure she got it haha
The guy that plays Shawn, Paul Hauser, plays the security guard in the movie about the bombing in the Olympic park at the Atlanta Olympics. It’s call Richard Jewell, it’s a great movie!
This is fiction, Cassie. Tonya had a hard life suffering mental, physical and emotional abuse, and was judged harshly for her “white trash” persona, but she’s not quite the innocent figure she’s made out to be here. This movie is all her side of the story & not even claimed by the filmmakers to be truly accurate.
Man.. I'm just a few years younger than Tonya and Nancy, and I just remember the media press coverage of this was wild. After every such public scandal/controversy, there's usually multiple documentary, "inside stories", most of which are deals between one of the involved figures and some major network studio. You end up getting an "inside story" for each such figure usually presenting them in the best light or making that person out to be the victim, and generally one or more of the other individuals involved who are truly to blame. And you cold probably watch them all, if you had the time/patience, and get a Rashomon hodgepodge of stories pointing the finger at everyone else.
This film is actually a black comedy. Most of the people are clearly not being truthful, and their stories all contradict each other. Tonya even tries to paint herself as a blameless victim, which is hilarious.
You were in an abusive relationship before your husband?!?! Damn......that really affected me. My heart hurts for you. I'm so glad you found better. Damn that really hit me. Much love and healing vibes your way honey. 😩🧡🤍🧡
Probably explains why she chooses to react to the more PG to tame PG-13 movies/shows more than R-Rated ones with more graphic violence, drug abuse, language and even elements of something horrifying.....
It must be remembered that this is a very Tonya-friendly version of events, and the real Tonya was part of the movie project. The truth is, no one but the parties themselves know whether she masterminded it. One of the popular takes at the time was that the plot was discovered because she was only able to recruit mental defectives to do it. Then again, that theory may have been due to the fact that she did stand to gain if her main competitor were taken out, the crew was so shady, and Nancy so sympathetic, especially after such a cowardly and unfair attack. 'Follow the money' is often right, and Tonya did stand to gain, a lot. So driven, in so many negative ways, the possibility of not beating Nancy fair and square must have seemed like the end of her life. A person facing losing, through that lens, might indeed do literally anything to win.
I loved watching Tonya skate. She was only a few years older than me, she was pretty, she was electric on the ice, powerful yet graceful...watching her early in her career especially...in 1991, she was on top...in 1994, things started to unravel, watching her 1994 Lillehammer Olympic performance is painful, she had some shoe/skate issues, had to stop her routine, came back a half hour later to finish...strong, but she was visibly not all there, she posted a good score, but it was a tough field (Oksana Baiul of Ukraine, Nancy Kerrigan, Katarina Witt of Germany, and Chinese skater Lu Chen...Tonya didn't medal, finishing 8th just behind Witt. Here she is in 1991 at the US Figure Skating Championships: ua-cam.com/video/w8xdflx1Q0s/v-deo.html
The sad part is, she was in the right sport at the right time as it comes to Olympics competition, because in 1992 and back, the Winter and Summer games were held the same year, but they wanted to stagger the two venues, so they alternated every 2 years, they weren't about to change the Summer Games, so they altered the years of the Winter games, so after 1992, they had another Winter Olympics in 1994, then on their new schedule in 1998...that's THREE Olympic games in seven years, so Winter Olympians had a greater opportunity to shine and collect medals. Tonya competed at the first two...finishing 4th in 1992, 8th in 1994...while Nancy Kerrigan was on the medal podium (finishing 3rd, 2nd respectively)...the attack on Nancy happened a month before the 94 games, it's a miracle she was able to perform at the level she did. Harding was later banned for life from competition, but not until after the games.
I still remember how this story was in the news everywhere. It was just so insane, so unbelievable. Just remember though: this story is being told by unreliable narrators. What was the actual truth? Who knows. Some things were definitely true though. Like her being treated unfairly by judges and the reluctance by the US figure skating association to back her because she didn't fit the image of being the cute and feminine good little girl just like the way they wanted figure skaters to be. And about her becoming a punch line? Definitely true. I remember feeling so bad for her after, including seeing her desperate and willing to humiliate herself with that boxing stuff. Heck, I recall she even had a sex tape with her made public. It was actually from their wedding night and I think he sold it to make money. Just awful. Anyway this was a surprisingly good movie, and Margot Robbie was fantastic.
I recently purged all my subscriptions because my feed was getting filled by absolute crap by youtube. You are now one of only 3 subscriptions I have. All the best from Edmonton.
