In 1968 at the Olympic games in Mexico City, American track athlete Tommie Smith won the gold medal in the 200m dash while setting the new world record, breaking the sub twenty second barrier. As he and third place finisher and teammate John Carlos stood on the podium to receive their gold and bronze medals they both raised a single fist, clad in a black leather glove, high in the air to protest the treatment of black people back home. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had their speeches immortalized and Rosa Parks’ story of her defiance is known by all, but there may not be a more powerful single image of black civil rights protest than that of Smith and Carlos having their heads bowed and one arm each triumphantly pointed to the sky. It’s a photo that is in history textbooks and often discussed in the same vein as Jesse Owens proudly ruining Hitler’s image of a perfect Aryian athlete or Muhamed Ali winning the heavyweight boxing title of the world. But other than this indelible image, not much is known about Smith and Carlos.
With Drawn Arms tells the story of what happened to Tommie Smith after that fateful day in Mexico City, because while the image stands frozen in time, his life had to continue. The day after the medal ceremony both Smith and Carlos were booted out of the Olympic village and quietly flown back home as the Olympics don’t allow any form of protest. When Smith arrived home he became a pariah, unable to find steady work and his athletics career basically evaporated overnight, despite being one of the all time greatest runners. Smith often talks about how you can’t bring about change without sacrifice and he understood that the sacrifice wouldn’t be easy, or over quickly. He had two marriages run its course, he hit rock bottom with a mental breakdown and had the FBI track him for the possible involvement with Patty Hearst going missing.
Tommie Smith is a fantastic storyteller, who despite not having any regrets for what he did, still has a lot of justified anger at how he and his family was treated after the Olympics, including blaming himself for his mother passing away from a heart attack. Smith remembers every detail with pinpoint accuracy and the use of archival footage breaking down his gold medal winning race is a highlight. Unfortunately the film, despite its resonate message, has some fairly large flaws.
Co-director Glenn Kaino is a visual artist and with the help of Smith and his family, he wanted to celebrate Smith’s legacy and to expand on the story of a single image most people know him as. The goal is admirable, but the documentary starts with the end point of revealing Kaino’s installation and edits a narrative that suits his needs instead of letting the story craft a narrative. Every scene with Kaino feels over rehearsed and produced, despite the fact that the unveiling of his work is jaw dropping and powerful and when the final surprise is given to Smith, I broke down along with Tommie.
While the story is about Tommie Smith, it felt awkward that John Carlos was shunted to the side. He is talked about as one of the best runners to make the Olympic team during trials, and when recounting the black power salute on the podium he was mentioned a lot. But even though it is Tommie’s story, it feels off that we don’t know literally anything that happened to John afterwards. He didn’t need to be interviewed (if he didn’t want to or narratively it didn’t make sense), but did Tommie and John have any conversations after the fact? How was John’s life affected? Was John’s athletic career also taken away from him? One of the interview subjects makes the point that in order for the statement to be made, Tommie had to have been excellent and actually make the podium, because there is no fifth place ceremony. Tommie wasn’t the only excellent athlete that day, why wasn’t John also celebrated for making it onto the podium?
Then there is a very questionable plotline about how legendary sports broadcaster Brent Musburger was the first reporter to interview the duo (yet only footage of Tommie is ever shown) and after the televised interview he filed a report with his newspaper where he likened the protest by Smith and Carlos to that of Nazi Stormtroopers, which might be one of the most offensive comparisons ever made about anything. Musburger is actually interviewed for the film and he mentions how dumb he was to write such a thing, and when asked if he apologized to Tommie ever, he gives a half hearted “ya, sure” and a photo of the two men from the present day is flashed on screen and we never hear about the incident again.
The film shines with interviews from the late great civil rights icon and US Representative John Lewis, women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe who took a knee herself in support of Colin Kaepernick who was blacklisted from the NFL for himself taking a knee during the national anthem (a protest actually created by a former Green Beret) and sports broadcaster Jemele Hill. The documentary is frustrating because the story is so important to history and Tommie Smith is a fantastic orator, but it gets bogged down in too many poor choices from a filmmaking perspective. It’s worth a watch to learn more about an iconic moment, but will leave you with more questions than answers overall.
With Drawn Arms was seen during the 2021 Hot Docs Festival. Thank you to the festival for the screener. With Drawn Arms is currently streaming on Starz.
