Why Ben Affleck's 'Air' Is Still a Hit Without Michael Jordan
Ben Affleck's fifth directorial project, Air, tells the story of Nike's fateful 1984 summer and the journey to woo Michael Jordan to stimulate its stagnant basketball division. The film partners frequent collaborators and lifelong friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon together for the first time under their new production company, Artists Equity, which gives its cast and crew a share of the profits. The result is a poignant film centered around making connections with an impressively stacked cast, every one of whom brings something special.
Affleck and Damon star as Nike's famously off-kilter co-founder Phil Knight and legendary recruiter Sonny Vaccaro, respectively. Air features a stellar cast, including Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, Michael Jordan's mother; Jason Bateman as Nike Marketing VP Rob Strasser; Chris Tucker as Howard White, a Nike field representative who would go on to become the longtime VP of Jordan Brand; Marlon Wayans as the legendary George Raveling, head coach of Iowa and the assistant coach of the 1984 Olympic team; Chris Messina as David Falk, Michael Jordan's snarky agent; and Matthew Maher as the late, great Peter Moore, the designer of the Air Jordan 1 and the Jumpman logo. Though Air is centered around Nike's signing of Michael Jordan, Jordan himself rarely appears in the film and when he does cinematographer Robert Richardson does a masterful job at framing newcomer Damian Delano Young.
Air firmly entrenches itself in '80s culture, kicking off with a montage of some of the decade's totally tubular pop culture moments from Knight Rider to the "Where's the beef?" ads. The film opens with the basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro catching a high school basketball game and imploring up-and-coming talent to join Nike. On the way back to the Nike campus in Beaverton, Vaccaro makes a pitstop in Vegas, where he wins big and then subsequently gambles it away, setting him up as a risk-taking wild card with an eye for talent.
Upon his return, we meet the colorful crew around the Nike office as the group tries to decide which three players from the 1984 NBA Draft to split their meager allotment among. Vaccaro, ever the talent evaluator, is thoroughly unhappy with the choices left for Nike, since rival companies Converse and Adidas run the basketball marketplace. Despite his rumored deal with Adidas, Vaccaro believes that Jordan is the generational talent that will change Nike forever and after an inspirational chat with George Raveling, Vaccaro decides to reach out to Jordan's surly agent David Falk in hopes of arranging a meeting with the future Chicago Bull. Falk is one of the film's most entertaining characters, a hard-edged agent who cares only about his reputation and his clients and who has finally met his match in the audacious Vaccaro.
Falk tells Vaccaro it would be "unbecoming and unprofessional" to call the Jordan household, which Sonny slyly maneuvers around by heading directly to Wilmington, North Carolina, to meet the Jordans face-to-face. There he meets James Jordan working on the family car outside, who gets a chuckle from what he's sure will be a contentious meeting with the family's true leader, Deloris Jordan.
Sonny and Deloris have a moving conversation about the capabilities of the star basketball player while Sonny predicts the family's upcoming meetings with Converse and Adidas. Converse's roster is filled with All-Star players, making it difficult to differentiate Mike from the pack, and Adidas' ongoing familial tumult following the death of its founder Adi Dassler puts them on shaky ground. Sonny promises Deloris that Michael would be at the forefront of Nike's branding, giving him the recognition and attention the other brands could not.
An enraged David Falk calls Vaccaro, fuming about the scout circumventing his agency while also quietly conceding that the family is coming to Beaverton, Oregon, on Monday to meet with the Nike team. Vaccaro and Strasser begin hurredley preparing their pitch while recruiting basketball sneaker savant Peter Moore to design a prototype before the meeting.
While building the prototype the group realizes that in order to stand out from the NBA crowd, they are going to have to break some rules. Mostly, the NBA's strict rule on sneaker coloration, which at the time required sneakers to be at least 51 percent white. This leads to a strike of marketing genius wherein Strasser pitches that the team go the other way and add more red, all while paying the recurring $5,000 fine from the league for Michael and using that story to sell even more shoes, an idea that sent the sneaker's popularity into the stratosphere.
