Opinion: ‘Air’ proves Hollywood can make you root for anyone

Editor’s Note: Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) is a freelance writer in Chicago. The views expressed here are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

CNN
 — 

The emotional center of “Air” is an impassioned, inspirational speech which Nike shoe sales exec Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) delivers to try to get then-rookie basketball star Michael Jordan to sign with his company. Hair tousled, eyes intent, Damon stares at the camera and insists that Jordan is the only one at the table who matters. Everyone else, he says, will be forgotten. This is Jordan’s story. The business guys are all just bit players.

It’s a remarkable speech, not because it’s especially well-written (it’s Hollywood boilerplate), but because it openly, and even insouciantly, blows apart the entire premise of the film. “Air” knows that it is telling Michael Jordan’s story. Yet, even as it says so, it sidelines its main character; you never see Jordan’s face or hear him speak except through archival footage.

Instead, the narrative is focused on the shoe execs. “Air” is an extended lesson in how Hollywood can make you care about anyone — and how it nonetheless, over and over, keeps insisting that we care about the same affluent White guys winning for capitalism.

“Air” is set in 1984, at a crossroads for Nike’s basketball shoe brand. Adidas dominates the market, and Nike is thinking of getting out of the business to focus on the running shoes for which it is best known. But our hero, visionary basketball fan Sonny, is convinced that the NBA rookie Jordan has the potential to turn everything around. Sonny risks his own career and the careers of his coworkers on a long-shot attempt to get Nike CEO Phil Knight (played by director Ben Affleck) to pony up the cash to convince Adidas-obsessed Jordan to take a chance on endorsing a personal branded shoe with Nike: Air Jordan. And the rest is pop culture history.

Or at least that’s what you’re supposed to think. There’s no doubt that Air Jordan was immensely popular and became closely associated with Michael Jordan’s personal brand. The inevitable text info blurbs at the end of the film tell you how much he’s still making in passive income from his groundbreaking…