Good video, but what you said at the beginning-about a skater cutting another skater with a blade-that was in 1996, with a Russian pairs skating team, the guy cut into the girls head with his skate while doing a spin during practice. She nearly died, but went on to be part of the controversy at the 2002 Olympics pairs event, winning the gold then losing it due to the judges interference
I was 10 years old in 94, when my country (Norway) hosted the olympics and I remember the whole drama, it was a BIG deal. Great movie, how much of it that is true, I don’t know. But Margot and Allison’s performance in the movie is soooo good:)
On the veracity of the story, and criticisms that it was very pro-Tonya: Having been around when all of this went down, but also limited to the information that actually came out (vs. all of the evidence presented at trial that we never saw), I came away from the film thinking that the filmmakers tried to square the circle somewhat. Tonya always maintained her innocence, but there wasn't any actual evidence against her - just the word of two guys, one of whom admitted openly to planning the attack while being a near-certifiable loon, the other an abusive ex-husband with an axe to grind. Hell, the film doesn't even get into the weeds on how irredeemably shitty her ex was - for instance, that he sold topless photos of her, as well as a sex tape video, DURING THE OLYMPICS, said photos/video being taken during their actual marriage. Literally selling images of a woman that was his wife at the time, just for a few bucks, just to stick it to her even harder. Also that he was three years older than her; so, he was out of high school yet dating a girl who was only a sophomore at the outset (before she dropped out of school entirely anyway). Not exactly a meeting of equals, and more than a bit squicky - a three-year age gap isn't even worthy of comment if both people are in their 20s, but wildly imbalanced if one of them is only 15. Also potentially illegal. So while we'll never know the actual truth, I think this film approached the story well - leaning towards her side, but still leaving room for doubt. The rest of it - her upbringing, her disastrous marriage, her constant financial struggles? All of that rings true. But then, that stuff was never really in doubt. Even her ex can't really argue with the history of police interventions, restraining orders and the divorce filing. But it clearly shows someone desperately and constantly trying to climb out of her crappy situation, only to be repeatedly dragged down by her own family, and by the norms of the sport itself. Despite all of this, I didn't see the filmmakers trying to carry a torch for her. She still comes off very rough and imperfect. So, yeah, I think it's a pretty balanced take.
After West Wing both Allison Janney, love her as CJ in West Wing, and Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler in West Wing) told there agent to find 'bad' (i know many moons ago) roles for them. Schiff played bad guy on NCIS. Allison so deserved her oscar :)
The criminal judge didn't ban her from skating completions or issue her the $250,000 that was done by a professional skating association, I can't recall the specific name.
I remember watching this on TV in news clips right after it happened. (Filmed live) Nancy lay on the floor crying and holding her bashed in knee. She kept screaming the same word over and over a dozen times. She yelled "WHY?...Why?...Why?..." 😫 (She was badly hurt, scared and confused.)🥺
I'm not an ice skater fan, but I remember when this story broke out. Even Seinfeld jokingly made a reference to Jeff Gillooly in one of the episodes, when George takes out Bette Midler at home plate during a softball game. Thank you for your reaction!
Nothing is better than the real thing. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary is a better re-telling of these events. The movie was done stylishly but is just ok I think.
I remember when all this happened… I’m old 😂… it was as if the Olympics was professional wrestling… huge story… and everyone was disappointed when Nancy Kerrigan lost anyway….
Hey, Cassie. Not on team Tonya. We had a slew of real assault activities for the sake of competition. Totally not related to TONYA. I was watching some Olympics and remembered a couple of movies. WALK DON'T RUN. Jim Hutton and Cary Grant. 1964 Tokyo games. THE FIRST OLYMPICS: ATHENS 1896. Nice Olympic miniseries for run-up to 1984 games. AMERICAN ANTHEM. Another cheesy movie like "Toe Pick" for the summer games. With some real Olympic talent and Mrs. Gretzky in her before time. There are more. Hey, to the Pibblings.
I remember being about 14 or maybe 15 when all of this came out in 1994. But I absolutely love Tanya Hardy and I still see her on the show, the world's dumbest,, 4 and a 1/2 clips of like drunk people or dumb accidents were the cast of special selective. Celebrities are like making fun of them, but it is a comedy show that is absolutely hilarious but I always thought that Tanya Harding was a lot prettier than Nancy Kerrigan, but then again, I've always been. I'm a bit of a blonde guy, so I might be a little bit biased on that.😊
FUN LITTLE SIDE NOTE: Tonya would often skate to movie soundtracks, which proved difficult to use in this movie. Example, when she did the Triple Axle for the first time, she was skating to the theme of 1989's Batman.
And that infamous broken lace skate was to music from Jurassic Park.
Yeah I remember that. Was just watching her triple axle footage. They portrayed it pretty well here, except for the different music.
Yeah she was figure skating for the masses/mainstream that's why she picked popular music. People who really liked her had no idea about figure skating. Nancy was always the better skater but not nearly as mainstream.
Good to know.
It's important to keep in mind that this film was very kind to Tonya.
There's evidence, even from her own statements in interviews in 2017, that she wasn't as innocent as portrayed in this film.
There's no doubt that Tonya had a really hard life and suffered abuse.
However, it's important to keep in mind that Nancy Kerrigan was the real victim in this scenario.
There's no doubt her mother made her the way she is, however she is the way she is and that's that and she made a choice.
Abuse or no abuse, it should be noted that once you become you have full autonomy of your actions. People failed address how while that they use their bad environment to justify why they are the way they are, it doesn’t change what you’ve done. We are all given a mouth, eyes, ears, and limbs for a reason. You can either choose to use them for good or for bad.
That's not the ultimate point of the film. Even if she knew everything, why does she STILL have a life sentence, even after this movie? But Jeff could serve 8 months, change his name and disappear? We want a villain, that's the point.
@@etherealtb6021 Despite the convenient story proposed by this movie Tonya knew. She knew. The profound lack of sportsmanship to be involved in the assault of a competitor (even if it was "just" supposed to be a death threat letter) does not absolve her. Neither would serving a jail sentence. Tonya could have changed her name and learned to be an office manager or something in a podunk town somewhere. But she could never EVER go back to athletics because of the choices she made and the company she kept.