When the meeting arrives, the Nike group presents the Jordan family with a unique idea for sneakers of the age. Instead of the basketball player marketing the sneaker, the sneaker will be a reflection of the player and his persona. During the lackluster closing video presentation, Sonny calls an audible and gives a speech that juxtaposes Jordan's timelessness with the '80s theme, offering one of the most rousing sports movie speeches in decades, asking, "'Who are you, Michael?' That will the defining question of your life, and I think we know the answer. Everyone at this table will be forgotten as soon as our time as up. Except for you.'"
Air mirrors Rogue One: A Star Wars Film, with the movie focusing on the parts and players responsible for one of the most critical shifts in pop culture with the advent of the Air Jordan 1 and the Air Jordan Brand. Michael Jordan's partnership with Nike was not only game-changing for a brand on the verge of bankruptcy but also for athletes, as well as for Michael Jordan's revolutionary revenue-sharing agreement with Nike, which would go on to pave the way for the next generation of basketball stars.
While an Air Jordan film featuring sparing appearances from His Airness seems questionable on its face, Alex Convery's script delivers a wealth of characters important to the mythos of Michael Jordan without eschewing him entirely. Matt Damon's brash, risk-taking Vaccaro is diametrically opposed to Affleck's Phil Knight, presented as a once eccentric character now beholden to a board of directors. The clashes between the two are highlights, with Knight reinvigorated by Vaccaro's never-say-die attitude throughout the film.
Viola Davis controls the film, deftly seeing through the many attempts to exploit her son's talent. Davis' Deloris Jordan is clever and caring. One of the film's many highlights is Deloris negotiating Michael's revenue sharing deal by saying, "It won't be the NBA promoting my son, I promise you it'll be the other way around." In using Vaccaro's own earlier words against him, "a shoe is just a shoe until my son steps in it," Deloris seals the earth-shattering deal that would change the landscape of sneakers forever, catapulting Nike into becoming the biggest sneaker company on the globe.
The performances all around are stellar, with every actor leaving a lasting impression, and Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, and Chris Tucker all being worthy of even more screen time. Messina's portrayal of Falk as an knowingly unlikable character gives him some of the film's best quotes. Maher's Peter Moore is singularly focused on creating the perfect shoe, obsessing to the point where he has to be cut off by his teammates. Chris Tucker's Howard White serves as a valuable connecting thread that sets the plan in motion, inspiring Vaccaro to court the former UNC Tarheel.
The mystique of Michael Jordan in the film Air presents His Airness with an overtly religious aura, with characters often waxing biblically after witnessing his astonishing feats. The film plays knowingly with the divine themes—Sonny Vaccaro has an epiphany while watching Michael Jordan highlights, and calls Rob Strasser, Nike's marketing director, to energetically exclaim, "I found him," to which Strasser dryly replies, "Who's that, Jesus?" Young's face doesn't appear on screen, but the Wizard Kelly-fication of the iconic basketball player combined with actual Michael Jordan archival footage helps to present Young as both mythical and the true MJ.
While Air is a story about a sneaker company, it doesn't cater to a sneakerhead audience. You don't have to be versed in the differences between the "lateral" or "medial" sides or the toebox and toecap, nor does the film make an effort to pack its background with easter eggs noticeable only by the most well-versed sneaker aficionados. At its core, Air is a tale about faith and taking risks with a sneaker backdrop. When Pete tries to get into sneaker specifics during his meeting with the Jordan family, he is quickly dismissed by everyone in the room.
Air excels due to its tight story, incredible characters, and reverence for the '80s. The film's nostalgic air helps to cement Jordan's timelessness even more. During the film's climax, Vaccaro gives the best description of the tale: "You're Michael Jordan and your story is gonna inspire us to fly."