She's a villain that doesn't deserve sympathy
Take this film with a pinch of salt. This was a film from the perspective of Tonya who also helped work on the film. The general reception was that the film didn't portray her completely truthfully, something to which Margot even admitted.
So they make Tonya look like a better person because they let Tonya in on this? Why though? She did a bad thing
@@Isabella-tu9fb The movie itself says that everyone in it is telling a doctored version of the story. Ron looks right into the camera and says it. There's a title card at the beginning that says it's all contradictory.
@@jsharp3165 So then why does the girl who's reacting to this feel bad for Tonya if it's obviously true that Tonya did help injure Nancy
I think you could see it both ways. One where the creators failed to see what an awful person Tonya was in real life. Or you can view it as people saying there’s different perspectives. As everybody is the hero in their own story, while others view them as the villain. Therefore, you start to hear some unreliability to what someone says.
@@jsharp3165 No insult to the girl reacting to this. She's cool
Oksana Baiul, all of eighteen years old, won the gold in Lillehammer in 1994. Harding and Kerrigan effectively cancelled each other out, and the drama surrounding the pair didn't help. What a year it was.
What sucks for Oksana Baiul is that despite her winning the gold medal, she was just a footnote to the crazy Nancy/Tonya circus. And from what I remember, Oksana had a really rough upbringing herself.
@@christopherwebb3517 Yes. And in addition to Kerrigan, she was also skating with an injury. Just a couple of days before her gold-winning skate she collided with another skater during a warmup session, slicing a leg open. It's a miracle that she was still able to go on.
@BroadwayGuy25 unfortunately for Kerrigan, she was caught on mike mocking Baiul for crying about being an orphan.
@@izzonj She also stood awkwardly on the podium as the technicians scrambled for an uncomfortable amount of time, trying to find the recording of the Ukraine anthem for Baiul's win. Many have remarked that Kerrigan's attitude and poise were lacking at that time.
And we all watched! What a crazy time
Margot Robbie gives one of her best performances in this film.
Her best
Yes, I think so too
Holly s***, that's her?
Amy adams should have played Tonya she looks so much like her
@@mynameisnotearl4383 Maybe, but Margot Robjie produced the film . So Amy didnt had a chance to get the role.
The guy potraying the bodyguard did an insane performance...
Stingray
Stingray and Richard Jewell, if you haven’t seen that movie I suggest you watch it, his performance is outstanding
Sometimes I think if it weren't for Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri' maybe both Sebastian Stan (Jeff Gilooly) and Paul Walter Hauser (Shawn Eckardt aka. Stingray from Cobra Kai) would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor that year for 'I,Tonya'.
I currently live about two blocks away from Tonya’s old house she grew up in and oddly enough I grew up with Jeff gillooly’s two children as well lmao
When I first saw Tonya on TV I was impressed with the speed and power she had on the ice. Her artistry was passible. Her style was kind of like Elaine Zayak.
Tonya was surrounded all her life with some very toxic people. She had the chance to get away from that crowd, but chose to stay with them. Paul Wylie once said, "The U.S. Figure Skating Team had a dinner to congratulate the medal winners who would be going to the Olympics, and it was a chance for us all to talk and get to know each other. Tonya never bothered to show up, and preferred to drink beer and shoot pool with her buddies. We didn't judge her, and held a hand out to her, but she chose to ignore us."
This reminds me of a famous old movie - RASHOMON. In that movie, a murder is committed.
BUT each witness gives different details, to paint themselves in a better or sympathetic light. The "truth" is never revealed.
Even knowing the plot, it's worth watching. Add it to the pile of recommendations.
UA-cam needs more "Rashomon" reactions.
Ha! That did not occur to me but you are absolutely right! It IS reminiscent of "Rashomon"
This movie goes even further, being a dramatic re-enactment of events that much of the audience (if they're old enough) has a pre-existing impression or understanding of-which was in turn created by media coverage with a questionable commitment to the truth vs. ratings and sensationalism. It's Rashomon on steroids and crystal meth.
the difference being that in Rashomon everyone admits to be responsible for the "bad deed" to some degree, because their real actions would be deemed even more dishonorable.
She should do Rashomon
Allison Janney won an Oscar for her performance in this BRILLIANT film. It was her first time being nominated by The Academy and she deserved every single moment of that recognition.
Yeah, but she had a lot of Emmys, not like she was unknown.
I hate to state the obvious, but Oscars are completely meaningless and devoid of any merit whatsoever.
@@ostentatioussavant8215 Except in the business, where they matter deeply for promotional and monetary concerns.
She absolutely amazing in this role. I never heard of Allison Janney so went to IMDB and was surprised at the extent of her filmography.
@@frogger1952 You never heard of her? She's been in so much. Thinking you're younger though.
This was a GREAT movie. Underrated and a really good story. Margot and Allison were amazing.
The guy that plays Shawn is in another Olympics movie called Richard Jewell about the guy that is wrongly accused of the 1996 Olympics bombing. It is a super underrated movie and like I,Tonya explores how the media can unfairly portray and sensationalize the news.
He also plays a man-child named "Stingray" in the Netflix series "Cobra Kai"
They show Tonya denying that she called to find out Nancy Kerrigan's schedule when in fact she's admitted this in interviews which pretty much confirms she was in on it.
Imagine how evil you'd have to be to hunt down and hit a young lady with a baton to end her career? It's sick
@@JackCraft-tm9hj Tanya knew nothing about the whacking!! and did not know what they were going to do!!... THE TRUTH is Her Ex- Jeff & Shawn planned the whole thing.... BUT SHE Did help obstruct the investigation and prosecution & was in on wanting Nancy Threatened ..... but had nothing to do or knew about the attach itself!
I do think Tanya was wronged... she could've done jail time made an apology and gone back to skating instead of being persecuted for the rest of her life and banned from the world of skating. ..
@@86forever Oh stop. You are so deluded because you are a fan of her skating. Her own sports governing body had an independent investigation done that found she very likely knew Nancy was going to be attacked at the least, yet she did nothing to stop it. I suspect she was even involved in the planning.
She was an odious person surrounded by odious people. Imagine what type of person, what type of sportswoman, would be so jealous and hating that she would threaten her competitor. She couldn't beat her fairly on the ice so she decided to try and end Nancy's career.
The fact Tonya still has fan girls defending her is utterly pathetic. Why don't you get some integrity and honor?
@@JackCraft-tm9hj I never said I was a fan!!! was also alive during that time and remember watching the whole thing happen! i've also done my own research Google is free.. so is UA-cam!!... She was in on the threats to Nancy and on Hindering the prosecution.. but never wanted her hurt!!..
She knew something was up a few months before because she heard them talking about taking "Someone" out and told them no that she could skate ... but look at her background and how she grew up.. (Not making an excuse) but she probably afraid of what ultimately ended up happening
Yes I think she was unfairly persecuted by the Olympics & the media.... CLEARLY I'm not the only ne in this whole comment section who think so?!
@@JackCraft-tm9hj Im not defending her but if all the abuse shown in the movie is true i still feel really sorry for her i mean come on with a mother like that what fucking chance did she have
I remember back when this happened they actually aired the aftermath of Nancy Kerrigan holding her knee crying why why on tv.
They played that clip over and over and over and over again. The media is such a wh*re. lol
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."
-Mark Twain
Never knew that full quote or who said it. Thanks for that.
I was cheering for Tonya...back when it happened. She ended up doing Penthouse...i remember one of the cooks showing off the Penthouse magazine of her. I never did look as was too shy of a kid.
Wow, I feel old. I remember when this happened. And the TV movie they made about it
Can't help but think 18:03 in an alternate universe what if the headline was "Olympic Figure Skater & National Champion Dies At The Hand Of Ex Husband". Also fun (depends on who you ask) fact the Ladies Short Program ratings numbers surpassed the numbers of the Super Bowl that year.
Growing up a working class kid in Portland in the early '90s, Tonya Harding's f*** you attitude made her our hero. I remember getting to see her practice at the mall skating rink and being so excited. And I remember being bitterly disappointed to find out she was involved in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
Tonya Harding for president?
And now in Portland you guys fight to make guys girls and have blocks taken over for a fentynal head named George floyd.
aw. that's sad. Hey, the business/corporate world operates on warfare and removing the competition by any means necessary. On the world stage, why expect something different from unpaid olympic athletes.
Go Canada Go!!!!
You should check out some video's of the real Tonya Harding skating. Unfortunately she didn't really have anything going for her but her skating.
This story was HUUUUUGE. I was in high school when it happened. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE watched the Olympics that year just to see who would win. Nancy with her bandages and standing ovation and when she got the silver she looked FURIOUS!! It was a huge media spectacle. That’s a story I’ll remember for the rest of my life ! It was nuts !
Tonya put Nancy on the map. Nancy Who?
I remember being in 4th grade when it happened and my best friend and her family got me hooked on the figure skating. I watched it happen in real time back before dvr and real time rewind. Everyone was speculating about what happened
Same, I was in Junior High when it happened, I remember it being all over the magazines, the news, etc.
The ratings for Olympic iceskaking skyrocketed, and it was all anyone talked about.
That just shows how pathetic their plan was considering that Nancy beat Tonya with a healed up knee that was broken in
I went to middle school with Tonya Harding and we were part of the same circle of friends
Oh cool. Was she nice? Or friendly? Would you believe she would set up an attack like that based on how you knew her?
"Richard Jewell" directed by Clint Eastwood is another movie around the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Heartbreaking.
With the title character played (wonderfully) by the same actor who played Shawn in this one.
That film was disgusting!
The reporter played by Olivia Wilde? Like Richard Jewell, she died fairly young. In the film, she was portrayed as trading sexual favors to an FBI agent for information, which really upset her friends and family who are still alive, and former colleagues who stated that she was not the type to do anything like that.
So, in this quest to tell the story of a man falsely accused, Clint Eastwood apparently had no qualms about portraying a woman who isn't even alive to defend herself as a whore with zero integrity!
@@richardzinns5676Paul Hauser did a wonderful job in both. Especially with Jewell.
I think it's very hard to know what Tonya's mother is really thinking. I've met people like her - people with the capacity for enormous cruelty and hardness, who don't even believe that they are being cruel. Some people are just not capable of displaying kindness or compassion, and they deal with their own stresses by expelling them onto others. Equally, there are people who know EXACTLY what they are doing, and do it on purpose. Both kinds of person can be expert at presenting themselves in neutral or sympathetic lights. In the movie, the mother is always saying that what she did TO Tonya, was FOR Tonya. She might even believe that completly.
Yeah I find her behavior extremely confusing. It's interesting that she fights for Tonya to succeed. The question is WHY she wants her to succeed, and whether there's real love there.
Alison Janny (the Mom) was PERFECTLY cast
I remember the 94 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway and all the drama between Harding and Kerrigan, watching it all unfold. Those two became the side show and an embarrassment to both the US and the Olympics. Harding was a very troubled girl with a overdriving mother and got hitched up with a bad boyfriend. Kerrigan was not by any means an innocent victim. Kerrigan by her own admission at the time stated that her only reason for going to the Olympics was to win so she could get a lucrative contract with Disney. She went to the Olympics for money. She got Silver. The deal with Disney was Gold. Disney gave her a scaled down contract because Disney could play off the fiasco at the Olympics for marketing. Kerrigan stayed at the Olympics just long enough to participate in the award ceremony. She was in Florida to sign the contract by the end of the next day. Kerrigan was highly criticized in the press for bailing on the Olympics with a lot of negative comments about her absence during the closing ceremonies. Kerrigan's contract didn't last more than a season or two with Disney and then she disappeared. Harding tried to compete but it turned into a very sad joke with her crying all over the ice every time she made a mistake. As great as the 94 Olympics were, these two left a very bad stain on the memory of those Olympics.
Nancy also didn't do herself any favors being caught on a live mike calling the Disney parade "the most corny thing" she's ever done & how she hated it.
I am from the same town as Tonya. I used to see her occasionally at the “Dodge Saloon” which is a dancing type country bar in our hometown. The thing that stood out most is how much shorter she is than everyone else. I am amazed she ever wanted to be a fighter/boxer.
as others have said it is very important to not form your opinion on events as they were depicted in film. if interested just use them as a jumping off point to learn more about these stories
Magot Robbie (at the verge of her take off) and Tina Fey in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It was Tina's passion project. Tina Fey's dad was a small town newspaper editor. She dedicated the film to him. Imagine Tina Fey reaching out to Margot Robbie "Can you help me out on my person project?"
Totally forgot about WTF. That was really a strange movie. Or just different from everything else at the time.
This story was international news in 1994. I grew up in Britain and this story was all over our news.
I think this movie is very kind to Tonya Harding. There's no doubt that she suffered terrible abuse from her mother and ex husband but there's definitely a lot of evidence that she wasn't as innocent in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan as this movie suggests.
Wow! I grew up in the States. I'm a little surprised it was such big news in Britain. Interesting to know. I live in Portugal now (retired) and it's interesting to see what is covered here and what is covered in the US. Anyway, I remember WELL the drama around this whole event. I also remember well how close the competition was between Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. I thought that Oksana did deserve the gold - her skating was incredibly beautiful.
@@i_love_rescue_animals I'm sure it wasn't covered anywhere near as much as it was in the US but it was definitely a big story here that everybody knew about and was definitely the subject of some schoolyard discussions for me and water cooler talk for my parents generation.
I was already an adult when all of this happened and to this day I'm not sure whether she was involved or not. What I do come away with is once again seeing your kind heart. That made it worth watching.
You’re so sweet. While this might be Tonya’s story, it isn’t necessarily the truth. Tonya had a horrible mother and a tough life, but she likely did know about the attack. Nancy was definitely the better skater. Nancy’s knee thankfully wasn’t broken. She was too injured to skate at Nationals, but they allowed her to go to the Olympics anyway-
There's ONLY ONE TRUTH!!! NO EXCUSES!!!
Nancy was NOT the better skater. She had the style the judges liked better. I watched the entire senior careers of both ladies. Tonya had an athletic style, more like Kurt Browning. Nancy had beautiful, elegant lines. Both were great at their respective styles and it should've been judged on who did the best on a particular day.
She was absolutely the better skater. Nancy did better in both performances and in consistency of technical tricks 2 years straight before the olympics.
@@dlpheonix How to tell me you didn't really follow skating without trying me you didn't. Nancy famously BOMBED the entire season before the 1994 Olympics. She should've won Worlds in 1993, but got 5th because she got 9th in her LP! I saw her at an event that season and was surprised I could feel her terror rows back from the ice. She hated competing and always messed up something. She never had a 100% clean program. Some people do.
Nancy was the consensus top American- She medaled in Albertville, and was expected to win Nationals before the attack to qualify to be one of the two spots in the Olympics. Artistry is a HUGE component in Women’s figure skating and ended up being what lost Nancy the gold at the Olympics, when Oksana edged her out with her ballerina-like skate to Swan Lake, despite a two toe landing on one of her jumps- while Tonya had athletic talent, she was missing a huge artistry component. So, yes- Nancy was better at the time.
This story was a media frenzy back then. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing about it. It seemed like the entire world wanted Nancy Kerrigan to win the gold but Oksana Baul came out of nowhere, stole the show and won people's hearts. Kerrigan took the silver.
Yes,l’m so happy that Oksana Baiul came along and won the gold.
Great film! Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan and that whole thing was huge when I was younger..
You might also like "My Sergei". About the 1988 and 1994 olympic pairs champion sergei grinkov, who died of heart disease at 28 in 1995, made by his wife and partner Ekaterina Gordeeva
The only winter Olympics event that rivaled the super bowl. Still remember watching it live
I'd love to see your reaction to Torvill and Dean skating to Bolero in the 1984 Winter Olympics
This and Tyson vs Holyfield are the 90’s sports stories I will forever remember.
I LOVED watching Tonya skate back in the day! She had modern fun music and her jumps were so powerful. I felt like Tonya didn’t need to do all that because I thought she could easily beat Nancy. I didn’t know the judges had a grudge against her. Everyone thought Nancy would win Gold but she got silver and the gold went to 16 yr old Oksana Baiul from Ukraine.
I met her in 2010 in a sports bar in Missouri. She's tiny. Also very nice.
This was very, very kind to her
The ice skating rink behind Connie Chung in the real telecast is Clakamast Town Center in East Portland. I'd go stake there a lot as a child. I remember when the Olympic telecast happened. All the cooks in the faculty club kitchen brought in portable TV"s to not miss it while we prepared private dinner service.
I'm just gonna say it - AWESOME SOUNDTRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not American but i remember well the Tonya/Nancy drama in '94, right before the OG. It was unreal, everyone was talking about it.
Remember me and my sister rooting for Nancy and Oksana Baiul (who won the gold) during the Olympics.
It set records in ratings
I remember the day the attack happened like it was last week. Nancy screaming, "WHY? WHY?" is burned into my memory forever. Good movie! I watched this for the first time a couple years ago.
Definitely one of those place holder moments in history.
This movie portrayed her in a very kind light, flaws and all. The only reason that we know her name right now is because of what they did to Nancy Kerrigan, and she was hardly covered in the movie. Harding may claim to be 'innocent' of the attack, but she was involved in everything else that led to the attack and that makes her just as guilty as anyone else involved.
It's very sad that she had such a hard life, especially as a child at the hands of her mother. But she's not the innocent victim in the attack that made her name 'infamous'.
With this story, I recommend looking into documentaries and articles about it. There's no doubt that Tonya had a hard life, it is tragic. She does deserve some pity, especially when it comes to her childhood and marriage. However, as others have said, this is one of the more biased accounts of the story. I think the movie made attempts to appear unbiased, but by the end, they failed in that endeavour.
You need to watch real documentaries about this. Hard to believe it happened. But I loved to watch skating back in the 80’s and 90’s and this story dominated the sport when it happened.
terrific work from Margot Robbie and Allison Janney (who won an Oscar) in this movie
Up against Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. Two great movies and performances.
I wouldn't wager on the fact that she didn't know. That she did know would be a better bet.
I always thought Amy Adams looked more like Tonya than Margot did but since Margot’s company produced the movie of course she would star in it. Margot is great but Amy would have been more convincing.
That’s a good point,Adams would have been more believable,at least in terms of physical appearance,as Tonya Harding.
its not about the looks, its about how well the actress can get into the personality of the real person behind the character she's playing.
I heard about the whole Tonya/Nancy thing so much in middle school, especially the flack Tonya got (well deserved ofc) after being from around the area I was living in (Portland area). Felt so horrible for Nancy, but this movie did shine a light on where Tonya was coming from.
You mentioned Tonya suffering all sorts of abuse from her mother, and then the boyfriend.. well, from another abused kid.. it's what we know.. it's what we think we deserve.. and also we don't initially know that that's not how love works.. that's our normal. It takes some time for us to realize (if they do) that the abusive nature and toxicity is something to cut out of our lives. I still get flack for cutting ties with both my parents. Why? 'Cuz people only hear of what I did, and what good respectful daughter would do something like that to her parents? Well, the toxic & abusive type of behavior she had enough of and finally realized they were never going to see/treat her as anything differently. It took a long time to get there, but I finally learned that even from family, I deserve better.
I remember years ago (maybe a year or two after the incident) the minor league baseball team here (the Jacksonville Suns) invited /paid Tonya Harding to make an appearance at a game and the promotional give away were these little mini baseball bats for “Tonya Harding bat night”.
From the local newspaper story she wasn’t told about the promotion until she was at the baseball game and was pretty mad about being deceived. To her credit she still came to the field and waved at everyone.
Fun Fact: Margot Robbie trained extensively, and was able to do a LOT of her own skating, but to get the more advanced skating moves seen in the movie, the production hired skaters Anna Malkova and Heidi Munger as skating doubles.
The Tonya Harding thing happened way before I was born, so I didn’t know anything about the attack till this movie. This movie is great, but I want to know more about what happened cause the movie is definitely biased.
The Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding drama was all over tabloid television back in 1994. It was the era of the afternoon talk show and this story fit right into the format. As far as this movie is concerned, Margot Robbie turned in a splendid performance. The thing that sometimes gets lost with Margot because of all the focus on her beauty is how excellent of an actress she is. Also, superb in this movie is Allison Janney as Tanya's mother, who definitely even more so than Tanya is made out to be the villain here.
Ya, it’s a great film too. I knew it might be a little rough for Cass… I was expecting the record for how many times she said “oh my gosh” in a movie to happen, pretty sure she got it haha
@@yourlifeisagreatstory Agreed. I worry for Cassie when the subject matter is intense like this. She is such a good and wholesome individual.
The guy that plays Shawn, Paul Hauser, plays the security guard in the movie about the bombing in the Olympic park at the Atlanta Olympics. It’s call Richard Jewell, it’s a great movie!
@@yourlifeisagreatstory Yes, I saw that one and very much liked it as well. Clint Eastwood directed it. Jon Hamm plays a federal agent.
It's hard to believe it's been 30 years. Time goes by so fast.
I've never seen this movie but as soon as i saw Shawn i screamed "look, its Stingray!"
This is fiction, Cassie. Tonya had a hard life suffering mental, physical and emotional abuse, and was judged harshly for her “white trash” persona, but she’s not quite the innocent figure she’s made out to be here. This movie is all her side of the story & not even claimed by the filmmakers to be truly accurate.
She knew about it
Man.. I'm just a few years younger than Tonya and Nancy, and I just remember the media press coverage of this was wild. After every such public scandal/controversy, there's usually multiple documentary, "inside stories", most of which are deals between one of the involved figures and some major network studio. You end up getting an "inside story" for each such figure usually presenting them in the best light or making that person out to be the victim, and generally one or more of the other individuals involved who are truly to blame.
And you cold probably watch them all, if you had the time/patience, and get a Rashomon hodgepodge of stories pointing the finger at everyone else.
Shout out to Nancy Kerrigan the real hero of this true story.
COOL RUNNINGS another great olympic movie feel good story. Please add to your list.
Love your videos. It always feels like I'm watching movies with a good friend.
I cried just the same 😢 in the end what was it all for?!
Performances Slayed!
And yes, A&F Men’s Ts are fire atm. ❤
Tonya DID have a terrible life, but most people believe that she did know about the attack.
Oh my gosh, just when I thought you couldn’t get any cuter your hair looks so pretty
This film is actually a black comedy. Most of the people are clearly not being truthful, and their stories all contradict each other. Tonya even tries to paint herself as a blameless victim, which is hilarious.
You were in an abusive relationship before your husband?!?! Damn......that really affected me. My heart hurts for you. I'm so glad you found better. Damn that really hit me. Much love and healing vibes your way honey. 😩🧡🤍🧡
Probably explains why she chooses to react to the more PG to tame PG-13 movies/shows more than R-Rated ones with more graphic violence, drug abuse, language and even elements of something horrifying.....
The ESPN 30 for 30 The Price of Gold is a good documentary of this occurence.
It must be remembered that this is a very Tonya-friendly version of events, and the real Tonya was part of the movie project. The truth is, no one but the parties themselves know whether she masterminded it. One of the popular takes at the time was that the plot was discovered because she was only able to recruit mental defectives to do it. Then again, that theory may have been due to the fact that she did stand to gain if her main competitor were taken out, the crew was so shady, and Nancy so sympathetic, especially after such a cowardly and unfair attack. 'Follow the money' is often right, and Tonya did stand to gain, a lot. So driven, in so many negative ways, the possibility of not beating Nancy fair and square must have seemed like the end of her life. A person facing losing, through that lens, might indeed do literally anything to win.
I loved watching Tonya skate. She was only a few years older than me, she was pretty, she was electric on the ice, powerful yet graceful...watching her early in her career especially...in 1991, she was on top...in 1994, things started to unravel, watching her 1994 Lillehammer Olympic performance is painful, she had some shoe/skate issues, had to stop her routine, came back a half hour later to finish...strong, but she was visibly not all there, she posted a good score, but it was a tough field (Oksana Baiul of Ukraine, Nancy Kerrigan, Katarina Witt of Germany, and Chinese skater Lu Chen...Tonya didn't medal, finishing 8th just behind Witt. Here she is in 1991 at the US Figure Skating Championships: ua-cam.com/video/w8xdflx1Q0s/v-deo.html
The sad part is, she was in the right sport at the right time as it comes to Olympics competition, because in 1992 and back, the Winter and Summer games were held the same year, but they wanted to stagger the two venues, so they alternated every 2 years, they weren't about to change the Summer Games, so they altered the years of the Winter games, so after 1992, they had another Winter Olympics in 1994, then on their new schedule in 1998...that's THREE Olympic games in seven years, so Winter Olympians had a greater opportunity to shine and collect medals. Tonya competed at the first two...finishing 4th in 1992, 8th in 1994...while Nancy Kerrigan was on the medal podium (finishing 3rd, 2nd respectively)...the attack on Nancy happened a month before the 94 games, it's a miracle she was able to perform at the level she did. Harding was later banned for life from competition, but not until after the games.
That was an entertaining film, sad to hear Cassie at the end though saying she was in a abusive relationship in the past :(.
Cool Runnings wasn’t in the poll ?!! Hands down best olympic themed movie!
watch Tonya on America's Dumbest Criminals,,,,youl get a feel for who she is by her humor😊
Thanks for telling us. I went and watched it. Glad to have found it on UA-cam.
I still remember how this story was in the news everywhere. It was just so insane, so unbelievable.
Just remember though: this story is being told by unreliable narrators. What was the actual truth? Who knows. Some things were definitely true though. Like her being treated unfairly by judges and the reluctance by the US figure skating association to back her because she didn't fit the image of being the cute and feminine good little girl just like the way they wanted figure skaters to be. And about her becoming a punch line? Definitely true. I remember feeling so bad for her after, including seeing her desperate and willing to humiliate herself with that boxing stuff. Heck, I recall she even had a sex tape with her made public. It was actually from their wedding night and I think he sold it to make money. Just awful.
Anyway this was a surprisingly good movie, and Margot Robbie was fantastic.
At the time this was literally one of the biggest stories in the world
I recently purged all my subscriptions because my feed was getting filled by absolute crap by youtube. You are now one of only 3 subscriptions I have. All the best from Edmonton.
Surprised you have not done An Officer and a Gentleman.
Followed by American Gigolo
"There's no need to have class when you have talent."
Not according to the judges. They made that very clear.
Good video, but what you said at the beginning-about a skater cutting another skater with a blade-that was in 1996, with a Russian pairs skating team, the guy cut into the girls head with his skate while doing a spin during practice. She nearly died, but went on to be part of the controversy at the 2002 Olympics pairs event, winning the gold then losing it due to the judges interference
Remember that book of the 3 Little Pigs that the wolf wrote? Ya this is that movie.
I was 10 years old in 94, when my country (Norway) hosted the olympics and I remember the whole drama, it was a BIG deal. Great movie, how much of it that is true, I don’t know. But Margot and Allison’s performance in the movie is soooo good:)
On the veracity of the story, and criticisms that it was very pro-Tonya:
Having been around when all of this went down, but also limited to the information that actually came out (vs. all of the evidence presented at trial that we never saw), I came away from the film thinking that the filmmakers tried to square the circle somewhat. Tonya always maintained her innocence, but there wasn't any actual evidence against her - just the word of two guys, one of whom admitted openly to planning the attack while being a near-certifiable loon, the other an abusive ex-husband with an axe to grind. Hell, the film doesn't even get into the weeds on how irredeemably shitty her ex was - for instance, that he sold topless photos of her, as well as a sex tape video, DURING THE OLYMPICS, said photos/video being taken during their actual marriage. Literally selling images of a woman that was his wife at the time, just for a few bucks, just to stick it to her even harder. Also that he was three years older than her; so, he was out of high school yet dating a girl who was only a sophomore at the outset (before she dropped out of school entirely anyway). Not exactly a meeting of equals, and more than a bit squicky - a three-year age gap isn't even worthy of comment if both people are in their 20s, but wildly imbalanced if one of them is only 15. Also potentially illegal. So while we'll never know the actual truth, I think this film approached the story well - leaning towards her side, but still leaving room for doubt.
The rest of it - her upbringing, her disastrous marriage, her constant financial struggles? All of that rings true. But then, that stuff was never really in doubt. Even her ex can't really argue with the history of police interventions, restraining orders and the divorce filing. But it clearly shows someone desperately and constantly trying to climb out of her crappy situation, only to be repeatedly dragged down by her own family, and by the norms of the sport itself.
Despite all of this, I didn't see the filmmakers trying to carry a torch for her. She still comes off very rough and imperfect. So, yeah, I think it's a pretty balanced take.
I'm surprised that, after all the different movies you have watched now, you still think in "good" and "evil" categories.
After West Wing both Allison Janney, love her as CJ in West Wing, and Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler in West Wing) told there agent to find 'bad' (i know many moons ago) roles for them. Schiff played bad guy on NCIS. Allison so deserved her oscar :)
Tonya went into a most-villified character in my circles to perhaps a worst fate: laughed at.
There were two incredible media satires in 2017 - one was _I, Tonya_ and I hope your get round to watching Aubrey Plaza in Ingrid Goes West .
Such a great movie and soundtrack!
The criminal judge didn't ban her from skating completions or issue her the $250,000 that was done by a professional skating association, I can't recall the specific name.
USFSA
It wasn't the 100th Olympics, it was 100 years since the start of the modern Olympiad.
The I, POPCORN title made me laugh lol
All the videos of these skating parts are on UA-cam. They are amazing. The 1994 Olympic one is 17 minutes long. A must watch.
You should give "Your Name" a shot. One of my favorites of the last 5 years. Pretty sure you will like it.
I remember watching this on TV in news clips right after it happened. (Filmed live) Nancy lay on the floor crying and holding her bashed in knee. She kept screaming the same word over and over a dozen times. She yelled "WHY?...Why?...Why?..." 😫 (She was badly hurt, scared and confused.)🥺
I was almost 13, and remember that vividly.
I'm not an ice skater fan, but I remember when this story broke out. Even Seinfeld jokingly made a reference to Jeff Gillooly in one of the episodes, when George takes out Bette Midler at home plate during a softball game. Thank you for your reaction!
Nothing is better than the real thing. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary is a better re-telling of these events. The movie was done stylishly but is just ok I think.
You should watch the movie Ice Castles.
I remember when all this happened… I’m old 😂… it was as if the Olympics was professional wrestling… huge story… and everyone was disappointed when Nancy Kerrigan lost anyway….
Hey, Cassie. Not on team Tonya. We had a slew of real assault activities for the sake of competition. Totally not related to TONYA. I was watching some Olympics and remembered a couple of movies. WALK DON'T RUN. Jim Hutton and Cary Grant. 1964 Tokyo games. THE FIRST OLYMPICS: ATHENS 1896. Nice Olympic miniseries for run-up to 1984 games. AMERICAN ANTHEM. Another cheesy movie like "Toe Pick" for the summer games. With some real Olympic talent and Mrs. Gretzky in her before time. There are more. Hey, to the Pibblings.
I remember being about 14 or maybe 15 when all of this came out in 1994. But I absolutely love Tanya Hardy and I still see her on the show, the world's dumbest,, 4 and a 1/2 clips of like drunk people or dumb accidents were the cast of special selective. Celebrities are like making fun of them, but it is a comedy show that is absolutely hilarious but I always thought that Tanya Harding was a lot prettier than Nancy Kerrigan, but then again, I've always been. I'm a bit of a blonde guy, so I might be a little bit biased on that.😊